Chapter 6 Flashcards
(25 cards)
Ascribed Status
Assigned at birth
The caste system in India is a closed system where social status is ascribed, that is it is assigned at birth. In India, one can earn a university degree and acquire great wealth, but these accomplishments do not change a person’s caste membership.
Acquired Status
An achieved status is one that is acquired on the basis of merit; it is a position that is earned or chosen and reflects a person’s skills, abilities, and efforts. Being a professional athlete, for example, is an achieved status, as is being a lawyer, college professor, or even a criminal.
Caste
McGee often has Indian students in class who correctly point out that the caste system was outlawed at the time India became an independent country in 1947. However, when he asks them about their lives, the students typically have lived pretty much within their castes. They do not have friends from other castes, they do not go to school with students from other castes, and they do not date acquaintances from outside their caste. In fact, as the number of Indian and South Asian Hindu immigrants to the United States increases, cases of caste discrimination are becoming more common. In April 2018, NPR broadcast a segment called When Caste Discrimination Comes to the United States in which they reported the results of a survey that found that “two-thirds of members of the lowest caste, called Dalits, said they have faced workplace discrimination due to their caste. Forty-one percent have experienced discrimination in education because of it. And a quarter of Dalits say they’ve faced physical assault – all in the United States.” Unfortunately, there are no legal remedies for people who suffer caste discrimination in the United States. Because caste is not recognized in U.S. law, there are no laws prohibiting caste discrimination.
Core
Primarily northern Europe
Strong central governments and large armies that permitted them to control commerce and trade for their own profit. These areas were controlled by states in the core regions, and exported raw materials to the core using coercive labor practices such as slavery
An example of core periphery relationships familiar to most people in the United States is England and its American colonies in the eighteenth century. One of the causes of the American War of Independence was that the colonies did not control their own economies and provided wealth to the mother country without being allowed political representation.
Jati
While there are only four varnas, each varna has many subdivisions called jati. There are thousands of jati in India, each associated with a profession such as carpenter, barber, cook or office worker, and all of them ranked by their level of ritual purity.
The whole system is sanctioned by Hinduism.
Karma
In Hindu belief, the quality of your present life including the jati into which you were born is a consequence of your actions in your previous lives, or your karma.
Consequently, social mobility is a matter of correctly performing one’s ritual duties in this life to earn spiritual merit that will benefit you in future lives.
An important element of the caste system is the concept of karma. One thing most people in the West know about Hinduism is that Hindus believe in reincarnation.
Leut
While small-scale foraging societies are united by kinship, Hutterite communities are united by their shared religious beliefs. The Hutterites are Anabaptists, similar to the Amish and Mennonites. According to the Hutterite Brethren website there are a total of 462 Hutterite colonies or Leuts, with a total population of about 45,000 people.
Malnutrition
In addition to unclean water, poverty and lack of sufficient land to grow food is a primary source of malnutrition in the developing world. While the developed nations of the world produce enough food to feed everyone, according to the United Nations World Food Program, a child dies of hunger every six seconds. Consequently, if a student spends an hour reading this chapter, during that time, about 600 children will have died simply because they do not have enough to eat. Lack of food is another source of structural violence.
Protein-energy Malnutrition
Protein-energy malnutrition is synonymous with starvation. Individuals lack sufficient protein (from meat and other sources) and energy (calories) to meet basic body maintenance needs.
Micro-nutrient Malnutrition
In micronutrient malnutrition, individuals may have sufficient calories in their diet, but the diet is of such poor quality that they develop vitamin deficiency diseases. Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable. Inadequate nutrition in pregnancy leads to higher rates of miscarriage and infant mortality.
Periphery
The peripheral areas were on the other end of this system. These areas were controlled by states in the core regions, and exported raw materials to the core using coercive labor practices such as slavery. One of the classic examples of core-periphery relationships is that of Spain and Portugal and their conquests of Mexico, Central and South America. In Latin America, the Spanish and Portuguese conquests destroyed the indigenous states and replaced them with colonial bureaucracies under the control of these European states. The native populations were enslaved, African slaves imported, and labor practices such as encomienda (in which people who lived on a noble’s estates owed that noble their labor) and forced mine labor enabled the export of cheap raw materials to Europe. An example of core periphery relationships familiar to most people in the United States is England and its American colonies in the eighteenth century. One of the causes of the American War of Independence was that the colonies did not control their own economies and provided wealth to the mother country without being allowed political representation.
Stratification
Social stratification happens when there is unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige, and this situation exists in most societies in the world today. Societies can be stratified by a variety of factors including ethnicity, education, wealth, religion, and kinship. Social stratification is so common that it is easy to forget that for most of human history we have lived in egalitarian societies, and that the earliest evidence for stratification is only about eight thousand years old (found in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt). In the rest of this chapter, we will discuss the two primary patterns by which societies are stratified today, class and caste, provide some statistical information on stratification in the United States, and discuss the caste system in India.
Stratification in the United States is manifested in a system of social classes. Class membership, while fluid, is determined in large part by ethnicity, education, and wealth. Americans tend to associate high social status with wealth, but wealth and social rank are two separate things. One can occur without the other.
Structural Violence
Refers to social, political, and economic systems that are set up in such a way that physical and psychological harm is done to certain groups of people by preventing them from getting their basic needs met.
Consequences of structural violence include poverty, hunger, disease, environmental destruction, and premature death. The rest of this chapter has many examples of structural violence, but one example that you may be familiar with living in the United States is access to health care.
Sustainable Development
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
While we may think of the issues described above as limited to poor people in the developing world, these problems also affect people in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, people in about 17.5 million American households suffer from food insecurity, and children in those households suffer the same developmental problems that occur elsewhere in the world. For example, in the U.S. today only about 19% of children in low income households demonstrate age-appropriate cognitive skills. To put that another way, about 80% of American elementary school children who live in low income households already have delayed cognitive development.
If children do not receive adequate nutrition when they are young, it affects brain growth and development and their long-term ability to learn. Malnutrition also makes individuals far more vulnerable to disease, and the effects of disease more severe.
Sweatshops
While slavery is no longer legal, a serious problem still exists with the working conditions in facilities called sweatshops. Sweatshops typically employ people in non-mechanized industries that require a lot of hand-work. People work enormously long hours, for extremely low wages, in conditions that are often unsafe. Sweatshops also may employ children in these terrible conditions, which violates U.S. child labor laws. While Americans associate sweatshops with working conditions in developing countries, a number of American-based companies have been involved in sweat shop operations internationally and at home. In 2012 guest works from Latin America and Asia won a settlement against McDonalds, which agreed to pay them $213,000 in stolen wages and $141,000 for health and safety violations the workers endured in their workplace. In 2013 The New York Times reported that 7-11 was being investigated for luring Pakistani immigrants into the country to work for 7-11 stores in New York and Virginia. Upon arriving these people were being forced to work 100-hour work weeks. And in 2016 The New York Times reported how American companies like H&M, Walmart and Gap were buying clothes from subcontractors in Bangladesh who forced employees to work in unsafe conditions. Sweatshop operations within the U.S. typically employ illegal immigrants who do not report working conditions for fear of deportation and a loss of wages.
An important point that Wallerstein makes is that economic entities in the world system are not constrained by the boundaries of nation states. Modern-day examples of non-state core periphery relationships are multinational corporations that operate in more than one nation. Due to their tremendous economic power, they have been able to exert extraordinary influence over national governments, particularly concerning the way that these corporations conduct business and treat workers.
Varna
In Hindu teaching, there are four classifications of people called varnas (or castes). These are ranked by their ritual purity and associated with traditional occupations. These varnas are Brahmins who are priests, scholars, and teachers, Kshatriya, who are warriors, police, and administrators, Vaisya, who are farmers and merchants, and Shudras, who are laborers. The final group, who do the most menial and dirty work, are the Dalits or untouchables. Hinduism teaches that the people in each varna possess different inherent qualities or characteristics called guna. Consequently, the people in each varna have fundamentally different dharmas, or codes of living. A result of this belief is that devout Hindus do not assume people are equal or expect them to have equal capabilities.
While there are only four varnas, each varna has many subdivisions called jati.
World Systems Theory
In 1974, sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein
He argued that terms such as “Third World” are invalid, for there is only one world economy that affects all human beings. As an aside, the term Third World arose during the Cold War as a way to refer to developing nations. First World referred to Western democracies and their allies, and Second World referred to the Soviet Union and their allies. The term Fourth World was eventually added to refer to indigenous peoples who continued to live by hunting and gathering, simple, horticultural, or pastoralism, and who were not integrated to the same degree into the global economy as First, Second, and Third World peoples. The terms First World and Second World have largely fallen out of disuse. However, Third World is still a commonly used phrase to refer to lesser developed or low-income nations.
Wallerstein argued that European conquests in the early 1500s began to establish a capitalist world economy that superseded the national and ethnic boundaries of feudal Europe. This new world economy differed from earlier systems because capitalism enabled this new economy to extend beyond the political boundaries of any one European empire. Wallerstein described this new world economic system as based on an international supply of labor as well as labor conditions (such as European colonialism and slavery) and he divided the world into regions he called core, semi-periphery, periphery, and external. These categories described each region’s relative position within the world economy.
Semi-peripheries
These are areas that were core regions in decline, or periphery regions attempting to improve their position in the world economic system.
Modern examples might be Spain, who at one time was a world power but now is a minor factor in the world economy and India and China who for centuries were colonial possessions of European countries but have now emerged as two of the largest economies in the world
External Areas
Which are those regions that maintained their own economic systems and remained outside of this world system. An historical example is Japan, who before 1900 had mostly closed its border to outsiders. Another example is Russia. This is not to say that Russia does not have international trade contacts, but that their economic production is still largely for their own internal consumption.
economic entities
Entities in the world system are not constrained by the boundaries of nation states. Modern-day examples of non-state core periphery relationships are multinational corporations that operate in more than one nation. Due to their tremendous economic power, they have been able to exert extraordinary influence over national governments, particularly concerning the way that these corporations conduct business and treat workers. For example, a serious problem in the United States is the foreign outsourcing of labor.
Eric Wolf
Europe and the People Without History (1982)
Wolf’s focus was on indigenous peoples and the global economy. He was critical of ethnographic descriptions that treated traditional societies as if they were isolated from the rest of the world. According to Wolf, since European expansion in the sixteenth century, indigenous peoples have been greatly affected by the global economy.
One of Wolf’s essential arguments is: given the fact that European colonists confiscated much of the land and resources of indigenous peoples, how can we speak of traditional ecological adaptations or traditional economies when the societies of indigenous societies have been so disrupted?
Beth Conklin’s Body Paint, Feathers, and VCRs (1997)
She describes how Western influence in indigenous societies has delegitimized their status as “authentic” indigenous peoples. She recounts an exchange in the 1980s between a Brazilian judge and a Kayapó Indian who was fighting for indigenous land rights.
Judge: “I understand that you know how to operate a VCR, is this true?”
Payakan: “Yes, Your Honor.”
Judge: “How can you call yourself an Indian if you work with these machines? Even I don’t know how to use a VCR. How can you be a real Indian?”
Payakan: “Your Honor, the only reason that I know how to operate a VCR and Your Honor doesn’t is because I took the time to learn.”
This exchange illustrates that indigenous societies are certainly not isolated from the global system. Indigenous peoples all over the world have been severely affected by colonialism and the global economy, historically and in contemporary times. They are caught in a catch-22. If they eschew the so-called modern world and remain isolated, they are more likely to be exploited. If they attempt to modernize and understand the Western legal system, technologies, and market, then they are no longer considered to be authentically indigenous.
Modern-day examples of non-state core periphery relationships
Multinational corporations that operate in more than one nation. Due to their tremendous economic power, they have been able to exert extraordinary influence over national governments, particularly concerning the way that these corporations conduct business and treat workers. For example, a serious problem in the United States is the foreign outsourcing of labor.
Flint Water Crisis in 3 Min
higher blood lead levels
lead poisoning
Contributed to drop in crime
lost half population after car factories 2011, 1.1
half cops fired
Emergency Managers - “save money on water from flint water” 2014
said it was the pipes
