Chapter 11
Grouping by Gender, Age, Common
Interest and Social Status
What Will You Learn?
• Explain how social groups are formed based on age and
gender, with anthropological examples of each
• Identify different types of common-interest groups,
noting their function in expanding an individuals social
network beyond relatives, friends, and neighbors
• Distinguish between egalitarian and stratified societies
• Compare open-class and closed-class societies
• Differences between class, caste, and race
• Recognize challenges and opportunities of social
mobility in different types of societies
Grouping by Gender
• All societies will have certain tasks that pertain to
the sexes as mentioned in previous chapters.
• However, how the sexes are viewed may vary
depending on the tribe.
• For example, the Mundurucu Indians of Brazil
stress separation between men and women.
• Each gender does not work together rather
against each other.
• Men express fear and envy towards the women
and women do not accept their submissive role.
Women are autonomous in the economic realm.
Grouping by Age
• Similar to grouping by gender is grouping by
age.
• An age grade is an organized category of
people based on age; every individual passes
through a series of such categories over his or
her lifetime.
• An age set is a formally established group of
people born during a certain time span who
move through the series of age grade
categories together.
Age Grouping in Eastern Africa
• The Tiriki of Kenya exemplify the idea of age
grades and sets.
• They have seven named age sets that are
open for membership but only once the first
has been completed.
• Each age set embraces a 15-year span and so
15x7 sets equals 105 years of the males life.
• The Tiriki only have four age grades.
Tiriki’s Age Grades
•
•
•
•
First: “Warrior”
Second: “Elder warrior”
Third: “Judicial Elders”
Fourth: “Ritual Elders”
Grouping by Common Interest
• Common-interest associations result from an act
of joining based on sharing particular activities,
objectives, values, or beliefs.
• Result of social change and urbanization.
• Provide companionship and other functions such
as learning a new language to safe working
conditions.
• Not restricted to modern societies, also found in
traditional societies.
• Membership may range from voluntary to legally
compulsory.
Common-Interest Associations
• There is great variety of common-interest
associations.
– street gangs, militia, sport clubs, churches, and
political parties.
• Some associations aim to preserve traditional
songs, history, language, moral beliefs, and
other customs among members of various
ethnic minorities.
Men’s and Women’s Associations
• In some societies women have not established
formal common-interest associations to the
extent that men have. Possible reasons are due to
the patriarchal nature of most societies.
• However women play important roles in
associations of their own as well in those in which
men predominate.
• The expanding feminist movement has directly
and indirectly inspired and promoted the
formation of professional organizations for
women.
Associations in the Digital Age
• In North America participation in commoninterest groups has declined.
• People are less likely to socialize in a face to
face manner as they might have in the past.
• Online associations have grown in popularity.
• U.S. children ages 8-18 spend more than 7 ½
hours a day using entertainment media.
Critical Thought
• Given the information on the previous slide,
what impacts could our technological usage
have on our society?
• Furthermore, have you witnessed any
examples of the overuse of technology?
Grouping by Social Status in Stratified
Societies
• Individuals within a society are grouped either
equally or unequally.
• Stratified society- divided into categories of
people who do not share equally in resources,
influence, or prestige.
• Egalitarian society- societies in which
everyone has about equal rank, access to, and
power over basic resources. Less frequently
found.
Social Stratification and Caste
• Social class- a category of individuals in a
stratified society who enjoy equal or nearly
equal prestige according to the system of
evaluation.
• These may be based on some of all of the
following:
– Gender
– Age
– Social class
– Caste
Caste Systems
• In societies which contain a caste system or a
social class in which membership is
determined by birth and fixed for life.
• Children automatically belong to their
parents’ caste. They may have little to no
opportunity to escape their parents caste
system.
• They may however move through castes via
reincarnation.
The Hindu Caste System
• Organized into four
“grades of being.”
• While we do not have a
caste system in our
society we do have a
stratified society.
• What would our system
of classification look
like?
Indicators of Social Status
• There are several ways that a social class can
manifest.
• One way is through symbolic indicatorscertain activities or professions are indicative
of class.
• However, class rankings do not fully correlate
with economic status or pay scales.
Social Mobility
• Most stratified societies offer at least some social
mobility-an upward or downward change in one’s
social class position.
• Open-class systems are those with the easiest
mobility.
• Degree of mobility is related to education or type
of family organization that prevails in a society.
• Closed-class systems such as castes generally
offer little to no mobility.
• Where the extended family is the norm, mobility
tends to be severely limited.