Chapter 9
Global Stratification
Chapter Outline
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Stratification Systems
Theories of Global Stratification
Global Diversity
Social Stratification
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Uneven distribution of privileges, material
rewards, opportunities, power, prestige,
and influence among individuals and
groups.
Social inequality exists in all societies.
The inequality may come about because
of wealth, prestige or power.
Stratification Systems
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Stratification can come about in two ways:
Ascribed
 Based on gender, age, family name, or skin
color.
 This will produce the caste and estate
systems of stratification.
Achieved
 Based on individual, direct efforts.
 This is known as the class system.
The Caste System
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People are born into and spend their
entire lives within a caste.
Caste members are restricted in their
choice of occupation and degree of social
participation.
Social status is determined by the caste
of one's birth.
The Hindu Caste System
Four varnas, corresponding to a body part of the
mythical Purusa:
 Purusa’s mouth issued forth priests: Brahmans
 His arms gave rise to warriors: Kshatriyas
 His thighs produced artisans and merchants:
Vaishyas
 His feet brought forth menial laborers: Shudras
 Below the Sudras were the untouchables, or
Panchamas who performed the most menial
tasks.
The Estate System
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A closed system of stratification.
A person’s social position is defined by
law.
Membership is determined primarily by
inheritance.
An estate is a segment of a society that
has legally established rights and duties.
Question

The citizens of poorer nations are more
likely to be lazy when compared to the
citizens of richer nations.
A. Strongly agree
B. Agree somewhat
C. Unsure
D. Disagree somewhat
E. Strongly disagree
Estate System of Medieval
Europe
Three major estates in Europe:
 The nobility
 The clergy
 The peasants
The Class System
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Some form of class system is present in
all industrial societies.
Mobility is greater in a class system than
in either a caste or an estate system.
Mobility is the result of higher-level jobs to
anyone with the education and
experience required.
Question

The type of stratification system with the
most social mobility is a(n):
A. caste system.
B. estate system.
C. class system.
D. nobility system.
Answer: C

The type of stratification system with the
most social mobility is a class system.
Modernization Theory
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Assumes economic differences among
countries are due to technological and cultural
differences.
Developed countries help less developed
countries:
 Provide fertilizers, irrigation methods and
insect control to increase food supplies.
 May also help control their population.
Dependency Theory
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Economic positions of rich and poor
nations cannot be understood in isolation.
Developing countries would develop more
quickly if they reduced their dependence
on the developed countries.
The prosperity of more developed
countries came about because other
countries became poor.
Global Diversity
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World population, 6.477 billion in 2005, has
more than doubled since 1960 and is projected
to increase to 9.3 billion by 2050.
The world’s richest countries, 20% of the global
population, account for 86% of private
consumption; the poorest 20% account for
1.3%.
A child born in an industrialized country will add
more to consumption and pollution over his or
her lifetime than 30 to 50 children born in
developing countries.
World Health Trends
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The average life expectancy for a newborn
more than doubled, from 30 years in 1900 to 67
years in 2005.
China has moved from conditions at the turn of
the century, when scarcely 60% of newborns
reached their 5th birthday, to the present, when
more than 60% will reach their 70th birthday.
In Japan, where life expectancy is nearly 80
years, a newborn has only a 4 in 1,000 chance
of dying before its 1st birthday and less than a 1
in 1,000 risk of dying by age 40.
World Health Trends
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More than 300 million people live in 24 countries where
life expectancy is less than 50 years.
 In these countries, 1 of 10 newborns die by age 1,
and 3 million a year do not survive for one week.
 In some African villages, deaths among infants and
young children occur 10 times more frequently than
deaths among the aged.
Currently, 80% of the world’s population does not have
access to any health care.
Health of Infants and Children
in Developing Countries
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Death among children is overwhelmingly
a problem of the developing countries in
Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Those countries account for 98% of the
world’s deaths among children younger
than 5.
UNICEF estimates that 95% of these
deaths are preventable.
HIV / Aids
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Some 4.9 million people worldwide were newly
infected with HIV during 2004, bringing the total
number of people living with HIV or AIDS to 40
million, up from 34.3 million in 1999.
Since the epidemic was identified, about 30
million people have died from AIDS.
The United Nations estimates that without
substantially expanded prevention and
treatment programs, approximately 68 million
people will die of AIDS in the 45 most affected
countries between 2000 and 2020.
HIV/AIDS: Worldwide Facts
World Area
Sub-Saharan Africa
South and Southeast
Asia
Latin America
East Asia and Pacific
Caribbean
North Africa and
Middle East
Number
Infected
28.1 million
%
Infected
8.4%
%
Women
55%
6.1 million
0.6%
35
.4 million
1 million
10.5
0.1
30
20
420,000
2.2
50
440,000
0.2
40
Population Trends
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Every minute, 249 babies are born in the
world, about 358,988 new human beings
a day.
The 6 billionth person arrived in the year
2000.
Another billion people will be added every
11 to 13 years until the middle of the 21st
century.
Population Growth
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In A.D. 1650, there were an estimated 510
million people in the entire world.
100 years later, there were 710 million, an
increase of 39%.
By 1900, there were 1.6 billion.
By the year 2025, the global population will be
greater than 8 billion.
The world population is doubling about every 51
years.
Global Aging
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In most countries, the elderly population is
growing faster than the population as a whole.
Almost half of the world’s elderly live in China,
India, the United States, and the former Soviet
Union.
The oldest old (85 plus) are the fastest-growing
segment of the population in many countries.
People Infected with HIV in Various
World Regions (in Millions)
Population Trends
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Every minute, 249 babies are born in the world.
This is about 358,988 new human beings a day
(131.4 million a year) who need to be fed,
clothed, sheltered, educated, and employed.
The 6 billionth person arrived in 2000.
Another billion people will be added every 11 to
13 years until the middle of the 21st century.
Population Trends
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In AD 1650, 510 million people lived in the
entire world.
100 years later, there were 710 million, an
increase of 39%.
By 1900, there were 1.6 billion.
100 years later the population had grown
to 6.08 billion, with 131.4 million people
added each year.
Factors in Global Fertility
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Number of Children
1. Women’s average age at first
marriage
2. Breast-feeding
3. Infant mortality
Factors in Global Fertility
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Demand for Children
1. Gender preferences
2. Value of children
a. Children as insurance against divorce
b. Children as securers of women’s
position in family
c. Children’s value for economic gain
d. Children’s value for old-age support.
3. Cost of children.
Factors in Global Fertility
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Fertility Control
1. Use of contraception
2. Factors influencing fertility decisions
a. Income level
b. Education of women
c. Urban or rural residence
Countries with the Highest and Lowest
Fertility Lifetime Births per Woman
Highest
Lowest
Niger
Belarus
Guinea-Bissau
Czech Republic
8.0
1.2
7.1
1.2
Mali
Poland
Somalia
7.1
1.2
7.0
South Korea
Uganda
Taiwan
1.2
6.9
1.2
Teenage Marriages
% of 15- to 19-Year-Olds
Who Are Married
Sub-Saharan Africa
Boys
Girls
Dem. Rep. of Congo
5
74
Niger
4
70
Congo
12
56
Uganda
11
50
Mali
5
50
Teenage Marriages
% of 15- to 19-Year-Olds
Who Are Married
Asia
Boys
Girls
Afghanistan
9
54
Bangladesh
5
51
Nepal
14
42
Teenage Marriages
% of 15- to 19-Year-Olds
Who Are Married
Middle East
Boys
Girls
Iraq
15
28
Syria
4
25
Yemen
5
24
Teenage Marriages
% of 15- to 19-Year-Olds
Who Are Married
Latin America and
Caribbean
Boys
Girls
Honduras
7
30
Cuba
7
29
Guatemala
8
24
Gender Preferences
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Three sets of factors influence the desire for
male children:
1. Economic factors - contribution to family
income
2. Social factors- marriage patterns, and
religion
3. Psychological factors - influences on
parent’s decisions about size and
composition of the family.
Countries with Fewer
Women Than Expected
Question

Women do most of the day- to-day work
in developing countries.
A. Strongly agree
B. Agree somewhat
C. Unsure
D. Disagree somewhat
E. Strongly disagree
Benefits and Costs of
Children
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The first child is important to bring the spouses
closer together and have someone to carry on
the family name.
In considering a second child, parents
emphasize desire for a companion for the first
child and a desire to have a child of the
opposite sex from the first.
Similar values are prominent in relation to third,
fourth, and fifth children.
Benefits and Costs of
Children
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Beyond the fifth child, economic
considerations predominate.
Parents speak of the sixth or later children
in terms of their helping around the
house, contributing to the support of the
household, and providing security during
old age.
Contraception
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People have regulated family size for centuries
through abortion, abstinence, and infanticide.
In many countries, the costs of preventing a
birth, whether economic, social, or
psychological, may be greater than the risk of
having another child.
Use of contraception varies widely: 18% or
fewer for married women in almost all of subSaharan Africa, but between 70% and 80% for
women in Europe, Asia, and the United States
Abortion
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Worldwide, abortion is the most widely used
form of birth control, and is common even when
illegal.
Abortion is legal in the world’s three most
populous countries (China, India, and the
United States) as well as in Japan and all of
Europe except Belgium and Ireland.
In Russia, where contraceptives are hard to
find, more than half of all pregnancies end in
abortion.
Education of Women
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The amount of education a woman receives
affects the number of children she has.
Fertility levels are usually the lowest among the
most highly educated women within a country.
Example:
 In Guatemala, women with no schooling
have an average of 6.9 children, those with a
secondary or higher education have 2.7
children on average.
Education of Women
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Two-thirds of the world’s 876 million illiterate
people are women.
Educated women are more likely to know about
and adopt birth control methods.
 In Mexico, 72% of women with 9 or more
years of education are likely to use
contraception, whereas only 31% of those
with 5 or fewer years of education are likely
to do so.
Children of Primary School
Age Who Are Not in School
Global Aging
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Worldwide, the number of persons aged 60
years or over will increase from 672 million in
2005 to nearly 1.9 billion by 2050.
Today 60% of the elderly live in developing
countries.
By 2050, the number will rise to 80%.
The number of people over 80 will increase
from 86 million in 2005 to 394 million in 2050.
By 2050, the number of people over 65 in the
world will exceed the number of young for the
first time in the history of humankind.
World Population 65 and
Older, 2000 and 2025
Quick Quiz
1. A form of stratification that people are
born into and spend their entire lives in is
known as:
A. an estate system.
B. a caste system.
C. apartheid.
D. a class system.
Answer: B
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A form of stratification that people are
born into and spend their entire lives in is
known as a caste system.
2. Which of the following Hindu castes is
the highest in their stratification system?
A. Vaishyasr
B. Sundras
C. Panchamas
D. Brahmans
Answer: D
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The Brahman caste is the highest in the
Hindi stratification system.
3. According to modernization theory, the
greatest barrier to modernization is:
A.
government policies that are not
conducive to business.
B.
the lack of money to invest in
Western-style industry and
agriculture.
C.
strong ties to religious or historical
traditions.
D.
low motivation toward achievement.
Answer: C

According to modernization theory, the
greatest barrier to modernization is
strong ties to religious or historical
traditions.
4. Worldwide, _________________ is
the most widely used form of birth control.
Answer: abortion

Worldwide, abortion is the most widely
used form of birth control.
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5. Which of the following is true about
education and fertility? ?
A. Fertility levels will be the lowest for the
most educated women within a
country.
B. Women's level of education affects
fertility more than does that of men.
C. Women who are more educated know
more about and are more likely to use
birth control.
D. All of these choices are correct.
Answer: D

Each of the following is true about education
and fertility:
 Fertility levels will be the lowest for the most
educated women within a country.
 Women's level of education affects fertility
more than does that of men.
 Women who are more educated know more
about and are more likely to use birth control.