Materialist vs Ideologist
Theories
SOC 370: Social
Change
Dr. Kimberly Martin
Ideological Explanations
Seeks explanations in the systems of shared
beliefs that shape how people live, including
how they make a living
Eisenstein’ explanation for gender stratification is a good
example:
• Patriarchy is the belief that men are superior to women
and ought to be in charge of society
• Patriarchial beliefs lead to gender stratification in society
and the domination by men of women as a class of
laborers who produce goods (children and products),
and services (domestic labor) essential to society
Materialism
Seeks explanations for social organization in the economic
realm in which people use resources in their
environment to make a living.
Most famous materialist theorist is Marx
1. The basis of human society is how humans work on nature to
produce the means of subsistence.
2. There is a division of labor into social classes based on property
ownership where some people live from the labor of others.
3. The system of class division is dependent on the mode of
production.
4. The mode of production is based on the level of the technology.
5. Society moves from stage to stage when the dominant class is
displaced by a new emerging class, by overthrowing the "political
shell" that enforces the old relations of production no longer
corresponding to the new productive forces. (Class conflict)
Sanderson
Takes a materialist approach to social
change, as have most sociologists and
anthropologists
Sanderson believes that the main causal
factors of social evolution are
demographic, ecological, technological,
and economic
All of these factors are materialistic in nature
Materialist Social Change Theories
• Focus on
Subsistence strategies
Technological efficiency
Access to and control over resources
Access to and control over labor
Access to and control over surpluses
Distribution of goods and services
The development of social stratification (social
classes)
Subsistence Strategies
Four General Types of Subsistence
1. Hunting & gathering/foraging
societies
2. Horticultural societies
3. Pastoralist societies
4. Agricultural societies
Hunting and Gathering
• Lived off naturally occurring plant and animal
resources without replenishing or nurturing them
in any way.
• Lived in small groups of around 30-50 individuals
• Were usually highly mobile (nomadic and semi-nomadic
(AKA transhumance))
• Had very few possessions (digging stick, spear, bow and
arrows, carrying bag)
• Did not consider land and resources as ownable,
believed in use-rights based on past experiences or
supernatural nature of resources
• Egalitarian (gender equality and no social classes)
• Modern H&Gs live in marginal environments
Pastoralism
• Depend on herd animals for their livelihood
(goats, cattle, sheep, camels, llamas, reindeer,
etc)
• Lived in groups of around 100 individuals
• Were usually mobile (nomadic and semi-nomadic (AKA
transhumance))
• Had very few possessions (only what can be packed on
a pack animal )
• Did not consider land and resources other than herds as
ownable, believed in use-rights based on past
experiences
• Egalitarian (no social classes, but usually patriarchal)
Horticulture
Depends on farming with hand tools only
• Lived in groups of 100 to several thousand individuals
• Were usually sedentary (villages or towns, or dispersed
homesteads loosely connected into tribal or kin group)
• Have more possessions because they are sedentary
• Use rights or ownership of land and resources may be
based on kin groups or individuals
• May be egalitarian, ranked or stratified, depending on
the amount of surplus that can be produced using hand
tools only in their environment.
Agriculture
Depend on farming using ploughs, draught
animals, irrigation or machinery
• Live in groups consisting of thousands of individuals or
larger
• Are sedentary (towns and cities)
• Society based on possessions as status symbols
• Individual ownership of resources
• Usually stratified with multiple social classes
Industrialization
• Depends on mass production/factories (began
rapid development with industrial revolution in England in 1600's).
•
Resulted from application of scientific knowledge first to agriculture
and then to manufacturing (crop rotation, steam power, specialized
labor, spinning wheel).
Massive increases in productivity, surplus, population, settlement
size, and proportion freed from agricultural labor. Increased division
of labor increased output, increased output allowed more expansion
of division of labor (spiral effect). Erosion of the family/kinship as
the building block of social organization and continuing erosion of
traditional (agriculture-based) institutions.
Post Industrialization
• Post Industrial Societies - (Since the
end of World War II)
• Socialism, automation & advanced
technology, decrease in industrial jobs,
growth of service economy, split in the
service sector, general decline of jobs.
Elman Service’s
Levels of Sociocultural Integration
•
•
•
•
•
Bands
Tribes
Chiefdoms
States
Empires
Bands
• Small (30-50 individuals) groups,
• Egalitarian groups,
• Usually nomadic/semi-nomadic
hunter/foragers,
• Social organization based on personal
kinship relationships,
• Use reciprocity to distribute goods and
services,
• Gender and age division of labor
Tribes
Small (100-500 individuals),
Egalitarian groups, usually nomadic/semi-nomadic
or villages
Horticultural or pastoralists
Social organization based on lineage membership
where lineages are not ranked
Distribution of goods and services through
reciprocity
Part time economic specialization
Chiefdoms
Medium-sized (1000’s of individuals),
Ranked or stratified groups,
Usually sedentary
Horticultural or pastoralists, occasionally hunters
and gatherers/foragers
Social organization based on ranked lineages
Distribution of goods and services through
redistribution
Part-time or some full time economic specialization
States
Large (100,000 to millions of individuals),
Stratified groups,
Urban settlements,
Agricultural subsistence
Social organization based on non-kin relationships
Distribution of goods and services through a
market system (general purpose money)
Full time economic specialization/industrialization
Stratification
All states are stratified; Stratification is
necessary for states.
However, not all stratified societies are
states.
Empires
• A state that has conquered and
rules by force one or more other
societies.
• The Roman Empire
• The Spanish Empire
• The British Empire
Fried’s Materialism
Morton Fried’s Theory of Evolution
of Societies through the
development of Social
Stratification
1. Egalitarian Societies = Bands/Tribes
2. Ranked Societies = Chiefdoms
2. Stratified Societies = States/Empires
Materialism
• Unidirectional change/evolution from simple to complex
technologies, from egalitarian to stratified societies
• Stratification is found when surpluses are produced and
are available to some and not to others
• Concurrent changes in subsistence, technology,
stratification, kinship and family structures, distribution
systems, political and religious systems
• Which is the cause and which the effect?
• Is this teleological, progressive? Is it a representation of
what we have seen happening? Have all societies
evolved in the same ways?
Study Guide
Ideological Explanations
Eisenstein
Materialist Explanations
Marx
Subsistence strategies
Technological efficiency
Access to and control over resources
Access to and control over labor
Access to and control over surpluses
Distribution of goods and services
Social Classes (Stratification)
Hunting and Gathering
Pastoralism
Horticulture
Agriculture
Service
Bands
Tribes
Chiefdoms
States
Empires
Egalitarian
Ranked
Stratified
Fried
Teleology