Sociocultural Evolution - Stratification Sociology - Lecture Notes, Study notes of Sociology

Download Sociocultural Evolution - Stratification Sociology - Lecture Notes and more Study notes Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Soci850-001 Social Stratification Spring 2010 Professor François Nielsen Module 5 – Evolutionary Approaches I: Patterns of Sociocultural Evolution Discussion Questions Last modified 11 Feb 2010 Introduction to Module 5 The topic for this week are the trends in social stratification in the course of socio- cultural evolution and comparative patterns across types of societies. More specifi- cally, we look at how the stratification system has evolved in human societies from the typical hunting-gathering society that was the predominant mode of subsis- tence 10,000 years ago to the industrial (and postindustrial?) societies of today. We focus on the important work of Gerhard Lenski on these issues. Lenski’s first work on the evolution of stratification systems was the masterpiece Power and Privi- lege (1966, reprinted 1987), which is quite long. A curious situation for many years was that the principal alternative source for Lenski’s ideas was the undergraduate textbook Human Societies with Patrick Nolan (e.g., Nolan and Lenski 2004). This semester I am no longer using these texts, although I have kept detailed questions on these readings below under Additional Questions. The readings I as- signed are more recent (and shorter) works. Lenski (1994) is a historical-theoretical look at the sources of his ecological-evolutionary typology of human societies. The Lenski (2005) reading consist of two chapters from the recent book Ecological- Evolutionary Theory, which represents an update, summary and capstone of Lenski’s ideas on ecological-evolutionary theory. Chapter 14 from Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond provides an inter- esting counterpoint to Lenski’s account, as it shows much convergence with Lenski in its lively presentation of a rather standard typology of societies emphasizing organizational aspects of society that is popular among anthropologists. We also look at my 2004 paper showing the kind of cross-cultural compara- tive data from Ethnographic Atlas that constitute the empirical basis of ecological- evolutionary theory. The paper also brings up, somewhat implicitly, the topic of continuity in inequality processes between the rest of the animal world and human societies, a topic will will pursue next week. Synthetic Question 1. One of the most comprehensive attempts to understand the nature of strat- ification systems over the full range of human societies is the ecological- evolutionary theory of Gerhard Lenski. Discuss the following points. (a) What are the bases and the main categories of the typology of human societies that Lenski uses to explain the nature of stratification systems? 1 (b) What are the main social mechanisms that Lenski evokes to explain the nature of the stratification systems in relation to the type of society? (c) What predictions does Lenski make regarding the evolution of social in- equality in the course of socio-cultural evolution, and how successful have these predictions been? Detailed Questions Lenski (1994) - Social Taxonomies 1. How does Lenski make a case for a taxonomy of societies based on level of technology and nature of the environment, as contrasted with taxonomies based on other principles? Lenski (2005) – Ecological-Evolutionary Theory 1. What is the surplus, and what role does it play in explaining trends in the nature of stratification systems in the course of sociocultural evolution? How is the surplus affected by subsistence technology? 2. In what ways are the conceptual pairs specific evolution versus general evolu- tion (Sahlins and Service 1960) and intrasocietal selection versus intersocietal selection (Lenski 2005) related? In what ways are they different? 3. What is the importance from the point of view of ecological-evolutionary history of the pattern – often repeated in history – of conquest of a sedentary agrarian society by a militarily superior herding society, followed by adoption of the argarian lifestyle by the conqueror? 4. What are some of the consequences of the industrial revolution for the social inequality, including the condition of women? Diamond (1997) – Guns, Germs and Steel 1. Compare the perspectives of Lenski and Diamond in comparing different types of societies. In which ways are the perspectives similar? In what ways are they different? Nielsen (2004) 1. For some aspects of social inequality, I (Nielsen) find a pattern of agrarian reversal (increasing inequality up to horticultural societies, followed by a de- cline in inequality in agrarian societies) instead of the monotonic pattern of increasing inequality from hunting and gathering societies to agrarian soci- eties that Lenski postulated. What is the significance of this finding? 2. Many dimensions of inequality have long been recognized by social scien- tists (e.g., power, occupational prestige, income, education, etc.). In this paper, following Laura Betzig, I propose that inequality in the “distribution” of women among men (due to various forms of polygyny) represents a di- mension of inequality that has not been sufficiently recognized. What is the importance of this dimension of inequality in establishing a link between in- equality in human societies and inequality in the rest of the animal world? To whom (which sex / gender) does an unequal “distribution” of women among men matter most? Why? 2