UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS [Lesson ONE]
LESSON 1
GENDER ROLES
Gender roles are cultural and personal.
They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society.
Learning plays a role in this process of shaping gender roles.
These gender schemas are deeply embedded cognitive frameworks regarding what defines masculine and
feminine. While various socializing agents—parents, teachers, peers, movies, television, music, books, and
religion—teach and reinforce gender roles throughout the lifespan, parents probably exert the greatest
influence, especially on their very young offspring.
Sociologists know that adults perceive and treat female and male infants differently.
o Parents probably do this in response to their having been recipients of gender expectations as young
children. Traditionally, fathers teach boys how to fix and build things; mothers teach girls how to cook,
sew, and keep house.
o Children then receive parental approval when they conform to gender expectations and adopt culturally
accepted and conventional roles.
o All of this is reinforced by additional socializing agents, such as the media.
SOCIAL CLASS or SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASS
A social class is a set of subjectively defined concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on
models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most
common being the upper, middle and lower classes.
"Class" is a subject of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists and social historians. However,
there is not a consensus on a definition of "class" and the term has a wide range of sometimes conflicting
meanings.
The precise measurements of what determines social class in society has varied over time. Karl Marx thought
"class" was defined by one's relationship to the means of production (their relations of production). His simple
understanding of classes in modern capitalist society are the proletariat, those who work but do not own the
means of production; and the bourgeoisie, those who invest and live off of the surplus generated by the
proletariat's operation of the means of production.
Any observer of American society would quickly note that there are large variations in wealth, material
possessions, power and authority, and prestige in our society.
What is the source of this inequality? Some say it is the result of an unequal distribution of resources, power and
authority.
Factors Affects Social Classes
o resources: money, land, assets – distinction made between wealth – monetary value of all own
and income – amount of money brought in through wages, investment, etc.
o power: ability to be in charge, to rule
o authority: control, particularly in the face of resistance
Are material interests (money, land, assets, etc.) the only basis of inequality?
o Status represents another form of inequality – standing, esteem, respect, prestige, may involve physical
ability, intelligence, beauty, occupations that are ranked in order of prestige – doctors, corporate
lawyers, financial experts … to garbage collectors and janitors.
SOCIAL CLASSES IN THE UNITED STATES, As suggested by the sociologists
1. Upper Class – Elite
Represent institutional leadership, heads of multinational corporations, foundations, universities
UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS [Lesson ONE]
Capitalist elite – owners of lands, stocks and bonds and other assets – wealth derived from what they
own
Forbes magazine publishes a list of the 400 wealthiest families in America. In 1997, net worth had to be
at least $475 [Link] Gates, in that year, had net worth pf 39.8 billion
2. Upper Middle Class
Represent scientific and technical knowledge – engineers, accountants, lawyers, architects, university
faculty, managers and directors of public and private organizations.
Have both high incomes and high social prestige. Well-educated. Difficult to define a “middle class” (i.e.
upper middle, middle middle and lower middle) probably the largest class group in the United States –
because being middle class is more than just income, about lifestyles and resources, etc.
3. Lower Middle Class
Clerical-administrative Provide support for professionals
Engage in data collection., record-keeping Paralegals.\, bank tellers, sales
Blue-collar workers in skilled trades
4. Working Class
Craft workers Laborers in factories Restaurant workers
Nursing home staff Repair shops, garages Delivery services
5. Poor
Working poor – work full-time at wages below poverty line
Social services
Underclass
UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS [Lesson ONE]
ENTHNIC GROUP or ETHNICITY
a category of people who identity with each other based on similarities such as common ancestry,
language, story, society, culture, or nation.
Ethnicity is usually an inherited status based on the society in which one lives. Membership of an
ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin, myth, history,
homeland, language, or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, methodology, and ritual, cuisine,
dressing style, art, and physical appearance
The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos (more precisely, from the adjective
ἐθνικός ethnikos,[3] which was loaned into Latin as ethnicus). The inherited English language term for
this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period.
Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership, the following types
of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified:
Ethno-linguistic, emphasizing shared language, dialect (and possibly script) – example: French
Canadians
Ethno-national, emphasizing a shared polity or sense of national identity – example: Armenians
Ethno-racial, emphasizing shared physical appearance based on genetic origins –
example: African Americans
Ethno-regional, emphasizing a distinct local sense of belonging stemming from relative
geographic isolation – example: South Islanders
Ethno-religious, emphasizing shared affiliation with a particular religion, denomination or sect –
example: Jews
RELIGION
Religion is a cultural universal because it fulfills several basic functions within human societies. It is a
basic requirement of group life. In sociological terms, these include both manifest and latent functions.
Among the manifest (open and stated) functions of religion are included defining the spiritual world
and giving meaning to the divine.
Religion provides an explanation for events that seem difficult to understand. By contrast, latent
functions or religion are unintended, covert, or hidden.
Functionalists suggest that religion is a requirement for society and individual both because it serves
both manifest and latent functions.
Functions of Religion
1. Religion as an Integrative Force:
Durkheim believed that the primary function of religion was to preserve and solidify society. It functions
to reinforce the collective unity or social solidarity of a group.
The social cohesion is developed through rituals such as reciting prayer in the honour of God,
institutions of worship (church, temple, mosque, etc.),
The unifying rituals of different faiths are also observed by individuals on the most significant occasions
such as birth, marriage and death. This integrative function of religion was particularly apparent in tradi-
tional, pre-industrial societies.
UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS [Lesson ONE]
2. Creating a Moral Community:
Religion provides a system of beliefs around which people may gather to belong to something greater
than themselves in order to have their personal beliefs reinforced by the group and its rituals. Those
who share a common ideology develop a collective identity and a sense of fellowship.
Members of moral community also share a common life. This moral community gives rise to social
community through the symbolism of the sacred that supports the more ordinary aspects of social life.
Religion then legitimizes society. It provides sacred sanction for the social order and for its basic values
and meanings.
3. Religion as Social Control:
Frank E. Manuel (1959) had said that ‘religion was a mechanism which inspired terror, but terror for the
preservation of society’. While conservatives have valued religion for its protective function, radicals
have also often recognized that religion can be a support of the established order, and have,
consequently, been critical of religion.
Religious beliefs can influence the conduct of those who believe in them. It keeps people ‘in line’
through folkways and mores. It provides a foundation for mores (custom) of society. Religious sanctions
are sought for certain desirable patterns of behavior to persist in society in the forms of mores.
4. Provides Rites of Passage:
Religion helps us in performing ceremonies and rituals related to rites of passage (birth, marriage,
death and other momentous events) which give meaning and a social significance to our life.
5. Religion as Emotional Support:
Religion is a sense of comfort and solace to the individuals during times of personal and social crises
such as death of loved ones, serious injury, etc.
It gives them emotional support and provides consolation, reconciliation and moral strength during
trials and defeats, personal losses and unjust treatments.
The concepts of karma and transmigration among Hindus and Jesus Christ as son of God and prayer
among Christians seek to provide such fortitude and strength.
6. Religion Serves a Means to Provide Answers to Ultimate Questions:
Why are we here on earth? Is there a supreme being? What happens after death? All
religions have certain notions and beliefs that provide answers to the above questions.
These beliefs are based on the faith that life has a purpose, and there is someone or
something that controls the universe. It defines the spiritual world and gives meaning to the
divine. Because of its beliefs concerning people’s relationships to a beyond, religion
provides an explanation for events that seem difficult to understand.
7. Psychologizing Religion:
The notion of ‘positive thinking’ serves as an example of psychologizing religion. It provides
peace of mind, promises prosperity and success in life, as well as effective and happy human
relations. It is thus a source of security and confidence, and also of happiness and success in
this world.
But at times religion can be debilitating and personally destructive. Persons convinced of their
own essential wickedness can suffer extreme personal difficulties.