Forms of Social Stratification: Caste, Feudal and Slave Systems
Sociologists compare different historical and cross-cultural systems of stratification to understand how open or closed a society's hierarchy is.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Learn the key distinction between ascribed status, fixed at birth, and achieved status, gained through a person's own actions, and use it to classify any stratification system as more open or more closed.
- Learn the defining feature of the caste system: birth determines occupation, status and marriage partner (endogamy), traditionally with religious justification, and caste position cannot normally be changed.
- Learn the defining feature of the feudal system: a hierarchy of estates bound by reciprocal obligations, land and protection moving downward, labour and service moving upward.
- Learn the defining feature of slavery: people treated as property, owned and traded, with no legal freedom, the most extreme and closed system.
- Compare each historical system with a modern open class system on the same two criteria every time: how far position is ascribed versus achieved, and whether there is any recognised route to change position.
- For an evaluation question on which system is most or least closed, or how open the modern class system really is, cite social mobility evidence to show that formal openness does not always mean equal chances in practice.
Worked example
A society organises people into four hereditary groups. A person is born into one of these groups, which fixes their occupation and who they are allowed to marry, and there is no recognised way to move to a different group during their lifetime. Identify which named system of stratification this best matches, and explain two features that justify your answer.
- Note the key feature described: position is fixed at birth and determines both occupation and marriage partner.
- Rule out slavery: there is no mention of the group being owned as property or bought and sold.
- Rule out a modern open class system: there is explicitly no recognised way to move between groups, which a class system does formally allow.
- Match the remaining features, hereditary group, fixed occupation, restricted marriage or endogamy, to the caste system.
- Justify the answer with two named features: caste position is ascribed at birth, and caste endogamy restricts marriage to within the same group, both of which are defining features of a caste system.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1Define 'ascribed status'.Show answer
Answer: A social position fixed at birth, which a person cannot normally change through their own effort or achievement.
Q2Define 'achieved status'.Show answer
Answer: A social position gained, at least partly, through a person's own actions, effort or ability.
Q3What is meant by 'caste endogamy'?Show answer
Answer: The rule, found in caste systems, that a person may only marry within their own caste.
Q4Name the two directions of obligation that bound the feudal hierarchy together.Show answer
Answer: Land and protection flowing down the hierarchy from monarch and nobility, in exchange for labour, loyalty and military service flowing up it from those below.
Q5What makes slavery the most closed form of stratification?Show answer
Answer: Enslaved people are treated as property, owned and bought or sold by others, with no legal rights or personal freedom, and no recognised means of changing that position through their own achievement.
Q6Explain one way a modern class system differs from a caste system.Show answer
Answer: A class system is formally open, meaning a person can legally move between classes through education, income or occupation, whereas a caste system is closed, fixing position at birth with no recognised route to change it.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two differences between the caste system and a modern open class system.
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Discuss the view that a modern open class system gives people much greater control over their social position than closed systems such as caste, feudalism or slavery. Use sociological evidence in your answer.
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Free printable worksheet
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