Social Stratification and Social Class.
The definition of social stratification is the division of people into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige. All nations practice social stratification, and always, the men are put before the women.
There are three major systems of social stratification. They are slavery, caste, and class. Slavery, in the beginning, was based on debt, punishment, or defeat in battle. However, in North America, it became based on race. The white race was superior to the black and should have ownership over them. The caste system, which still exists in India today, is a system that determines a persons worth by birth and lasts a lifetime. There is no moving from one caste to another. In the Hindu religion, it is believed that how you live one life determines which caste you will be born into the next. If you live a good life you will be born into a higher caste until you eventually reach the top where you do not have to be reincarnated anymore. If you live a life of sin, you will be born into a lower caste, such as the "untouchables", which are worst than slaves. People usually always marry within their own caste. A social class is more open than the others and is usually determined by wealth and material possessions. The upper class is the very wealthy, the middle class is the average of the society, and the lower class is the poorer people of the society. These classes can also be broken into several sub-classes. Unlike slavery and the caste system, an individual can move either way in the class system. .
There are four theories to how the world's nations became stratified. These are colonialism, world system theory, dependency theory, and the culture of poverty.
The colonialism theory is about the first nations who industrialized were the first to colonize other places. An example is when England became industrialized enough to build a magnificent navy and took control of North America.