Exam 11: Class and Inequality

The potlatch is a redistribution ceremony practiced among Native American groups such as the Kwakiutl people of the Pacific Northwest. The potlatch serves both a practical and ceremonial function in that it helps redistribute resources for the benefit of the group and it establishes social status and prestige via one's capacity for generosity. As a gift-giving practice, the potlatch is an important ceremony for some ranked societies. Do similar types of gift-giving practices occur in your own society? What are two examples of ceremonies in your own society in which gift giving takes place? What is the function of gift giving in these two examples and how does the act of gift giving benefit the giver, the receiver, and the social group more generally? What happens if an individual does not give a gift in the two examples you highlight? What influences from within and outside of your society may be changing the way in which gift-giving practices are occurring in the ceremonies you mention? Do you think gift giving will remain a practice within these types of ceremonies in the future?

Of all the systems of stratification and power in a society, which of the following is commonly the most difficult to see clearly and to discuss openly?

Theorist Max Weber argued that analyzing emerging structures of stratification required an examination of which of the following?

Which of the following is a theory of poverty that considers poverty as pathology in that it is a result of an individual's personal failings stemming from a combination of dysfunctional behaviors, attitudes, and values that make and keep the poor person poor?

Economists clearly reveal that both the income and wealth gaps in the United States are widening substantially. What is the difference between income and wealth? Can an individual have high income but little wealth? Which households tend to be at the bottom of the income and wealth gaps and which households are at the top? What are some of the reasons for the income and wealth disparities that exist in the United States today? Why are the U.S. income and wealth gaps widening despite increased globalization and access to educational opportunities? How do one's income and wealth affect his or her social mobility? What other systems of social stratification affect an individual's income and wealth and in what ways? How does Pem Davidson Buck's work with poor white people in rural Kentucky reflect how income and wealth are affected by other forms of social stratification?

Hunger reflects growing global inequality and is a result of:

The work of which of the following more recent theorists has led anthropologists to reexamine class by analyzing the deep connections between class, race, and gender?

In ranked societies, the social rank of each member of the society is determined by:

Karl Marx argued that capitalists increased their wealth by extracting the surplus labor value from which of the following?

Anthropologists trace the roots of which of the following patterns of social stratification to the rise of intensive agriculture and populous market towns?

A caste system, such as that among Hindus in India, is largely a closed system in which an individual's status is ascribed. What is meant by ascribed status and how does it differ from achieved status regarding one's social position? How do ascribed and achieved status relate to open or closed systems of social stratification? What type of system is the class system in the United States? In which ways does the class system in the United States differ from the caste system in India and in which ways is it similar? Do you believe the class system in the United States is becoming more open or closed? What do you think the future holds for the social stratification systems in India and in the United States?

Which of the following is the term used to describe a framework for analyzing many factors that determine how class is lived rather than examining class in isolation?

India's recent economic transformations are resulting in:

Pierre Bourdieu worked to understand the relationship between class, culture, and power by examining which of the following phenomenon in schools?

For a chief in a ranked society, his or her rank and status are reinforced through reciprocity and: