> [!infobox] <s class="aside-in"><em>mentioned in 2 topics, 18 evergreens, 1 source</em></s> #### <s class="topic-title">[[social hierarchy]]</s> > [!wikipedia] [social stratification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social%20stratification) > > Social stratification refers to a [[society]]'s categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit.In modern Western societies, social stratification is typically defined in terms of three social classes: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into the upper-stratum, the middle-stratum, and the lower stratum. Moreover, a social stratum can be formed upon the bases of kinship, clan, tribe, or caste, or all four. > > The categorization of people by social stratum occurs most clearly in complex state-based, polycentric, or feudal societies, the latter being based upon socio-economic relations among classes of nobility and classes of peasants. Historically, whether or not hunter-gatherer, tribal, and band societies can be defined as socially stratified, or if social stratification otherwise began with agriculture and large-scale means of social exchange, remains a debated matter in the social sciences. Determining the structures of social stratification arises from inequalities of status among persons, therefore, the degree of social inequality determines a person's social stratum. Generally, the greater the social complexity of a society, the more social stratification exists, by way of social differentiation. > **See**:: #### When referring to human [[social order]] - [[Humans love to group eachother]] is taken advantage of - [[Hierarchy enables oppression]] by setting up power imbalances - [[Theology preserves hierarchy through deific blessing]] - [[The caste system preserved hierarchy through purity]] - [[Hierarchy keeps people in by pretending they can change their class]] #### Related - [[Can society exist without discrimination]] - [[Hammurabi's Code preserved hierarchy through deific justice]] - [[Hierarchy enables oppression]] - [[Hierarchy keeps people in by pretending they can change their class]] - [[Humans have decided to take advantage of an unjust world]] - [[Once hierarchy is in place vested interests will keep it in place]] - [[The caste system preserved hierarchy through purity]] - [[Theology preserves hierarchy through deific blessing]] - [[There is no direct relation between physical strength and social power]] - [[Use social order instead of society to better acknowledge hierarchy and inequality]] - [[What is the cognitive origin of social hierarchy]] - [[What is the origin of patriarchy]] - [[What is the origin of social hierarchy]]