Deck 11: Class and Inequality

Question 1

What is true about systems of class and inequality?

A) They no longer exist in postindustrialized nation-states such as the United States.
B) They create an unequal distribution of a society's resources.
C) They are a natural feature of human culture.
D) They are most often exemplified by hunter-gatherer societies.

Answer 1

They create an unequal distribution of a society's resources.

Question 2

In a populous market town where a small number of merchants and landholders have accumulated wealth, extreme stratification arises. What is the most likely explanation for this?

A) Wealth is often the accumulation of fixed assets, not cash.
B) Wealth is often acquired by those who have great skill with money.
C) The absence of legal controls allowed a small subset of the population to control the market.
D) The absence of central banks prevented the redistribution of wealth.

Answer 2

Wealth is often the accumulation of fixed assets, not cash.

Question 3

What is a significant defining characteristic of a ranked society?

A) Wealth is inherited but prestige and status are determined by individual merit.
B) Wealth is redistributed according to each person's status and prestige.
C) Wealth, prestige, and status are equal among all members of the group.
D) Wealth is not stratified but prestige and status are.

Answer 3

Wealth is not stratified but prestige and status are.

Question 4

Which of these is stratified in a ranked society?

A) gender
B) race
C) status
D) wealth

Question 5

Egalitarian societies depend on sharing which of the following in order to ensure group success?

A) children
B) resources
C) weaponry
D) sexual partners

Question 6

Countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are among those that have offered increasingly generous social benefits to their populations. What is the most likely result of this kind of action by the state?

A) It may inadvertently increase stratification.
B) It may help narrow stratification.
C) It leads to high unemployment rates.
D) It tends to discourage new businesses from starting up.

Question 7

Which society is based on the sharing of resources to ensure group success and has relatively low hierarchy and violence?

A) matriarchal
B) stratified
C) ranked
D) egalitarian

Question 8

What does recent archaeological evidence suggest about hierarchy, violence, and aggression?

A) All have been key to increasing an individual's life chances.
B) Each emerged relatively recently in human history.
C) All were central to the evolutionary success of early humans.
D) They are the natural state of human culture.

Question 9

The advent of agriculture as a primary means of subsistence signaled a change in what aspect of human social structures?

A) an increase in the number of egalitarian societies
B) a decline in the number of egalitarian societies
C) a rise in the amount of food sharing that took place between different groups
D) an increase in the number of people that were overweight

Question 10

The increasing concentration of wealth into the hands of a smaller number of persons, in part due to globalization, is part of which accelerating process?

A) egalitarianism
B) stratification
C) social ranking
D) social prestige

Question 11

What is significant about Hutterite society in contrast to present-day social structures?

A) It is an example of a successful effort to establish an egalitarian system of economic and social relations within highly stratified societies.
B) It is an example of a failed effort to establish an egalitarian system of economic and social relations within highly stratified societies.
C) It is an example of a successful effort to establish a highly religious society.
D) It is an example of a successful effort to establish an authoritarian system of economic and social relations within highly stratified societies.

Question 12

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

A) race
B) ethnicity
C) gender
D) class

Question 13

Stratification exists in every culture that anthropology has studied, but systems of stratification such as class are not considered intrinsic to human culture. These seemingly contradictory ideas might be resolved through archaeological evidence. What aspect of human social behavior lends itself to a nonstratified society, according to archaeological findings?

A) cooperation
B) conflict without the use of weapons
C) the absence of gender stereotypes
D) the absence of ethnic or racial perceptions

Question 14

In a ranked society, what two characteristics are stratified?

A) prestige and lineage
B) wealth and prestige
C) prestige and status
D) wealth and status

Question 15

How do systems of class affect an individual's life chances?

A) They reduce the chance for upward mobility.
B) They increase the chance for upward mobility.
C) They lead to social stagnation.
D) They encourage rebellious behavior.

Question 16

Which of the following is a system of power based on wealth, income, and status that creates an unequal distribution of a society's resources?

A) class
B) ethnicity
C) sexuality
D) gender

Question 17

Which of the following members of a ranked society may not accumulate great wealth but enjoy high prestige?

A) women
B) elders
C) men
D) chiefs

Question 18

Which of these usually results from the unequal distribution of a society's resources within a class system?

A) Surpluses move steadily downward into the hands of the poor.
B) Surpluses move steadily upward into the hands of the elite.
C) Resources are shared or redistributed through random lotteries.
D) The unequal distribution itself does not affect individuals' life chances.

Question 19

In some societies, the social rank of each member is determined by who his or her parents are. What can we probably say about this society?

A) It is egalitarian.
B) It is ranked.
C) It is authoritarian.
D) It is reciprocal.

Question 20

The text tells us that a few modern societies such as the Amish have successfully forged an egalitarian society. Based on the information in the text, we can attribute this success to what aspect of human interaction?

A) ranking
B) recidivism
C) reciprocity
D) redistribution

Question 21

Why is Karl Marx's argument that capitalists increased their wealth and not their money by extracting surplus labor value from workers a correct analysis?

A) Surplus labor value is the property of the bourgeoisie.
B) Surplus labor value is the property of the proletariat.
C) Surplus labor value resulted in direct payments to the capitalists.
D) Surplus labor value is not a tangible asset but is still a gain from the work of others.

Question 22

What might Max Weber suggest is the primary difference between a lawyer in the United States and the self-made millionaire of a U.S.-based manufacturing company?

A) The lawyer has high prestige by virtue of occupation, while the self-made millionaire has only wealth.
B) The lawyer wields a great deal of power by virtue of occupation, while the self-made millionaire has high prestige due to accomplishment.
C) The lawyer suffers low prestige by virtue of occupation, while the self-made millionaire enjoys high prestige by virtue of being self-made.
D) The lawyer has high wealth by virtue of occupation, while the self-made millionaire does not.

Question 23

What common result occurs when patterns of social stratification emerge?

A) egalitarianism
B) the redistribution of money
C) the maintenance of prestige
D) unequal access to resources

Question 24

Your best friend, who has recently graduated with honors from Harvard University, arrives at a party you are hosting. Despite being a total stranger to all of the guests, your friend is surrounded almost constantly by others throughout the entire evening. How would a theorist like Max Weber analyze this situation?

A) Your friend likely has a large ego and is attention seeking by nature.
B) By attending an elite university, your friend has openly stated his dislike for the working class, drawing lots of attention.
C) Your friend enjoys high prestige due primarily to the affiliation with a high-prestige university.
D) Your friend enjoys a lot of wealth and privilege and thus draws others who seek that as well.

Question 25

What do we call the movement, both upward and downward, of one's class position in a society?

A) social inertia
B) social achievement
C) social reproduction
D) social mobility

Question 26

As a ritual ceremony, the potlatch serves to establish prestige and social status by demonstrating a person's capacity for which of the following?

A) power
B) obligation
C) generosity
D) violence

Question 27

Other than reciprocity, how is the rank and status of a chief in a ranked society reinforced?

A) political parties
B) generosity
C) stratified wealth
D) reproduction

Question 28

Why is Karl Marx considered an important theorist in the study of class?

A) Marx developed the concept of the bourgeoisie.
B) Marx was the first thinker to consider the role of the economy in society.
C) Marx built on the work of Max Weber.
D) Marx focused on capitalism as it pertained to workers and inequality.

Question 29

Carmen's parents enroll her in AP Honors French, where the content of the class is more academically demanding than the general French class. They also spend their summer vacation in France and hire a tutor to help Carmen study for the AP Honors French test. Carmen receives high marks and praise from her teachers. What aspect of Pierre Bourdieu's work is exemplified here?

A) status prestige
B) habitus
C) cultural capital
D) group ideology

Question 30

According to Karl Marx, the bourgeoisie consisted of a capitalist class of individuals who owned what part of society?

A) distribution channels
B) means of production
C) means of control
D) factories

Question 31

Why might theorist Pierre Bourdieu have decided to examine his theory of social mobility-the interrelationships between culture, class, and power-in the French school system as opposed to, say, the workplace of adults?

A) Schools afforded him the opportunity to study how children entered the workplace.
B) Schools offered the chance to look across multiple generations.
C) Schools afforded a quieter, more stable environment.
D) Workplaces also had a great many non-French persons.

Question 32

Karl Marx examined social inequality by distinguishing between which two distinct classes of people?

A) bourgeoisie and proletariat
B) bourgeoisie and elite
C) proletariat and impoverished
D) elite and privileged

Question 33

A chief in a ranked society performs an act of gift giving that shares accumulated wealth while also enhancing the chief's prestige. What do anthropologists call this process?

A) redistribution
B) reciprocity
C) potlatch
D) reintegration

Question 34

Pierre Bourdieu worked to understand the relationship between class, culture, and power by studying schools in France with the expectation of finding that social mobility was the result of meritocracy. What did he discover instead?

A) Social isolation took place due to the high rate of parental involvement.
B) Social reproduction tended to disappear after one generation of children had completed school.
C) Social mobility did not affect the relationship between parent and child.
D) Social relations were reproduced across generations.

Question 35

According to Marx, why were the proletariat unable to develop a political awareness of their class position while the bourgeoisie were able to do so?

A) The proletariat lacked interest or motivation to do so, while the bourgeoisie were well connected politically and able to exploit their class position.
B) The proletariat were continually occupied with the struggle to make ends meet, while the bourgeoisie developed ways to keep the proletariat divided.
C) The proletariat were not as intelligent as the bourgeoisie.
D) The proletariat were entirely accepting of their position in society and recognized that class division is innate in any society.

Question 36

The work of anthropologist Leith Mullings has examined the connections between class, race, and gender, which resulted in the development of which useful analytical framework?

A) intersectionality
B) interpretive anthropology
C) theory of class
D) systems of power

Question 37

When the Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest perform a potlatch, there may be times when the excess gifts are actually destroyed rather than given away. Why is this done?

A) It avoids giving excess resources to those who do not need them.
B) It avoids giving excess resources to others who may be future enemies.
C) It can reinforce the generosity of the chief by demonstrating his willingness to waste resources.
D) It can reinforce the prestige of the chief by demonstrating his capacity.

Question 38

How did Karl Marx refer to the group of people who lacked land and tools and sold their labor?

A) bourgeoisie
B) capitalists
C) industrialists
D) proletariat

Question 39

Why is the issue of the water poisoning in Flint, Michigan, referred to as a hydro-social process?

A) The circulation of water increasingly intersects with human systems of power, as seen in Flint, Michigan.
B) The process of water distribution has been separated from decisions about who gets access to clean water.
C) Flint, Michigan, offers the chance to understand how water systems are actually constructed.
D) Flint, Michigan, demonstrates that water use is just a social event and not a technical one.

Question 40

A young man decides to take a class about art history, which he has been interested in ever since his parents began taking him to museums when he was a child. He believes that art appreciation and knowledge are good qualities to have. How would Pierre Bourdieu describe this young man's taste for classic art?

A) bourgeoisie
B) habitus
C) social mobility
D) social reproduction

Question 41

What do we call the total value of what someone owns, including stocks, bonds, and real estate, minus any debt?

A) wealth
B) investments
C) income
D) capital

Question 42

Aside from access to financial resources, what most influences an individual's life chances?

A) intellectual ability and physical strength
B) access to social resources such as education
C) ambition to seize the means of production
D) access to gainful employment

Question 43

Leith Mullings argues that class cannot be studied in isolation but rather must be considered together with race and gender as interlocking systems of what?

A) class
B) status
C) power
D) prestige

Question 44

Since the mid-1970s, how has class inequality in the United States changed?

A) It has decreased as income and wealth have been disbursed from the wealthy elite down to the middle- and lower-class social strata.
B) It has increased due to decreasing tax rates for the wealthy and stagnating salaries for the middle class.
C) It has held steady, as tax breaks for the wealthy have been balanced by increased salaries in the middle class.
D) It has decreased as a result of increased tax rates on the wealthy and redistribution of benefits to the poor.

Question 45

The dramatic increases in debt and student loan costs have helped perpetuate what aspect of life in U.S. society?

A) the housing crisis
B) access to quality education
C) the culture of consumption
D) maintaining a good credit rating

Question 46

Studies of caste in India reveal what important fact about this particular social structure?

A) Caste systems are the same throughout India.
B) Caste is a closed system of stratification with no fluidity.
C) There is no difference between a caste system and a ranked society.
D) Caste systems have no consistent, uniform expression.

Question 47

Anthropologist Gregory Mantsios contends that the media play a significant role in hiding class stratification in the United States. What do his findings reveal about media focus?

A) It promotes the myth of meritocracy and egalitarianism.
B) It promotes the idea that the poor are unmotivated.
C) It focuses on making money rather than actually reporting news.
D) It discusses class issues only in foreign nations, not its own.

Question 48

Street vendors in Bolivia are very common but technically illegal. They often remain in poverty, despite working hard to sell their wares. What does anthropologist Daniel Goldstein suggest as a cause of their continued poverty?

A) inconsistencies in the enforcement of laws among the urban poor
B) a lack of transportation infrastructure that adversely affects the poor
C) the high cost of vendor licenses due to corruption
D) the outsourcing of labor to other countries

Question 49

As India grows economically, we can observe a shift from a hierarchy of caste to a hierarchy of class. This is due to what change in the caste system itself?

A) Political will and legislation has lessened the power of caste.
B) Caste has gradually shifted from a system of ascribed status to achieved status.
C) The upper castes have learned to embrace the lower castes.
D) Dalit-led resistance has changed the attitudes of the upper classes.

Question 50

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 generally? What happens if an individual does not give a gift in the two examples you highlight? What influences 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?

Question 51

How do distributions of income and wealth reveal the way power is distributed in a society?

A) Income and wealth determine an individual's access to resources such as health care.
B) Income and wealth do not reveal the distribution of power in a society.
C) Income and wealth indicate the extent of cultural capital held by individuals.
D) Both are measures of how successful an individual has been in life.

Question 52

The poor of Mumbai, India, must find ways to access the city's water system. What is the fundamental reason that they must develop covert approaches to water access?

A) The constant flow of migrants makes it impossible for the city to maintain water access.
B) The poor cannot earn enough to pay the monthly water bills.
C) Tourist and visitor interests consume more than 90 percent of the city's water supplies.
D) With no permanent address, the city cannot offer them legal access to water.

Question 53

Which of the following consists of wages earned from work, plus dividends and interest on investments along with rents and royalties?

A) investments
B) wealth
C) income
D) profits

Question 54

Contemporary economic relations in many societies today tend to be organized around the exchange of money for services rather than around patterns of reciprocity. However, patterns of reciprocity still exist today even within highly stratified societies. What are three examples of patterns of reciprocity that are likely to occur in highly stratified societies today, and what purpose do they serve within or between social groups? How does gift giving relate to patterns of reciprocity, and what may be some underlying motivations in gift giving that are related to group survival or benefit? Given the longevity of reciprocity as a social pattern within human evolutionary experience, do you think it will continue to be present within and among social groups in the future? Why or why not?

Question 55

A(n) ________ is a system of stratification most commonly found in India.

A) caste system
B) ranked society
C) egalitarian society
D) capitalist society

Question 56

Leith Mullings's work using intersectionality emerges out of a long history of anthropological fieldwork. What characterizes this variety of fieldwork?

A) It is holistic.
B) It is interpretive.
C) It is class based.
D) It is global.

Question 57

The review of economic data in the text underscores the growing inequality in the United States, and yet it remains true that class is rarely discussed. To what factors does the author attribute this, aside from media?

A) the ability of many middle-class families to maintain the experience of their lifestyle through consumption
B) the ability of many middle-class families to effectively tune out poverty
C) the inability of the lower middle class to draw attention to inequality
D) the lack of will at the highest levels of government to address inequality

Question 58

According to anthropologist Setha Low, what is the role of gated communities?

A) These communities act as places for secure housing and employment.
B) These communities isolate themselves from the lower class voluntarily.
C) Mostly lower- to middle-class families inhabit such communities.
D) These communities provide job opportunities for the lower classes.

Question 59

According to the United Nations, what is the global distribution of wealth and income?

A) Half of the planet's wealth is held by 2 percent of the world population, and 75 percent of the world total income is received by 20 percent of the population.
B) Seventy-five percent of the planet's wealth is held by 2 percent of the world population, and half of the world total income is received by 20 percent of the population.
C) Half of the planet's income is received by 2 percent of the world population, and 75 percent of the planet's wealth is held by 20 percent of the population.
D) Twenty percent of the planet's wealth is held by 75 percent of the world population, and 50 percent of the world total income is received by 2 percent of the population.

Question 60

The culture of poverty theory suggests that poverty is the result of an individual's dysfunctional behaviors, attitudes, and values. Anthropologists have strongly challenged this idea, arguing that poverty is a structural problem. What do they say this results from?

A) It results from uneven access to a college education.
B) It results from partisan political infighting.
C) It results from poor decisions around urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s.
D) It results from dysfunctional aspects of the entire economic system.

Question 61

The concept of the American Dream emphasizes and promotes the notions of meritocracy and social mobility as central to both national identity and the experiences of U.S. citizens. These notions assume that all citizens have equal opportunity for upward social mobility regardless of current class position. What is meritocracy, and how does it relate to social mobility? Are both concepts experienced equally by U.S. citizens today regardless of class position? What are three examples of how class can affect individuals' experiences with meritocracy and social mobility? Given what you have read in the chapter on class and inequality, do you believe the American Dream is equally attainable to all U.S. citizens? Why or why not? Do you think the American Dream will become more equally attainable in the future? Why or why not?

Question 62

Theorist Karl Marx argued that societies in the emerging capitalist economy of nineteenth-century Europe consisted of two distinct classes of people: those who own the means of production and those who must sell their labor in return for wages. What were these two distinct classes called? What other resources or factors distinguished these two classes, according to Marx? What is one example of a way in which Marx's theory could be applied to understanding societies living in a global economy today? Do you find Marx's theory helpful in understanding class and social inequality today? Why or why not?

Question 63

Pierre Bourdieu argued that in addition to a family's economic circumstances, two key factors affect an individual's social mobility within society. What are these two additional key factors, and how do they differ from each other? What are some examples that best illustrate these two key factors? How can these two factors limit one's social mobility? How can these two factors improve one's social mobility? How do you think these two factors affect your own social mobility in society? Are there individuals in societies who are not affected in any way by either of these factors? Please provide at least one example to support your argument.

Question 64

Despite overall increased levels of income and wealth in the United States during the past four decades, poverty continues to be a societal issue. According to your textbook, what are two key theories that developed in the social sciences to identify the roots of poverty in the United States? How do these two theories differ and what elements might they have in common? What is meant by poverty as pathology versus poverty as a structural economic problem? Which theory do you find most convincing for identifying the root causes of poverty in the United States, and why? Do you think additional theories are needed to more fully address the underlying causes of poverty in the country and globally? What do you think is the appropriate role of the government in addressing the roots of poverty? What do you think is the appropriate role of the individual in overcoming poverty? Do you think poverty can be eradicated in the future? Why or why not?

Question 65

Class is a topic that is not commonly discussed among most people in the United States, and yet it is a system of stratification that continues to affect peoples' daily lives. How often and in what context do you talk about class issues with family and friends? In what class position would you classify yourself and your family? How do you know what category to use to identify your class position? Does your class position differ from that of your parents or grandparents? Why or why not? Does your class position differ from that of your friends? Why or why not? What types of efforts do you make to increase your social mobility, and do you think the efforts will indeed help you increase your class position at some point in your lifetime? Given what you know about your own class position, why do you think that class is not commonly talked about in U.S. society? What other types of social stratification are more commonly discussed in public, and how might they be drawing attention away from class issues?

Question 66

Karl Marx, Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, and Leith Mullings are four theorists who have examined class as a system of stratification in societies. Which of the four theorists' approaches do you find most convincing? Describe the theorist's general approach to examining class and discuss how this particular approach differs from the approaches used by the other theorists. What makes this approach more convincing in your opinion? Do you think this approach is still an effective tool in examining class in societies today? Given the increasingly global nature of societal interconnections, do you believe this approach will continue to be useful in examining class systems in future societies? Why or why not? Do you think additional approaches will be needed to more fully examine class systems in the future? Why or why not?

Question 67

The caste system of India has been analyzed for a long time by anthropologists. It is also mythologized in cultures other than India as a system of oppression dating back thousands of years. This is not, as we have seen, the entire story. What is a caste system? Why does it exist in the first place? How did the colonial power of Britain affect the caste system? What is changing about the caste system today? Give examples from the text for the ways in which this system is changing and what it seems to be changing into.

Question 68

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?