Differentiation of rewards produces social inequality. Kingsley Davis emphasizes the functional necessity of stratification. According to Spengler stratification results from scarcity of privileges and powers that is created by differentiation of powers, rights and rewards. Some are rated higher than the others in terms of rights and privileges. Society attaches different rights and rewards to different positions. This is described by Gisbert as division of society into permanent groups on categories linked with each other by the relationship of superiority and subordination. Stratification involves unequal distribution of rights and privileges among the members of a society. These constitute the substance of social stratification. In every society there are ruling class and ruled class or subjects.
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In every society some men are regarded as superior or inferior as for example patricians and plebians or aristocrats and commoners. A stratified society is marked by inequality by differences among people that are evaluated by them as being higher or lower or equal. Social differences become social stratification when the concerned people are ranked hierarchically on the bias of the inequality like differences on some dimensions such as income, power, age, occupation and race etc. Sorokin asserts that there can be no society without stratification. Stratification divides a society into higher and lowers social units. Ogburn and Nimkoff define social stratification as the process by which individuals and groups are ranked in a more or less enduring hierarchy of status. In industrial societies there are both status groups and social classes. Sociologists generally distinguish four main types of social stratification - slavery, estate, caste and social class and status. Stratification is viewed as a social process as well as a method devised by sociologists to understand inequality in the society. According to Sutherland and Maxwell social stratification is defined as a process of differentiation that places some people higher than the others.
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Social stratification is a process in which social inequalities exist in the form of structural hierarchical strata, placed one above the other. Social Stratification Social Stratification Definition