Achieved status only became possible in the modern age, replacing ascribed birth status

Evidence

Before we can understand the roots of status in our contemporary world, however, we first must acknowledge that cases like Coco Chanel’s became possible only in the modern age. For most of human history, writes the philosopher Charles Taylor, “People were often locked into a given place, a role and station that was properly theirs and from which it was almost unthinkable to deviate.” Older societies built their hierarchies around ascribed status, where individuals received their social ranking based on predetermined criteria, such as age, ethnic group, occupation, and gender. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 79

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Annals of Caste material and to the status-vs-formal-hierarchy theme across Ambedkar and Along the Archival Grain — premodern ranking by predetermined criteria mirrors caste logic. — connects to: Modern individualism democratized what was originally an aristocratic status privilege — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 285; Ascribed status overrides achieved status even for celebrated Black Americans — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 81; The modern state turned an exceptional status into a universal potential — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 706 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Ascribed status overrides achieved status even for celebrated Black Americans #complicates (0.85) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 81
• Modern individualism democratized what was originally an aristocratic status privilege #expands (0.82) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 285
• The modern state turned an exceptional status into a universal potential #corroborates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 706
• The sciences of man became possible only when measurement displaced ancestral status #qualifies (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 300