Human societies structure hierarchy by age, gender, and arbitrary-sets

Evidence

Pierre van den Berghe (1978) was among the first to observe that human group-based social hierarchies consist of distinctly different stratification systems. While he distinguished among four different stratification systems, for our purposes, these can be collapsed into three: (a) an age-system, in which adults and middle-age people have disproportionate social power over children and younger adults, (b) a gender-system, or patriarchy in which males have disproportionate social and political power compared to females, and (c) what we shall label an arbitrary-set system. The “arbitrary-set” system is filled with socially constructed, and highly salient groups based on characteristics such as clan, ethnicity, “estate,” nation, “race,” caste, social class, religious sect, regional grouping, or any other socially relevant group distinction which the human imagination is capable of constructing. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3163 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Proximity to nature indicates society’s assigned humanness ranking — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1095; Animal dominance hierarchies poorly model human status structures — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 62; Gender inequality is the most pervasive and oldest form of group-based inequality. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 554 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Group-based hierarchies divide into age, gender, and arbitrary-set systems #corroborates (0.97) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3163