Ch 7 Global Stratification – Key terms

bourgeoisie: Karl Marx's term for capitalists, or those who own the means of production (p.165)

caste system: a form of social stratification in which one's status is lifelong and determined by birth (p.162)

class consciousness: Karl Marx's term for awareness of a shared identity based on one's position in the means of production (p.165)

class system: a form of social stratification based primarily on the possession of money or material goods (p.164)

colonialism: the process by which one nation takes over another nation, usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and natural resources (p.176)

culture of poverty: the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children (p.177)

divine right of kings: the idea that the king's authority comes directly from God (p.170)

endogamy: the practice of marrying within one's own group (p.162)

false consciousness: Karl Marx's term for workers' identification with the interests of capitalists (p.166)

globalization of capitalism: capitalism (investing to make profits within a rational system) becoming the globe's dominant economic system (p.176)

ideology: beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social arrangements (p.170)

means of production: the tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth (p.165)

meritocracy: a form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit (p.168)

multinational corporations: companies that operate across many national boundaries, also called transnational corporations (p.180)

neocolonialism: the economic and political dominance of the Least Industrialized Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations (p.180)

proletariat: Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production (p.165)

slavery: a form of social stratification in which some people own other people (p.160)

social class: according to Weber, a large number of people who rank close to one another in power, property, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists who own the means of production, or workers who sell their labor (p.166)

social mobility: movement up or down the social class ladder (p.164)

social stratification: the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige; applies both to nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group (p.160)

world system theory: economic and political connections that tie the world's countries together (p.176)