A STUDY OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION WITH REFERENCE TO SOCIAL CLASS BARRIERS AND SOCIAL CLASS RIGIDITY By William Cecil Headrick Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at New York State University. December 1, 1941. http://abbeyclock.com/cecil/index.html Cecil was born in Greeneville, TN. on November 1, 1904. He died in Santo Domingo on August 29, 1995. Contents Preface 6 I. AN ATTEMPT TO DEFINE CLASS AND SOCIAL CLASS 8 Economic Aspect of Class and Social Class Occupational and social hierarchies Wealth and social status The uses to which wealth is put Political Aspects of Definition of Class and Social Class Social status and the class struggle Class consciousness and social class consciousness Religion, Nationality, and Race: Significance for Social Class Class aspects of religion Nationality and social class Race and social class Fame, Notoriety, and Social Class Legal Classes and Social Classes Social ranks among criminals Social differences among slaves Redemptionists of varied social status Social classes among the nobility Subjective Definitions of Social Class Common ways and ideals Social class standing a birthright Refined definitions of social class Definition II. AN ANALYSIS OF CASTE AND SOCIAL DISTANCE 32 Caste used interchangeably with class Caste used to mean hereditary status Caste used to mean hereditary function Caste given a racial base What is Caste? An introductory definition of caste Caste is not social status Caste is not identified with occupation Refined definitions of caste The relation of social class to caste The nature of social distance III. WIDESPREAD SOCIAL CLASS RIGIDITY 45 The pre-rigid stage, before the genesis of social inequality The genesis of social inequality Hereditary Status Mayas and Aztecs The Peruvians African Tribes The main line of Occidental history Early Gaul The early Teutonic tribes Other illustrations of widespread social class rigidity Conclusion IV. MECHANISMS TENDING TO MAINTAIN SOCIAL CLASS RIGIDITY 58 Retention of the gens Rules against inter-class marriage Protection Monopoly of religion Insignia Enslavement Clean and dirty Monopoly of a trade or business Wealth and Property Government and close connection with government Interests Marriage and family customs Specialization in etiquette and fashion Secrecy and snobbery Regard for genealogy Conquest and war Primogeniture and entail The use of ancient callings Education and apprenticeship Ecological factors Serfdom and peonage Prestige of all things old Soll und Haben The enemy alien Priority Charisma and other personal qualities Summary V. SOCIAL CLASS RIGIDITIES IN GREECE AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 75 Early Greece Sparta Effect of the right to vote upon social inequality Greek and modern parallels and contrasts Preliminary statement about Roman classes Early Rome Who were the patricians? Who were the plebs? The legal and political rise of plebeian elements The Republic reaches middle age The rôle of wealth -- the equites The last days of the Republic The middle classes Slaves and the Roman proletariat VI. CLASS RIGIDITIES IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE 88 Proscription and death The new aristocracy and the rôle of wealth The plebs of the early Empire Slaves and ex-slaves in the early Empire The disintegration of Roman civilization Retrenchment and stabilization in the East Social class trends in the West Social mobility evaluated Social class aspects of the invasion Conclusion VII. CONQUEST AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN GAUL AND EARLY FRANCE 99 The Roman aristocracy in Gaul Rome, religion, and the bishops Roman society in the Merovingian Age The German nobility purged More proof of social class rigidity Conquest -- theory and fact Outright denial of race-conquest theory The Norman Conquest VIII. SOCIAL CLASS RIGIDITIES IN THE PERIOD FROM FEUDALISM TO INDUSTRIALISM 113 The classes at the outset of feudalism Agricultural feudalism Shifts and changes among serfs Social classes in the early towns The early gilds Entrance into gilds open to talent? The decline of the craft gilds The development of early capitalism Social class aspects of commercial enterprise The laboring classes The bourgeois classes The nobility and descendants of noblemen during the age of commercial expansion Social class rigidities at the end of the eighteenth century Conclusion IX. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND SOCIAL CLASS 136 Opinion divided on social class implications of new age Opinion divided as to the facts of social class in the new age of industrial capitalism The social structure of the age of individualism The middle classes The upper classes: nobility and haute bourgeoisie Conclusion X. THE AMERICAN DREAM 149 Versions of the American Dream A modest appraisal of opportunity XI. SOCIAL CLASS RIGIDITIES IN COLONIAL AMERICA 161 The lower classes in the American colonies The middle classes in colonial society Social class continuity from Europe to America The upper classes in colonial times The Virginia Colony and State Virginia before 1650 Virginian social classes in the period from 1650 to 1725 Slaves and free blacks Indentured servants Misery among poor whites The middle class The aristocrats of Virginia Conclusion XII. THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 185 The door of equal opportunity The westward movement of the different social strata The westward movement of the upper and middle classes The westward movement of the lower classes The Scotch-Irish Tenants become owners The Polish Peasant Conclusion XIII. HYPOTHESES, THEORIES, AND STATISTICS ON SOCIAL MOBILITY 205 Generalized interpretations Statistical studies in social ascent and descent Downward Circulation The élite Conclusion Supplement I. A statistical study of prominent marriages Conclusion Supplement II. Social class in smaller places Conclusion Editorial comment on social class Supplement III. Social class backgrounds of college faculty XIV. Part I. HEREDITY AND SOCIAL STATUS 227 Divergent opinions about heredity and social status Sir Francis Galton Other studies Social class transmission Conclusion Part II. EDUCATION AND THE SOCIAL CLASSES Ideas and opinions Conclusion XV. Part I. THE MIDDLE CLASS 243 The barriers between the middle classes and their superiors and inferiors Racial and nationality factors in regard to class barriers The bureaucrats Part II. WAR AND TOTALITARIAN INFLUENCES ON SOCIAL CLASS The destruction of social systems by totalitarians Exiled and crushed middle and upper classes War Social class in militarized democracies Part III. ARE SOCIAL CLASSES A GOOD THING? Opinions in favor of a system of social classes Opinions against a system of social classes Conclusion XVI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 306 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX I: THE DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTIES IN NORTH IRELAND APPENDIX II: SOCIAL FACTORS IN THE RISE OF BLACKS APPENDIX III: CASE HISTORIES: VIRGINIA, IOWA, OHIO Part I. Case histories of Virginians Part II. Iowa Part III. Ohio PREFACE This dissertation is dedicated to a review of the theories and history of social class barriers. Social stratification, a most ubiquitous social phenomenon, has been treated from many points of view, but the aspect of rigidity has received only abortive consideration. In general, also, it may be safely stated that research in the fields of social class has not kept pace with the recognized importance of the whole subject and its various aspects Mombert 1 is of the opinion that the problem of social stratification stands in first place among questions pertaining to society. Bauer 2 avers that class constitutes the true subject matter of social science. Fahlbeck 3 expresses surprise that this field has received so little attention. Overbergh asserts, and is supported by Ferré 4, that the study of social classes is of utmost importance to sociology. Park and Burgess refer to this as an "unworked field." 5 Confusion in classification. The chief problem confronting the investigator at the outset is confusion in terminology. Social class rigidity, as a field of study, depends upon what is meant by social class. Authorities mean different things by the same words and the same thing by different words. Research into usage and classifications becomes immediately imperative. 6 Class has to be disentangled from social class (Chapter I); and caste requires special attention because it has been used interchangeably with social stratum, hereditary occupation, and race (Chapter II). The need for research in the field of concept and usage is indicated by the fact that Page 7 chooses to write two volumes in the field of class before he tackles the intricacies of definitions and conceptual categories. The scope and aim of this study. In order to illustrate the various forms of social stratification, and therefore the many kinds of social class barriers, it is necessary to survey briefly the literature of anthropology and history. Chapter III, given over to this review, contains purely introductory material; it makes no pretenses at contributing directly or indirectly to knowledge, in form or content. It does, however, raise several points essential to the thesis concerning the origin, nature, and extent of social class rigidity. The material collected and arranged to indicate the various mechanisms whereby social classes, or classes in general, maintain their positions of advantage and privilege (Chapter IV) falls into the category of knowledge collected and presented in a more orderly and more adequate form. The data extracted from general history (Chapters V to XII), beginning with Greek civilization, fall into the