# Dominant group/Sociology

Group sociology is the study of the social interaction of groups and its impact on society.
A dominant group in any society is a sociological entity that is often a focus for study.
Def. "a social group that controls the value system and rewards in a particular society" is called a dominant group, or dominant social group.

## Dominant group

Examples from primary sources are to be used to prove or disprove each hypothesis. These can be collected per subject or in general.
* Accident hypothesis: dominant group is an accident of whatever processes are operating.
* Artifact hypothesis: dominant group may be an artifact of human endeavor or may have preceded humanity.
* Association hypothesis: dominant group is associated in some way with the original research.
* Bad group hypothesis: dominant group is the group that engages in discrimination, abuse, punishment, and additional criminal activity against other groups. It often has an unfair advantage and uses it to express monopolistic practices.
* Control group hypothesis: there is a control group that can be used to study dominant group.
* Entity hypothesis: dominant group is an entity within each field where a primary author of original research uses the term.
* Evolution hypothesis: dominant group is a product of evolutionary processes, such groups are the evolutionary process, produce evolutionary processes, or are independent of evolutionary processes.
* Identifier hypothesis: dominant group is an identifier used by primary source authors of original research to identify an observation in the process of analysis.
* Importance hypothesis: dominant group signifies original research results that usually need to be explained by theory and interpretation of experiments.
* Indicator hypothesis: dominant group may be an indicator of something as yet not understood by the primary author of original research.
* Influence hypothesis: dominant group is included in a primary source article containing original research to indicate influence or an influential phenomenon.
* Interest hypothesis: dominant group is a theoretical entity used by scholarly authors of primary sources for phenomena of interest.
* Metadefinition hypothesis: all uses of dominant group by all primary source authors of original research are included in the metadefinition for dominant group.
* Null hypothesis: there is no significant or special meaning of dominant group in any sentence or figure caption in any refereed journal article.
* Object hypothesis: dominant group is an object within each field where a primary author of original research uses the term.
* Obvious hypothesis: the only meaning of dominant group is the one found in Mosby's Medical Dictionary.
* Original research hypothesis: dominant group is included in a primary source article by the author to indicate that the article contains original research.
* Primordial hypothesis: dominant group is a primordial concept inherent to humans such that every language or other form of communication no matter how old or whether extinct, on the verge of extinction, or not, has at least a synonym for dominant group.
* Purpose hypothesis: dominant group is written into articles by authors for a purpose.
* Regional hypothesis: dominant group, when it occurs, is only a manifestation of the limitations within a region. Variation of those limitations may result in the loss of a dominant group with the eventual appearance of a new one or none at all.
* Source hypothesis: dominant group is a source within each field where a primary author of original research uses the term.
* Term hypothesis: dominant group is a significant term that may require a 'rigorous definition' or application and verification of an empirical definition.

## Sociology

Def. the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society is called sociology.
Def. the "study of society, human social interaction, and the rules and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations, groups, and institutions" is called sociology.

## Society

Def. a "long-standing group of people sharing cultural aspects such as language, dress, norms of behavior and artistic forms" is called a society.
Def. a grouping of individuals which are united by a network of social relations, traditions and may have distinctive culture and institutions is called a society.
"Society may also refer to use exclusively, within the upper class, see high society".
A society, or a human society, is a group of people involved with each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
Def. the scientific study of society, is called sociology.

## Social sciences

Sociology is a social science.
It focuses on "human social activity, social policy and welfare, the theoretical understanding of social processes, microsociology, individual agency and interaction, macrosociology of systems and the social structure, social stratification, social class, social mobility, sociology of religion, secularisation, sociology of law, and deviance, sociology of health, medical sociology, military sociology and ociology of punishment [as in] penal institutions, sociology of the Internet, and the role of social activity in the development of sociology of scientific knowledge.

## Social groups

Def. "[a] collection of humans or animals, who share certain characteristics, interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity" is called a social group.
Consider a group of humans (group P) wielding assault rifles that are shooting at each other with live ammunition. They may share certain characteristics. They are clearly interacting with one another. By shooting live ammunition at each other, each individual is accepting the expectation that they will hit or kill their targets and they are accepting the obligation to shoot at each other. They may share a common identity.
Def. "[a] severe mental disorder, sometimes with physical damage to the brain, marked by a deranged personality and a distorted view of reality" is called a psychosis.
Def. "[a] person affected by psychosis" is called a psychotic.
Def. "[a] person with a personality disorder indicated by a pattern of lying, cunning, manipulating, glibness, exploiting, heedlessness, arrogance, delusions of grandeur, sexual promiscuity, low self-control, disregard for morality, lack of acceptance of responsibility, callousness, and lack of empathy and remorse" is called a psychopath.
To some group P may be a psychotic social group. To others it might be a group of psychopaths. Group P may also contain members of a subordinate group fighting for freedom from a dominant group whose members are also in group P.

## Entities

"White males have long been the dominant group in sociology, and the sociological worldview understandably reflects the concerns of this group of practitioners."

## Sources

"Studies in group-living fish and mammals have shown that dominant group members can control group membership of subordinates, and failure to be accepted into a group or being evicted from a group can be costly for subordinates".

## Controls

"Slaves' masters were obliged to teach their pagan slaves Islam ... as it justified slavery and facilitated the control of a dominant group".
By controlling access to knowledge and resources through the control of space, the "dominant group's ability to retain and reinforce its position is enhanced." "Those with valued knowledge are the most powerful, which buttresses their ability to define their knowledge as the most prestigious and to maintain control of it."

## Despotisms

"Studies in group-living fish and mammals have shown that dominant group members can control group membership of subordinates, and failure to be accepted into a group or being evicted from a group can be costly for subordinates".
"Intragroup marginalization is defined as the perceived interpersonal distancing by members of the heritage culture when an individual displays cultural characteristics of the dominant group."
"We should support [the Dominant Minority Group] in their struggle to build their own successful businesses in this country by consuming their goods and services."
"The creation of an imagined community through artistic representation necessarily entails exclusion of minority groups and interests as the dominant group attempts to create a homogenized identity and national unity". "At times, this exclusion of certain groups may even lead the dominant group to reassert its own identity and power over other groups within that same community through prejudiced actions or policies." "[T]he dominant ethnic group, the Hindus, has often excluded minority ethnic groups, notably Muslims, from this community."
"Members of dominant groups assume that their perceptions are the pertinent perceptions, that their problems are the problems that need to be addressed, and that in discourse they should be the speaker rather than the listener."
There may be enhanced social identification that "can ultimately act as a buffer against the threat of [mainstream] social rejection that discrimination represents." "[M]embers of devalued groups are likely to engage in social creativity by rejecting dominant group standards and instead placing greater emphasis and value on how they differ from the dominant group". "[W]hen confronted with discrimination, disadvantaged group members disidentify with the normative standards of the dominant group and increase the relevance of dimensions on which the ingroup is distinct". "[D]isadvantaged group members who are confronted with discrimination actively distance from the norms of the dominant group".
"[D]ominants performed antennal boxing and biting, while subordinates did not." "[D]ominants ... perform 'sexual calling'". "[D]ominants mated with foreign males". "None of the subordinate workers mated". "[A]n increase in dominance interactions ... [led] to a new group of dominants that eventually laid reproductive eggs." "Only workers that belong to the dominant group will mate and reproduce sexually". For this particular article, the association of "group of dominants" and "dominant group" suggests synonymy.
"A third approach on the part of the dominant group is to celebrate difference: in this approach the group continues to be marginalized and treated as “different.”"
"For the non-dominant group marginalization means renunciation of one's heritage culture as well as the refusal of relationships with the dominant group."
"There is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence that in many countries, members of the economically dominant minority group dislike personal interactions with members of other ethnic groups."
"Oppression and marginalization are intertwined." "Some social and economic opportunities may be open to" [marginalized groups] "because of their similarity to the dominant group."
"For majority group members, the experience of being in a minority enclave will thus tend to have an aggravating effect on attitudes, resulting in defensive intolerance toward the numerically dominant minority group."
Later writers followed Speke in arguing that the Tutsis had originally migrated into the lacustrine region as pastoralists and had established themselves as the dominant group, having lost their language as they assimilated to Bantu culture.
"A rejection–identification model was proposed where stable attributions to prejudice represent rejection by the dominant group." "[R]acial discrimination attributions among African Americans are likely to represent a violation of procedural justice that should evoke hostility toward the dominant group."
"[W]hat is significant for this analysis is that these challenging paradigms (reflecting the increased political power of historically dominated peoples) have focused upon subordinate group victimization and resistance or dominant group mechanisms of oppression".
"A condition of social oppression exists when the following key elements are in place: ... The target group's culture, language, and history is misrepresented, discounted, or eradicated and the dominant group's culture is imposed."
"Interactions with dominant group members may thus provide infants with the raw material for recognizing variation in food quality."
"White males have long been the dominant group in sociology, and the sociological worldview understandably reflects the concerns of this group of practitioners."
"Others reject their cultural context and work against their own best interests by enforcing the dominant group's specialized thought."
"White males have long been the dominant group in sociology, and the sociological worldview understandably reflects the concerns of this group of practitioners."
"Some writers (including Gregor & McPherson, 1966; Morland, 1969; Milner, 1975, p. 93) have argued that the status relations between dominant and subordinate groups determine the latters' identity problems. (By social status we mean a ranking or hierarchy of perceived prestige.)"
"The fights would take place between those without feeding positions and those with, i.e. between a group of subdominants and a group of dominants." "The birds occupying feeding positions would be inside the circle while those without feeding positions would be outside the circle. This means that the dominant group were close together in a confined circle while the subdominants were more widely separated around the outside of that circle."
“The order of feeding and the formation in moving toward food followed the sequence of the interspecific peck order in that the most dominant group fed first, followed by the next in dominance, down the scale.”.
"Nativistic movements tend to arise only when the members of the subject society find that their assumption of the culture of the dominant group is being effectively opposed by it, or that it is not improving their social position."
"We must then study the coercive pressure of the dominant group which stimulated or hindered the explosion."
"This was true because in the historical evolution of the Russian empire the pure Russian Slavic group had been in the main dominant and hence tended to retain control in its own hands."
"Underneath their devout exteriors the priests often acted as agents of the Tsar's police and usually obeyed the dictates of the upper classes. They were men to be feared and obeyed. The dominant group saw to it that the church was subservient to its interests and this inevitably widened the breach between the two classes."
"Unlike groups as characteristically as unlike individual organisms react in unlike ways, and if in close contact tend to have conflict. Consequently the dominant group erects a binder of coercive pressure about the other."
"The insulting intimation that profitable trade with Russia is so important in the American mind that we would permit our own institutions to be undermined and destroyed and our liberties submerged if we can but have access to that trade only reflects the brutal, materialistic conceptions of the dominant group in Russia."
"The sex codes of the Puritan or the Hebrew, the military demands of the classic patriotism, the ancestor-cult of the Chinese, the marriage-lot advocated by Plato, the intimately regulated rabbit-hutch kind of home demanded by the mediaeval religions, and the human stock-farm of the extreme eugenist or birth-control advocate - all these involve interference in the family relation by a dominant group claiming superior wisdom and demanding an artificial birth-rate."
"Thrasymachus's definition of justice as the interests of the stronger, finds its modern form in the definition of right as the will of the sovereign, of the people, or of the dominant group."

## Discriminations

"The dominant group gains from discrimination, rationalizing why a majority may be reluctant to eliminate discrimination."
"In this deethnicized context, claims of “reverse” discrimination against the dominant group are given equal (or even greater) standing with claims of discrimination by members of subordinate groups."
"A rejection–identification model was proposed where stable attributions to prejudice represent rejection by the dominant group." "[R]acial discrimination attributions among African Americans are likely to represent a violation of procedural justice that should evoke hostility toward the dominant group."

## Hegemonies

Hegemony is the ""political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over other groups, regardless of the explicit consent of the latter" (Upton et al. 2001)."
"But once this dominant group has been deposed, other producers take their place and can assert their hegemony, drawing authority away from consumers by a process of de-commodification."
"The strategic use of dominant group identity and its role in the reproduction of group hegemony are a third focal issue, for the sociological significance of dominant group ethnicity stems from its use in intergroup resource competition."
"Insofar as the culture of the dominant group is seen as the 'norm,' then awareness and sensitivity cannot be built without first recognizing the hegemony of the values, traditions, symbols, and governance of that group and its relationship to minority groups."

## Imperialisms

"Early in Linguistic Imperialism Phillipson makes the distinction between core English-speaking countries, in which the dominant group consists of distinction native speakers of English. e.g.. Britain and the USA (Kachru’s ‘inner’ circle) and periphery-English countries."
"Esman asserts that regimes committed to the dominance of one communal group at the expense of another (or others) will "always use three methods of conflict mangaement": 1) proscribe or closely control the political expression of collective interest among dominated groups, 2) prohibit entry by members of dominated groups into the dominant community, and 3) provide monopoly or preferential access for members of the dominant group to political participation, advanced education, economic opportunities, and symbols of status such as official language, the flag, national heroes, and holidays, which reinforce the political, economic, and psychic control of the dominant group." "Esman emphasizes that, though "basically coercive ..., a network of controls for maintaining hegemony is often highly sophisticated and deeply institutionalized."" "Control is a concept that plays a central role in the study of many political phenomena, but only one body of theory and empirical evidence has significantly influenced the study of control relations in deeply divided societies, namely, that associated with the study of overseas European imperialism."
"According to Young (1990), cultural imperialism “involves the universalization of a dominant group’s experience and culture, and its establishment as the norm” (p. 59). Furthermore, the dominant group makes the “other” group feel insignificant to the point of being “invisible.” This invisibility is created when the dominant group fails to understand or cannot identify with the perspective of the “other” group (Young)."

## Influences

"[O]nly dominant group members who derive a sense of belonging and social value from their membership in the dominant ingroup should be motivated by group-based identity concerns to show signs of defensiveness in response to external explanations."
"As a result, in societies in which group dominance is evident, there is likely to be a perception that there are not enough valued resources to go around, fueling the belief that groups are chronically competing for valued and scarce resources. Dominant group members are especially likely to be high in Social Dominance Orientation and to hold a belief in zero-sum competition between groups because it is in their interests to maintain the hierarchy (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999; Duckitt, ch. 24 this volume)."
"Just as is the case with humans, in at least some species of nonhuman primates such as chimpanzees, dominant group members regularly adopt postures that make them appear as large as possible".
"Feminists criticized the idea of 'universal man' and his transhistorical rationality; what has been claimed to be true for 'man' and 'reason' is in fact characteristic (at best) only of men in the dominant groups in the West and the forms of reason that they favour." "They simply are the subjectivities who have experience that provides the raw material for creating dominant group conceptions of knowledge and history."
“A concern for how socially dominant groups attempt to influence the interests and preferences of subordinate groups and how subordinate groups attempt to resist domination and to achieve autonomy was at the core of Antonio Gramsci’s sociology of religion.”
"Such a relationship may just as well result in the adoption of the dominant group's language as a lingua franca without significant pidginisation."
"[A]n art object expresses the interests and ideas of a particular social group even where the work seems to claim an aesthetic transcendence" "In one of its definitions, ideology is a set of ideas and values that reflect the interest of the dominant group within a given social order."
"We must also remember that every art object may simultaneously serve several purposes or functions." "He would say that aesthetic preference plays a part in cultural supremacy and that sometimes the taste of the dominant group is an aggressive assertion of mastery."
"[U]nless and until a rigorous definition of the term 'dominant group' is rendered, the argument fails to establish its conclusion due to the fact that one of its premises is meaningless."
"The dominant group's definition of its permeability is the controlling variable that determines the nature of the social field."
"Of the meaning of 'dominant group' he writes: 'Now when a technical word is coined to designate some non-linguistic phenomenon, or when a word (such as 'dominant') is taken over from ordinary speech and used to designate the phenomenon, a new semantic rule is required. Otherwise, the range of application of the word will be unspecified.'"
"Now when a technical word is coined to designate some non-linguistic phenomenon, or when a word (such as 'dominant') is taken over from ordinary speech and used to designate the phenomenon, a new semantic rule is required. Otherwise, the range of application of the word will be unspecified."
“When intelligibility is non-reciprocal, the language or dialect spoken by the culturally dominant group, or the language or dialect with the greater functional value, seems to be the preferred medium for interlingual communication.”
Crime “means simply those varieties of behavior or of manifest allegiance which are so experienced by dominant group elements as to touch off the ultimate or primitive defensive responses in question.”
“The dominant group was differentiated by a higher socio-economic status, greater independence, stronger identification with the father than the mother, less association with adults and with girls, and more with older children.”
“The single exception is the case of Baptist parentage. But this again checks the previously observed item of distribution in the United States where we found the South was far behind in its quota. Baptists are probably the dominant group in this region.”
“It is easy, furthermore, to predict quite accurately within the dominant group on the basis of mental ability, roughly, at least, that a member of this group will excel submissive persons in academic endeavors.”
"Further, with the increasing fulfilment of people's instinctive desires in worldly reality, those controlling the church extend its appeal to include interests not primarily spiritual, in order to increase or maintain solidarity, mass, and influence, and thus serve the purpose of the dominant group."
"Without intending to imply that the less influential members were divided on the question in the same ratio as these twenty-five, or that due respect should not be paid to the priciple of simple majority rule, it is illuminating to discover haw many of this dominant group are found on record in favor of the proposition that the judiciary would in the natural course of things pass upon the constitutionality of acts of Congress."

## Knowledge

"Others reject their cultural context and work against their own best interests by enforcing the dominant group's specialized thought." "By objectifying African-American women and recasting our experiences to serve the interests of elite white men, much of the Eurocentric masculinist world-view fosters Black women's subordination."
"Feminists criticized the idea of 'universal man' and his transhistorical rationality; what has been claimed to be true for 'man' and 'reason' is in fact characteristic (at best) only of men in the dominant groups in the West and the forms of reason that they favour." "They simply are the subjectivities who have experience that provides the raw material for creating dominant group conceptions of knowledge and history."
"As I have argued at length elsewhere, the political Right in the United States has been very successful in mobilizing support against the educational system and its employees, often placing responsibility for the crisis in the economy on the schools. Thus, one of its major achievements has been to shift the blame for unemployment and underemployment, for the loss of economic competitiveness, and for the supposed breakdown of traditional values and standards in the family, education, and paid and unpaid work places from the economic, cultural, and social policies and effects of dominant groups to the school and other public agencies."
"In essence, then, four trends have characterized the conservative restoration both in the United States and in Britain: privatization, centralization, vocationalization, and differentiation."
"The current call to “return” to a “common culture” in which all students are to be given the values of a specific group-usually the dominant group-does not in my mind concern a common culture at all."

## Marginalizations

"For the non-dominant group marginalization means renunciation of one's heritage culture as well as the refusal of relationships with the dominant group."
"Oppression and marginalization are intertwined." "Some social and economic opportunities may be open to" [marginalized groups] "because of their similarity to the dominant group."
"Intragroup marginalization is defined as the perceived interpersonal distancing by members of the heritage culture when an individual displays cultural characteristics of the dominant group."
"A third approach on the part of the dominant group is to celebrate difference: in this approach the group continues to be marginalized and treated as “different.”"
“Contact between a dominant group and a subordinate group results, through miscegenation, in a third group midway between the two parent-stocks.”
“Liberalism in the dominant group has been a factor in relieving his tension and reassuring him that things will be better after a while, and philanthropy has relieved him of some of the necessity of relying upon his own efforts.”
“The final outcome may be a new social framework; if assimilation is facilitated, the minority may be incorporated into the dominant group, or become the dominant group, and the cycle ends.”
“Indigenous peoples were compelled to work or produce for the dominant group; the "culture system" of Java and the “peonage” system of the Spanish colonies form the outstanding instances of this.”
“Where there is a subordination-domination relationship between two groups, a member of the subordinate group may identify himself with the dominant group, having taken over its culture, but he is not accepted by the latter and instead is categorized within the subordinate”.
“Four years later, in October 1938, the Radicals became the dominant group in the Popular Front”.
“If caste values and attitudes mean anything at all, they mean that offenses by or against Negroes will be defined not so much in terms of their intrinsic seriousness as in terms of their importance in the eyes of the dominant group.”
“[T]wo second-generation groups whose situation so far as cultural differences between them and the dominant group is concerned, is constant”.
“Each dominant group-be they cattle kings, mining companies, cotton capitalists, or Brahmin merchants-has carefully watched the outside influences which might affect, for good or evil, its position.”

## Oppression

"[W]hat is significant for this analysis is that these challenging paradigms (reflecting the increased political power of historically dominated peoples) have focused upon subordinate group victimization and resistance or dominant group mechanisms of oppression".
"Members of dominant groups assume that their perceptions are the pertinent perceptions, that their problems are the problems that need to be addressed, and that in discourse they should be the speaker rather than the listener." "[P]rivileged group members can rely on this privilege to avoid objecting to oppression or subordination." "The conflation of privilege with the societal norm and this option to ignore oppression contribute to the invisibility of that privilege both to its holder and to society."
"A condition of social oppression exists when the following key elements are in place: ... The target group's culture, language, and history is misrepresented, discounted, or eradicated and the dominant group's culture is imposed." "In an oppressive society the cultural perspective of the dominant groups is imposed on institutions by individuals and on individuals by institutions." "Agents are members of dominant social groups privileged by birth or acquisition, who knowingly or unknowingly exploit and reap unfair advantage over members of target groups. Members of agent groups are also trapped by the system of social oppression that benefits them, and are confined to roles and prescribed behavior for their group."

## Power

In sociology, the term "dominant group" and its definition may be associated with additional words that may not seem to be immediately or closely synonymous with "dominant". Words like "power", "order" (social order), "possesses", "resources", "privileges", "ability", "construct", and "impose".
For "power", the most common usage is category "156. POWER, POTENCY" which is most closely synonymous with physical power. But, close synonyms overlap with categories also closely synonymous with "dominant".
Synonyms for "power" that overlap with "dominant". :
| Synonym | Category Number | Category Title |
| “influential” | 171 | INFLUENCE |
| “magnate” | 670 | IMPORTANCE |
| “control” | 739 | GOVERNMENT |
"[T]he power of a dominant group lies in its ability to control constructions of reality that reinforce its own status so that subordinate groups accept the social order and their own place in it."
"Ability" and "power" are close synonyms. It is not ability in the sense of "qualification" or "skill".
"Order" (or social order) has more in common with the term "group", than with "dominant".
Synonyms for "order" that overlap with "group". :
| Synonym | Category Number | Category Title |
| “arrange” | 60 | ARRANGEMENT |
| “class” | 61 | CLASS |
| “society” | 786 | ASSOCIATION |
| “sect” | 1018 | RELIGIONS, CULTS, SECTS |
"[A] group is dominant if it possesses a disproportionate share of societal resources, privileges, and power."
"Possesses", "resources", and "privileges" have little or nothing in synonymy with "dominant" or "group", but the key word is "disproportionate" which has close synonymy with "31. INEQUALITY". "Inequality" is a legal term that may address the source of "power".
"Racial boundaries reflect relations of power, in particular the ability of the dominant group to construct and impose definitions upon others."
"Construct" has little or nothing in synonymy with "dominant" or "group". But, "impose" means "inflict upon", which may come about from "power" or "disproportionate" "power".
Hegemony is the ""political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over other groups, regardless of the explicit consent of the latter" (Upton et al. 2001)."
The League of Nations failed to achieve “corporate unity to overcome the conflicts of nationalistic interest within the dominant group of the Great Powers.”

## Privileges

"In both cases it might be possible to draw a line which would include these Slovene communities in the new state without encroaching upon the dominant German elements; but it is not to be assumed offhand that all such minorities would desire the alteration of traditional administrative boundaries where they have shared in the privileges of the dominant group."
"The partisan quality, however, shown in the extreme to which the author has thus gone in holding to one dominant group of biological assumptions and conclusions (for the two are hard to distinguish), is precisely what gives to his work its chief significance." "Now modern biology, from a new standpoint and with new significance, reasserts the privilege of birth."
"[A] group is dominant if it possesses a disproportionate share of societal resources, privileges, and power."
From the article titled: "Power, racism, and privilege: race relations in theoretical and sociohistorical perspectives" is "The major attraction of nationalist movements is that parallel institutions or societies could be established free of, or removed from, dominant-group control."

## Resources

"Dominant Group Ethnic Identity in the United States: The Role of “Hidden’ Ethnicity in Intergroup Relations". "For purposes of this analysis, I define a dominant ethnic group as the ethnic group in a society that exercises power to create and maintain a pattern of economic, political, and institutional advantage, which in turn results in the unequal (disproportionately beneficial to the dominant group) distribution of resources."
"[D]eprived groups are not always ethnocentric in the simple meaning of the term; they may, in fact, be positively oriented toward the depriving [dominant] out-group." "Some writers (including Gregor & McPherson, 1966; Morland, 1969; Milner, 1975, p. 93) have argued that the status relations between dominant and subordinate groups determine the latters' identity problems. (By social status we mean a ranking or hierarchy of perceived prestige.)" "Consensual status itself - where subjective and accorded prestige are identical - is problematic for the R.C.T., which conceptualizes prestige as a scarce resource, like wealth or power." R.C.T. denotes "realistic group conflict theory".
"As a result, in societies in which group dominance is evident, there is likely to be a perception that there are not enough valued resources to go around, fueling the belief that groups are chronically competing for valued and scarce resources. Dominant group members are especially likely to be high in Social Dominance Orientation and to hold a belief in zero-sum competition between groups because it is in their interests to maintain the hierarchy (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999; Duckitt, ch. 24 this volume)."

## Superiorities

One group is "placed in a position of economic and communicative superiority: Its products were more valuable than those of the other two groups, and all trade had to be conducted through it." "The results showed that although the dominant group earned more than the other two groups, all groups increased their earnings over the successive generations."
“The dominant group is taken with superiority and the image of spreading their ideas to others.”
"We must also remember that every art object may simultaneously serve several purposes or functions." "He would say that aesthetic preference plays a part in cultural supremacy and that sometimes the taste of the dominant group is an aggressive assertion of mastery."
"Nativistic movements tend to arise only when the members of the subject society find that their assumption of the culture of the dominant group is being effectively opposed by it, or that it is not improving their social position."

## Objects

Dominant groups may be objectified, for example, as elites.
"At this point in the development of gender studies, the masculinities of older men have been subordinated to the concerted effort to understand middle-aged and younger men's lives, who are, as Ortega y Gasset (1958) suggests, "the dominant" group."

## Elites

"Borrowing a phrase from Useem (1984), we shall refer to persons who sit on the top governing boards of two or more policy-planning groups as the "inner circle" of the policy-planning elite."
"The evidence in this table [Table 4] is consistent with the claims of those who view business leaders as the dominant group within the policy-planning establishment. Of those persons who hold leadership positions in two or more policy-planning groups, over 90 percent are top corporate executives."
"By admitting new elites to The Establishment, the members of the old land-based aristocracy retained ascriptive rights to diffuse elite status."
"Elitism in the status hierarchy has its dysfunctions as well as its functions."
"It includes rejection of behavior patterns associated with one's own group as uncouth, negative judgments concerning the value of occupational roles characteristic of the group, and the desire to leave one's group and "pass" into a dominant group."
"[B]ecause political democracies generally arise from a compromise between contending organized elites that are unstable to impose their will unilaterally or the unilateral action of one dominant group, usually the armed forces, this does not bode well for democratization in situations in which the armed forces are inextricably tied to the interests of a dominant (and antidemocratic) agrarian class."

## Masters

"Slaves' masters were obliged to teach their pagan slaves Islam ... as it justified slavery and facilitated the control of a dominant group". "Slave owners were Africans". "Although most and the biggest slave owners on the coast and islands were Muslims, there were also Christians and native Africans who were slave owners."
“There, Dr. Flint, the slave master, certainly rises to the task of effectively representing the group of autocratic slave owners. And he demonstrated that the dominant group can also take on the burden of representation.”
"[A] group is dominant if it possesses a disproportionate share of societal resources, privileges, and power."
"When the pattern is imposed by the dominant group, segregation to keep people in “their place” appears."
"Borrowing a phrase from Useem (1984), we shall refer to persons who sit on the top governing boards of two or more policy-planning groups as the "inner circle" of the policy-planning elite." "The evidence in this table [Table 4] is consistent with the claims of those who view business leaders as the dominant group within the policy-planning establishment. Of those persons who hold leadership positions in two or more policy-planning groups, over 90 percent are top corporate executives."
"[B]ecause political democracies generally arise from a compromise between contending organized elites that are unstable to impose their will unilaterally or the unilateral action of one dominant group, usually the armed forces, this does not bode well for democratization in situations in which the armed forces are inextricably tied to the interests of a dominant (and antidemocratic) agrarian class."
"But in most Third World countries, these differences are tremendously accentuated by the fact that a small, dominant group not only owns the means of production but also dominates the higher echelons of the state apparatus, including the technocratic elite."
"The entry of newcomers is largely controlled by the "seen needs" of the economy directed by the dominant group. They are then encouraged to operate in intermediate roles between elite and masses."
"By admitting new elites to The Establishment, the members of the old land-based aristocracy retained ascriptive rights to diffuse elite status." "It includes rejection of behavior patterns associated with one's own group as uncouth, negative judgments concerning the value of occupational roles characteristic of the group, and the desire to leave one's group and "pass" into a dominant group."
"It is but natural that when aristocratic ideals should impose themselves upon any polity the art of that polity should reflect the taste, the culture, the ways of life, and the very being of the dominant classes."
“At any rate, here is confirmation of the thesis that art voices the will of the dominant group in society.”
"The partisan quality, however, shown in the extreme to which the author has thus gone in holding to one dominant group of biological assumptions and conclusions (for the two are hard to distinguish), is precisely what gives to his work its chief significance." "Now modern biology, from a new standpoint and with new significance, reasserts the privilege of birth."
“The very fact that he possesses features which to a certain extent serve to identify him, both in his mind and the public eye, with the dominant group, is an indication that his place is relatively uncertain.”

## Minorities

"A dominant minority is a minority group that has overwhelming political, economic or cultural dominance in a country despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority). Dominant minority is also known as alien elites if they are recent immigrants."
"Also, in the course of Haiti's first free and fair election, Jean-Bertrand Aristide rose to power by rallying the poor majority behind his organization while openly criticizing the elites of the country (mostly white and mulatto); elites of the minority were very sensitive to his populist stance and viewed him as hostile, and the leaders of the elite (such as the Group of 184 and Convergence Démocratique organizations) openly accused Aristide of fomenting class war and even claimed he was permitting popular violence against the elite. Both of Aristide's elected terms were interrupted (and in the second case, terminated altogether) by violent coups orchestrated by the dominant elite."
"Market-dominant minority are cases of situations where a minority group has had disproportionate representation in economically powerful positions and has achieved higher incomes than the majority community." "For majority group members, the experience of being in a minority enclave will thus tend to have an aggravating effect on attitudes, resulting in defensive intolerance toward the numerically dominant minority group."
"These new strains, moreover, may generate a minority within another minority group a multiple minority group, so that the "outsider" becomes the "dominant" minority group as well as the "majority"."
"There is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence that in many countries, members of the economically dominant minority group dislike personal interactions with members of other ethnic groups."
"We should support [the Dominant Minority Group] in their struggle to build their own successful businesses in this country by consuming their goods and services."
"While black groups were the dominant minority interest group force in access to Jimmy Carter, they have been replaced by hispanics/latinos as the dominant minority group for the Reagan Administration in terms of access."

## Radiation

"Such a relationship may just as well result in the adoption of the dominant group's language as a lingua franca without significant pidginisation."
"Nativistic movements tend to arise only when the members of the subject society find that their assumption of the culture of the dominant group is being effectively opposed by it, or that it is not improving their social position."
"And, secondly, the pigeons are a "dominant" group; that is to say, the pigeon family is found all over the world, it has evolved into a large number of species, and the number of its individual members is enormous."

## Synonyms

The term "dominant group" appears to be used in sociology to identify entities of importance. The relative synonyms of "dominant group" fall into the following set of orderable pairs:
Genera differentia for "dominant group" :
| Synonym for "dominant" | Category Number | Category Title | Synonym for "group" | Category Number | Catgeory Title |
| “superior” | 36 | SUPERIORITY | "arrangement" | 60 | ARRANGEMENT |
| “influential” | 171 | INFLUENCE | "class" | 61 | CLASSIFICATION |
| “musical note” | 462 | HARMONICS | "assembly" | 74 | ASSEMBLAGE |
| “most important” | 670 | IMPORTANCE | "size" | 194 | SIZE |
| “governing” | 739 | GOVERNMENT | "painting", "grouping" | 572 | ART |
| "master" | 747 | MASTER | "association", "set" | 786 | ASSOCIATION |
| ----- | --- | ------- | "sect" | 1018 | RELIGIONS, CULTS, SECTS |
'Orderable' means that any synonym from within the first category can be ordered with any synonym from the second category to form an alternate term for "dominant group"; for example, "superior class", "influential sect", "master assembly", "most important group", and "dominant painting". "Dominant" falls into category 171. "Group" is in category 61. Further, any word which has its most or much more common usage within these categories may also form an alternate term, such as "ruling group", where "ruling" has its most common usage in category 739, or "dominant party", where "party" is in category 74. "Taxon" or "taxa" are like "species" in category 61. "Society" is in category 786 so there is a "dominant society".

## Hypotheses

* A dominant society is usually less successful than an egalitarian one.