Stratification in Society - Analogy of the Antelope
Channel: Daily Insight
Date: 24/05/2017

Social stratification is a term often used by social scientists and anthropologists to describe the phenomenon where people are placed into discrete categories based on factors such as wealth, income, social status, occupation, kinship, and power. Sometimes theses categories are completely arbitrary such as the caste system used in India. In this system, if you are born into the labouring class, you will die a labourer. Analogy of the Antelope. Let’s imagine a herd of antelope (pick your favourite species) grazing in an African savannah. They keep together for protection, but otherwise feed freely on the grasses and plant-life surrounding them. Occasionally there is a scuffle between males to show the females who is more deserving of their affection. However, this is usually not fatal and is more for show than anything else. Now imagine if one of the antelope of the herd decided to claim the grassland as his own. He lets the other antelope know that his area is off-limits, and anybody wishing to feed there would have to gain his permission. Now of course in real life, the other antelope would simply ignore him, or move a few metres away and continue grazing. What can he do? He can’t attack us all, right? But this self-proclaimed “Owner of the Grassland” is more cunning than the other antelope... Stratification in Human Society. The Analogy of the Antelope sounds ridiculous, right? Why would antelope give up their feeding rights just to appease a single leader? Of course, in reality, they wouldn’t. No animal would allow other members of the same species to starve, or at least, they wouldn’t have the power to enforce such a rule. But in human society, that’s exactly what happens, even to this day.

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