The hereditary elite are often ardent keepers of tradition. They perform roles prescribed by custom. Members of the elite hold to the rituals of their station by preference in most cases because the rights and privileges are desirable, but they also held to the rituals because they are duty bound to do so by the culture in which they operate. They provide a point of reference by which each man can measure his own status and gauge many of his actions. Describing symbolic hereditary destinations.
Every social system has some modifications of the gradations so clear visible in a feudal system.
An hereditary elite is directly powerful in those states and communities in which authority is an integral vestment of office. In such places, law and institutional sanctions butress habit and custom to make the system operative. In other areas the hereditary elite may be divested of direct authority and serve only as symbols of the ruling authority. English rulers are the usual example of the latter situation. These monarchs are used as symbols for the political purposes of the ruling ministries.