Historically, societies have exhibited a variety of stratification systems. A stratification system is the overlapping manner in which societal members are ranked into classes, status groups and hierarchies of power. To distinguish among them, social scientists use models, abstract conceptions that they place on a particular continuum. At one extreme of the continuum is the closed, or caste, stratification system. The middle is represented by the estate system. At the other extreme is the open, or class, system.

The Closed Society: Caste

Whether a society has an open or a closed stratification system is determined by the way its members obtain wealth, prestige and privilege. In a closed, or caste, stratification system, class, status and power are ascribed, that is, determined strictly on the basis of family inheritance rather than individual effort or merit. In a closed society, the individual is born into a specific social stratum, called a caste, and has no opportunity to move in or out of it.

Classical India offers a glaring example of a closed society. The case system that languished in India for centuries was distinguished by the fact that people were divided into a number of castes, representing areas of service to society and ranked in order of their so-called importance to it. Some ranking also resulted from struggles for power or conquest by other groups. Religion and tradition forbade members of one caste to intermarry or interact in any way with members of other castes. Each caste was restricted in occupation and the status of each individual was ascribed, so that a person inherited a specific social position and was unable to change it regardless of effort or achievement. Only a limited number of people, particularly if they exhibited extraordinary military prowess, were able to attain a higher caste, although disobeying certain norms could plunge a person into a lower one. The caste system has been legally abolished in modern India, which has been deeply influenced by Western democratic thought, but many Indians, in rural areas to a larger extent and urban areas to some extent, still follow some elements of the caste system that for so long had been justified by religion and traditional mores.

The Estate System

The estate system was the economic and social system of feudal Europe and, in different forms, has characterized a number of nations in Asia. As in the caste system, in the estate system of stratification, social positions were also ranked according to their functions; however, in theory, all the estates were considered equal in importance. The three main estates were: (i) the nobility, (ii) the church (religion) and (iii) the peasants, and within each estate there was a stratified hierarchy of positions.