Sociology 103 Take Home Questions 1. Ethnic stratification is a rank order of groups, each made up of people with presumed common cultural or physical characteristics interacting in patterns of dominance and subordination. To begin with, all systems of ethnic stratification are products of the contact of previously separated groups. Initial contact may be in the form of conquest, annexation, voluntary immigration, or involuntary immigration. Following contact, groups engage in competition, view one another ethnocentrically, and, ultimately, …showed first 75 words of 1147 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1147 total…once established, the dominant group uses its power to obstruct the competition of other groups and to solidify dominance. In the end, differential power among the various groups is the most critical of the requirements for the emergence of ethnic stratification. Noel’s theory postulates that competition for scarce resources provides the motivation for stratification, ethnocentrism channels this competition along ethnic lines, and differential power determines whether one group will be able to subordinate others.