Social Stratification
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2022-03-18T17:58:18-07:00
Haiti is a country with a diverse cultural background that has been cultivated into its society. Its population is made up of two basic ethnic groups consisting of 95% black and 5% mulatto and white people (Haiti At A Glance). This allows for Haitian society to be ultimately split into two with a distinct unequal social gap in relation to race and opportunities. When Haiti was a French colony in the late 1600’s, it developed a social hierarchy that was “composed of two clearly delineated classes, the “elite and the noirs” (John Lobb). The elite class is made up of wealthy white people that control the country's economic resources and politics. On the other hand, the “noirs' ' which are the lower working class who provide the labor reside in extreme poverty lines. Even though the Haitian revolution allowed the slaves to be freed, the class distinction was still evident in haitian society. Due to its history and experience, this has created a high amount of inequality due to geographical and economical factors. The geographical aspect is the internal distribution of the country's population is mostly rural living below Haiti’s poverty line. “The gap between the urban and rural populations in Haiti is stark: almost 70% of rural households are considered chronically poor, against a little over 20% in cities'' (The World Bank). This distribution creates a clear wealth gap between the working black class and the elites made up of white and mulattos. The social stratification based on income and race, divides the country into two spectrums that makes social hierarchy and white elitism present.
On the other hand, although Taiwan’s social stratification is also based on ethnicity and income, its economy has a higher performance which allows for the emergence of the middle class. Education in the country is a dominant determinant of a person's status as it allows people to move up. In Haiti, access to educational systems for the low class is very rare which makes it harder to ascend and progress. Taiwan’s social hierarchy has Chinese origins as “society is hierarchical and class-orientated, though it is egalitarian in the sense that one has the opportunity to advance socially through education” (Britannica). Moreover, it is an immigrant society that is primarily based on core blood relationships which means that the “status of group members is determined by their position in lineage maps” (Chen). This highlights the correlation between power and resources with elements such as nepotism in society. Their social stratification is also based on religious beliefs such as the foundations of Confucianism which advocates that the natural inequality of social hierarchy is accepted in relationships between individuals and in society (Cultural Atlas). This impacts people's role and identity in society and permits the creation of a social structure.
