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Social Stratification

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What is Social Stratification?
Social Stratification Is a sociological term for the hierarchical arrangement of social classes, castes, and strata within a society. It refers to differential access to resources, power, autonomy, and status across social groups. Social stratification implies social inequality; if some groups have access to more resources than other; the distribution of those resources is inherently unequal. Societies can be stratified on any number of dimensions. In the United States, the most widely recognized stratification systems are based on race, social class, and gender.
Social Stratification on Health Jamaica
Throughout history and even today Race and Class has placed a major impact on the identity of Jamaicans. “Race has been used to render ethnicity” (Austin-Bross, D.2006 Pg 213). Class, however is a social construct that is used to group people into a hierarchy of social stratification. Included are upper, middle, lower and newly stratified ‘working class’. Due to such stratification, persons of the ideal race and class are viewed as superior. Jamaicans have lost their identity and it has also encouraged low self esteems and confidence.
Black persons from the lower class has been discriminated against and put to shame. This was the case during the slavery period and even today. Ideologies of the ‘right’ class and race originated from white plantation owners who viewed black people as ‘property.
Between 1658 and 1798, approximately 281,000 slaves were imported to Jamaica. Thousands died in the middle passage or became ill and died after arrival. The period of adjustment to plantation conditions known as “seasoning” took one to three years. This period was accompanied by mortality rates of 1/4 to 1/3 of the slaves being “seasoned”. Epidemics were common on plantations and as many as half the slaves died. At Worthy Park Estates, of

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