Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Striving for Community
- 3 Discontents Revisited
- 4 Social Judgments and Social Contexts
- 5 The Development of Moral and Social Judgments
- 6 Social Thought and Social Action
- 7 Social Harmony and Social Conflict
- 8 Justice, Heterogeneity, and Cultural Practices
- 9 Social Hierarchy, Subordination, and Human Capabilities
- 10 Perspectives on Cultural Practices: More Than One
- 11 Subversion in Everyday Life
- 12 Conclusion
- References
- Index
9 - Social Hierarchy, Subordination, and Human Capabilities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Striving for Community
- 3 Discontents Revisited
- 4 Social Judgments and Social Contexts
- 5 The Development of Moral and Social Judgments
- 6 Social Thought and Social Action
- 7 Social Harmony and Social Conflict
- 8 Justice, Heterogeneity, and Cultural Practices
- 9 Social Hierarchy, Subordination, and Human Capabilities
- 10 Perspectives on Cultural Practices: More Than One
- 11 Subversion in Everyday Life
- 12 Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
The philosophical and anthropological themes I considered in the previous chapter lead to four propositions pertaining to individual thought and culture. The first is that there are variations in judgments and social orientations within cultures. For instance, a mixture of individualism and collectivism is typical in most social relationships. Second, the mixture of orientations is not solely a matter of estimating how much of one or the other. Both orientations are central in social relationships, and they are systematically connected to social arrangements of power and dominance and subordination. In particular, independence and autonomy is accorded to those in positions of power and dominance, which is buttressed by attributions of interdependence and role obligations to those in subordinate positions. Many cultural practices serve to regulate relationships of power, such as those granting males control over the activities of females. Cultural practices can also serve to distance, isolate, or exclude groups of people from decision making and classes of activities. The third is that the inequalities and asymmetrical reciprocity implicit in the differential distribution of power and resources reflected in different attributions of autonomy and dependence are not shared across a culture. These result in conflicts and disagreements between people in different positions, as well as discontents among people in lower positions in the social hierarchy. People in subordinate positions make moral judgments about existing social arrangements and assert their prerogatives to personal entitlements and autonomy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Culture of MoralitySocial Development, Context, and Conflict, pp. 199 - 222Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002