Others who do not come up to their level are ranked lower with less rewards and honour. In other words, those who perform well in terms of society’s value system are ranked higher with corresponding rewards and prestige. Given this process of evaluation, it serves to differentiate individual members and groups in a rank-order. Men tend to evaluate themselves and others according to whether they conform to the norms or not. Parsons shows that every society has certain specific norms and fundamental values, to which the members of that society have to conform. According to Parsons, the stratification system is a generalized aspect of the structure of society, and hence is guided by its value-system. He observes that order, stability and co-operation in society emanate from value consensus, i.e., general agreement by members of a society concerning what is good and worthwhile. The first contribution to the debate on stratification was made by Talcott Parsons (1940) in America. What these scholars have shown is that social stratification inevitably occurs in all societies because it serves “vital functions” for their survival and coherent functioning. The functional theory of social stratification, which has been put forward by Parsons, and Davis and Moore, has in fact its roots in Durkheim’s functionalist stance in his studies of religion and division of labour. Division of labour is thus functional for society. In other words, division of labour emerges because it brings order where endless competition may otherwise destroy social life.
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