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Systems of Social Stratification 195

South Africa. In South Africa, Europeans of Dutch descent, a numerical minority
called Afrikaners, used to control the government, the police, and the military. They
used these sources of power to enforce a system called apartheid (ah-PAR-tate), the
separation of the races. Everyone was classified by law into one of four groups: Europeans
(whites), Africans (blacks), Coloureds (mixed races), and Asians. These classifications
determined where people could live, work, and go to school. It also established where
they could swim or see movies; by law, whites and the others were not allowed to mix
socially.
Listen to what an Anglican priest observed when he arrived in South Africa:

I went to the post office to send my mother a letter telling her that I had arrived safely.
There were two entrances, one marked “Whites only” and the other, “Non-whites.” . . .
Durban is a seaside city and so I went off to explore the beach. There I discovered that
even the sea was divided by race. The most beautiful beaches were where white people could
swim; there was another for people of Indian descent, still another for people of mixed race,
and far, far away, one for Africans. (Lapsley 2012)

After years of trade sanctions and sports boycotts, in 1990, Afrikaners began to
dismantle their caste system, and in 1994, Nelson Mandela, a black, was elected
president. Black Africans no longer have to carry special passes, public facilities are
integrated, and all racial–ethnic groups have the right to vote and to hold office.
Although apartheid has been dismantled, its legacy haunts South Africa. Whites still
dominate the country’s social institutions, and most blacks remain uneducated and
poor. Many new rights—such as the rights to higher education, to eat in restaurants,
even to see a doctor—are of little use to people who can’t afford them. Political vio-
lence has been replaced by old-fashioned crime. Even though the U.S. murder rate is
so high it intimidates foreigners, South Africa’s murder rate is six times higher (South
African Police Service 2013; Statistical Abstract 2013:Table 312). Apartheid’s legacy
of prejudice, bitterness, and hatred appears destined to fuel racial tensions for genera-
tions to come.
A U.S. Racial Caste System. Before leaving the subject of caste, we should note that
when slavery ended in the United States, it was replaced by a racial caste system. From
the moment of birth, race marked everyone for life (Berger 1963/2014). All whites,
even if they were poor and uneducated, considered themselves to have a higher status
than all African Americans. As in India and South Africa, the upper caste, fearing pollu-
tion from the lower caste, made intermarriage illegal. There were also separate schools,
hotels, restaurants, and even toilets and drinking fountains for blacks and whites. In the
South, when any white met any African American on a sidewalk, the African American
had to move aside. The untouchables of India still must do this when they meet some-
one of a higher caste (Deliege 2001).
To see more parallels between the caste systems of the United States and India, see
the Global Glimpse box on the next page.
Estate

During the middle ages, Europe developed an estate stratification system. There
were three groups, or estates. The first estate was made up of the nobility, the wealthy
families who ruled the country. This group owned the land, which was the source of
wealth at that time. The nobility did no farming themselves, or any “work,” for that
matter. Work was considered beneath their dignity, something to be done by servants. apartheid the separation of
The nobility’s responsibility was to administer their lands, to defend the king (and, racial–ethnic groups as was prac-
in doing so, their own position), and to live “genteel” lives worthy of their high ticed in South Africa
position. estate stratification system the
The second estate consisted of the clergy. The Roman Catholic Church was a political stratification system of medieval
power at this time. It also owned vast amounts of land and collected taxes from everyone Europe, consisting of three groups
who lived within the boundaries of a parish. The church’s power was so great that in or estates: the nobility, clergy, and
order to be crowned, kings had to obtain the pope’s permission. commoners