Inequality

1. Is Inequality a Natural Part of Human Culture? –Inequality is present in almost every society. A large contributor of inequality is an individual’s social class.

a. Egalitarian Societies: As far as history goes back, every individual’s economic and social structure was hunting and gathering, which stimulated egalitarian societies. With the amount of archeological evidence available, it proves that many societies counted on sharing as well as hunting and gathering. The idea of sharing, for long-term benefits, is still a method used today. Anthropologists have studied many egalitarian societies since 1993.

b. Ranked Societies: Another society Anthropologists have looked closely into are ranked societies, which focus on one’s status. A great

Wealth: Wealth can define an individual’s power within a community and is a greater reason why people love bringing home money. Wages and the lowering of tax codes caused gaps in wages because of the increase in mortgage. credit card debt, and less inheritance from ancestors. Looking closely at graphs presented, we can see wealth is not circulated evenly. These factors now make it hard for Americans to find what position they identify with.

b. Ethnographic Portraits of Class in The United States: Ethnographic portraits of class in the United States considers the study of how class is built based on settings, race, and gender.

i. Poor Whites in Rural Kentucky: Pem Davidson Buck, an Anthropologist focusing on intersectionality, conducted Worked to the Bone: Race, Class, Power, and Privilege in Kentucky, to show how lower class whites in two parts of Kentucky are limited due to their class. Poor and working class whites were tempted by the leaders with promises of white privileges for “others” and “white trash” rather than people struggling for fair work and wages. Pem describes her personal experience living in Kentucky. She explains how her and her husband struggled to make ends meet until the made a plumbing and heating business of their own. Through her personal experience she now connects race and class to culture. She explains how being white does not even matter anymore more when it comes to global

Downward Mobility: The Middle Class: The rise from nothing to something, the American Dream, has not occurred for U.S. families in a long time. A popular Anthropologist during the 1990’s conducted another research project, Falling from Grace: Downward Mobility in the Age of Affluence, to look into the lives of multiple families in the United States who are trying to maintain their class. Another research project she conducted during this time, No Shame in My Game, focused on full time workers who were still considered poor. Many would describe the individuals in the experiment as not motivated with a poor work ethic, but they have struggle barriers that keep them from moving up. iii. Wealth, Inequality, and Wall Street: Anthropologist Karen Ho shares her personal experience of working on Wall Street while it was thriving. This is when she figured out when workers are laid off stock and bank investments will go up. She also explains that a lot of decisions made by the companies on Wall Street benefited the employees more than it did the