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An Ethnographic Approach to Social Stratification: Prestige in a Central Italian Community 1
Author(s) -
SILVERMAN SYDEL F.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1966.68.4.02a00030
Subject(s) - prestige , ethnography , social stratification , stratification (seeds) , sociology , social status , anthropology , social science , social psychology , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , seed dormancy , botany , germination , dormancy , biology
The ethnographic strategy that works toward the formulation of a culture's rules for perceiving the objective world and for making culturally acceptable decisions was applied to the system of social stratification in a community in Central Italy. In order to determine the native categories by which persons are hierarchically differentiated, the criteria that define these categories, and the indicators by which criteria are judged to have been met, a field method was devised requiring informants to demonstrate the principles of their system. Some of the problems and potentialities of the approach are illustrated by the results obtained in Colleverde.