These castes divide people into categories based on moral purity and pollution, as determined by Hinduism (James, 2017). The Caste SystemĬastes are a system of social stratification found most notably in India. In this latter case, beauty can be considered to be both an ascribed and achieved status (Miller, 2017). While people often consider beauty to be natural - some individuals are born more attractive than others - there are ways of achieving physical beauty through efforts such as developing one's personal presence, fashion, personal care, beauty routines, and lifestyle choices.
For example, physical attractiveness can influence how someone is perceived and conveys social status. Sometimes, there can be ambiguity as to whether a trait is an example of ascribed or achieved status. Some common examples of ascribed status may include:įamily role (such as being a son, aunt, or cousin) These are not necessarily intrinsically connected to political phenomena by every society.
For example, someone could become a criminal after convicting a crime, greatly limiting their future social and economic activities (Miller, 2017).Įxamples of Ascribed Status General CategoriesĪscribed status includes any number of unchangeable and inborn factors. Similarly, achieved status can also propel someone downwards into society. Someone's achievable status could change throughout life.įor example, someone could become a doctor after years of preparation, earning a higher status than someone who is merely a medical student. While ascribed status refers to the status that an individual acquires by virtue or birth, achieved status refers to the status level that an individual has earned through work, education, luck, social climbing, and so on. Ascribed status can be both reversible and irreversible.įor example, someone can lose their citizenship to a country (reversing their ascribed status) Meanwhile, someone who ages takes on the ascribed status of their age in an irreversible way. Linton posited that ascribed status is assigned to an individual without reference to their innate differences or abilities. The first person to discuss the concept of ascribed and achieved status was the anthropologist Ralph Linton. Kinship is also an example of ascribed status, as relations by blood to a certain group of people cannot be changed. For example, eye color is one example of ascribed status, as people are born with and cannot change this feature.
Those with ascribed statuses that are seen as superior often take on positions of more powerful.Īscribed status often exists alongside achieved status, which describes the status that one takes on voluntarily through one's life. These can be either physical - such as facial features, height, or gender - or social, such as caste, nationality, or level of inborn wealth.Īscribed status is often important for determining the power dynamics and roles between people in a society. The concept of ascribed status, developed by Ralph Linton, describes all of the statuses that someone acquires either at birth or involuntarily later in life.