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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

How would you distinguish between the stratified and the unstratified social positions? What explanation would you prefer for the universal existence of the social stratification in human society?

  • UPSC 1999
  • Stratification and Mobility

Every society differentiates positions, but not every difference is a rank. Melvin M. Tumin (Social Stratification: The Forms and Functions of Inequality, 1967) described stratification as a sequence of differentiation, ranking, evaluation and rewarding. A position becomes stratified only when it passes through all four stages.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Stratified versus unstratified positions
  • Rival explanations of universality
  • Preferred explanation
  • Conclusion

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