ABSTRACT
The division of society into classes or strata, which form a hierarchy of prestige and power, is an almost universal feature of social structure which has, throughout history, attracted the attention of philosophers and social theorists. But it is only with the growth of the modern social sciences that it has been subjected to critical study and analysis. Sociologists have commonly distinguished four main types of social stratification; slavery,1 estates, caste, and social class and status. We shall briefly examine the first two types, then consider at greater length the phenomena of caste and of social class, which have particular importance in modern India, and finally discuss some general theories of social stratification.
