ABSTRACT
The top social stratum is referred to locally as 'the elite', 'society', 'high society' or 'the big shots'—although the last of these terms may have a much wider connotation, especially if the speaker holds a position low in the social scale. 'Civilization' is, then, a process in which all Monrovians are involved, and theoretically a person's social position is measurable against a scale of ranking based on varying degrees of civilization. From a comparative point of view, the most interesting feature of Monrovia's social structure is the fact that for well over a century rulers and ruled have been of the same race. The correlation between ethnic origin and social class remains a significant one, but the pattern of alignment of particular ethnic elements with particular social positions is changing.
