ABSTRACT
Curiously, however, the main functional necessity explaining the universal presence of stratification is precisely the requirement faced by any society of placing and motivating individuals in the social structure. If the rights and perquisites of different positions in a society must be unequal, then the society must be stratified, because that is precisely what stratification means. The generalized principles of stratification suggested form a necessary preliminary to a consideration of types of stratified systems, because it is in terms of these principles that the types must be described. Much of the literature on stratification has attempted to classify concrete systems into a certain number of types. What state any particular system of stratification is in with reference to each of these modes of variation depends on two things: its state with reference to the other ranges of variation, and the conditions outside the system of stratification which nevertheless influence that system.
