ABSTRACT
Social status and function are terms of relationship, of "belonging", of identification, of harmony. "Status" defines man's existence as related in mutual necessity to the organized group. During the last two hundred years, "status" has not been a popular word; it has come to stand for status quo ante, the status of an old, obsolete, hated regime, for privilege in a static, rather than for opportunity in a mobile, society. The oldest analogy is the relationship between the human body and its members-used, according to the Roman fable, to settle history's first sit-down strike, that of the plebeians against their senatorial masters. The members of the human body have no ends of their own; they exist only as parts of the whole body. The demand is, however, for efficient rather than for absolute fulfillment, for adequacy rather than for perfection. At best, even the most successful society operates at a very low rate of fulfillment.
