Which of the following statements about social stratification are cor…

Which of the following statements about social stratification are correct?

(A) Its hierarchy shapes people's identity and experiences.
(B) Its hierarchy shapes people's relations with others.
(C) It is a function of individual differences, not a characteristic of society.
(D) In hunting and gathering societies, only rudimentary social stratification could exist.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 1

The correct answer is Option (1) → A, B and D only

(A) Its hierarchy shapes people's identity and experiences. — Correct. Stratification ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. This hierarchy shapes people's identity and experiences.

(B) Its hierarchy shapes people's relations with others. — Correct. The same hierarchy also shapes people's relations with others, along with their access to resources and opportunities.

(C) It is a function of individual differences, not a characteristic of society. — Incorrect. The feature is reversed. Stratification is a characteristic of society and not a result of individual differences. It is a society-wide system that unequally distributes social resources.

(D) In hunting and gathering societies, only rudimentary social stratification could exist. — Correct. Hunting and gathering societies were technologically primitive and produced little. So only rudimentary social stratification could exist there.

NCERT (2026-27): “Social Inequality …
Sociologists use the term social stratification to refer to a system by which categories of people in a society are ranked in a hierarchy.”

“This hierarchy then shapes people’s identity and experiences, their relations with others, as well as their access to resources and opportunities. Three key principles help explain social stratification:”

“1. Social stratification is a characteristic of society, not simply a function of individual differences. Social stratification is a society-wide system that unequally distributes social resources among categories of people. In the most technologically primitive societies – hunting and gathering societies, for instance – little was produced so only rudimentary social stratification could exist. …”