What are the characteristics of social structure?

Answer 1

The way in which people get own statuses can vary significantly in detail from culture to culture. In all societies, however, they are either achieved or ascribed. Achieved statuses are ones that are acquired by doing something. For instance, someone becomes a criminal by committing a crime. A soldier earns the status of a good warrior by achievements in battle and by being brave. A woman becomes a mother by having a baby. She also can acquire the status of widow by the death of her husband. In contrast, ascribed statuses are the result of being born into a particular family or being born male or female. Being a prince by birth or being the first of four children in a family are ascribed statuses. We do not make a decision to choose them--they are not voluntary statuses. We do not pick the family we are born into nor do we usually select our own gender.

Bill Clinton rose from relative poverty to the Presidency of the United States. His life exemplifies the national ideal of a "self-made man". In contrast, his daughter was accorded special treatment while he was in the White House because of her ascribed status as the child of a president.5 (http://anthro.palomar.edu/status/stat_2.htm)

Both achieved and ascribed statuses exist in all societies. However, some cultures choose to emphasize the importance of one or the other. In North America today, achieved statuses outside of the family are reinforced while ascribed ones are generally rejected. Children are encouraged from an early age to be independent and self-reliant. They are told to better themselves in life. This can be seen in the admiration of "self-made people" and in the somewhat negative image in the mass media of people who are rich only because they inherited it. This strong cultural bias has led to the enactment of anti-nepotism laws for government jobs. These make it a crime to hire and promote people because they are your relatives. In addition, the North American emphasis on achieved status has led to an acceptance and encouragement of social class mobility and a rejection of gender and ethnicity based restrictions. Children are taught in school from an early age that, despite the fact that they may be from a poor family, male or female, they should aspire to get a good education, better themselves and their family economically, and even become a leader in society.

therefore status and roles are two elements of social structre.