Social Status defined by Material Culture

Maintaining a social status in the 21^st century is a tricky business. Back in the day when the birth of a child into the right family guaranteed it’s “enhanced” social status, people were fully aware of their places in the society. Now however, in many parts of the world, simply having ancestors who once held an important position in the society doesn’t fully guarantee the same to the successors. With the increasing flow of money in the global economy, money has become an increasing factor in achieving a higher degree of social status. In other words, money has become a symbol of power worldwide. I think at this point in time, it is okay to generalize the fact that the money has become a material culture which influences the social status of everyone. This form of achieved status has become very common in developing countries like India. A man with riches gets greater attention from the people around him than a mild-mannered reporter, even if he turns out to be Superman’s cousin.

But to be more exact, its how a person carries around his money that makes all the different in the world. In India, a rich family is expected to have at least two expensive cars at minimum along with drivers. The other wealthy people would almost always shun the one driving a car by a local manufacturer.

But this does not mean that there are only two status in society - rich and poor.

There are those which lie in between. For example, taking the example of Indian farmer, there is a gradient of distinction between the rich farmers and poor ones; even though, farming is considered a completely different status in society. A farmer is considered wealthier in society depending on his possession of land, his cattle, and other living stock.

A social status in general creates various interesting things to the economy of a country. In some Asian countries like China, large corporations hire Caucasian men to be the face of the company while expanding across borders. This is done to increase the “validity” of the company. The person is hired simply because he is Caucasian (white-skinned) and speaks good English. The person need not even have any commendable qualifications. This can be seen as an example of a master status overshadowing even that of the CEO (in certain cases). This can also be seen as impression management.

In Qatar, its interesting to see how perceived social statuses can play out on the road while driving. Drivers generally tend to give way to more expensive looking cars than ones that seem like they were made in a shed by Jeremy Clarkson (an observation my father and I share in common). And also, similar to the Indian culture, the possession of multiple cars is another indicator of a higher social status. This generally goes the same for other third world countries wherein the difference between the rich and poor is large.