How Social Stratification Affected the Development of Medicine in Ancient Society - Research Paper Example

? Social stratification is borrowed from the concept of stratification in earth sciences. Social stratification groups together individuals with the same characteristics, either in general or specific. Groups are determined as lower or upper class, they have a certain position in the social spectrum. The concept of social stratification includes evaluating individuals based on a scheme or a scale of values (Saha, p. 1, 2006). The scale of values leads to inequality as the people are grouped together based on whether they meet the qualifications of the higher or lower end of the social sphere. When an individual does not meet the criteria set in a specific group, like a high income level, then he would be classified as a member of the lower income group. This causes discrimination as they do not belong to the higher class and they can only fit the lower class. Social stratification impacts different aspects of the society, not just in economic terms, but also in education and medicine or health. During the ancient times, in the reign of early civilizations such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, the society is highly stratified. They have different social classes, such as the rulers or the kings, the free men and the slaves. Egypt and Mesopotamia shared a similar technology and subsistence economy, the only difference being the form of classes (Trigger, p. 673, 2008). Mesopotamia had city-states and Egypt had a monarchy. But the dominant political form is kingship (Bulliet, p. 40, 2007). This establishes the existence of social stratification whether then or now (Grusky & Ku, p. 11, 2008). One of the areas affected severely by social stratification is health and medicine. To better understand how social stratification affected this area, it is important to take note of the key components of social stratification. These are: institutional processes that define goods as valuable and desirable, rules of allocation and distribution across jobs or occupations in the division of labor, and, the mobility mechanisms that link individuals to jobs that result to unequal control over valued resources (Grusky & Ku, p. 30, 2008). Medicine is a valued good. It is an important part of maintaining the health of the people. And maintaining one’s health is important in ensuring the productivity of the members of the society. Medicine was believed to be a form of higher learning, something only accessible for the members of the upper class (Trigger, p. 673, 2003). Healing is very much associated with medicine. And this is strongly associated with divination, something very much evident in the Egyptian society. Medicine and healing was associated with divination as this learning allows the respected teachers and elders of the society to explain what cannot be easily explained (Trigger, p. 648, 2003). Examples of these are the weather, famine, death and restoration of health. Miracles are also categorized within the realms of health, medicine and healing. And this aspect is limited to those in the upper class of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian society. Since medicine and healing explains the unexplainable, learning them is granted to those in the upper class to maintain their power over the people. If the lower class is allowed access to the secrets of healing and medicine, they can overthrow the government and the social structure would be shaken. This proves that access to information or services is dependent on one’s position in the society (Tumin, p. 43, 2008). Belonging to the upper class ensures you can access different information and services the lower class cannot access. Learning about health, medicine and healing is one of these regulated services and information. Egypt and Mesopotamia highly values afterlife and their leaders, such as the pharaoh in Egypt. They are so bent on making sure that their leaders are well taken care of and that they can have a peaceful and good afterlife. But moreso, the society is obsessed with ensuring that these ruling classes have the best in their lifetime. That brings the upper classmen, like the teachers and doctors, to study and develop medicine and healing, important tools and services that will guarantee the good health of the ruling class. Having diseases, such as tuberculosis, is associated with the lower class (Haviland, et.al., p. 274, 2008). This is an important aspect of healing and medicine. The development of medicine in the ancient civilizations was limited to heal and to maintain the health of the ruling class so they won’t become part of the lower class. In the field of medicine, the sick or the diseased ones are called “other,” something that a member of the society, especially of the ruling class, doesn’t want to be (Sinha & Gibbs, p. 200, 2004). Being the “other” is tantamount to saying they are not part of the ruling class. This proves even more that social stratification in the ancient civilizations has sacrificed the health of the people who were not members of the ruling class or the upper class. Moving from one class to another is difficult nowadays, but was even more impossible during the ancient times. The slaves of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies were born and died as slaves. It is a feat when a slave becomes a freeman, but that is very rare. With little chance of mobility, these slaves have a small chance of accessing medicine and healing (Lahelma, p. 47, 2005; Siegrist, p. 117, 2010). The most that they can do is to create herbal medicines, which can help them heal and cure their wounds. But these are barely recognized as true healing, compared to the healing of the oracles or doctors of the learned men. Social stratification had only one effect on the development of medicine during the ancient times of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Although, these societies were able to develop and to discover the arts of healing and medicine, but there were limitations that were unrecognized as boundaries. Social stratification became the boundary as it prevented all people to have access to medicine and healing. This hampered the development of medicine since not everyone were accepted to discover and to invent and to learn medicine. It dampened the hopes of the lower class to be able to cure themselves much better than how the upper class can cure themselves. If only the barrier was raised, healing and medicine may have reached its peak today. Works Cited Bulliet, R. (2008). The earth and its people: A global history. MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Grusky, D. and Ku, M. (2008). “Gloom, Doom and Inequality.” Pp 2 – 29. Ed. Grusky, D. Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender in Sociological Perspective. CO: Westview Press. Haviland, W. et. al. (2008). Anthropology: The Human Challenge. 13th ed. CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Lahelma, E. (2005). “Health and social stratification.” Pp. 64 – 93. The Blackwell companion to medical sociology, 2nd. Ed. MA: Blackwell Publishing. Saha, D. (2006). Sociology of Social Stratification. New Delhi, India: Global Vision Publishing House. Siegrist, J. (2010). “The social causation of health and illness.” Pp. 100 – 114. Ed. Albrecht, G. et. al. The handbook of social studies in health and medicine. CA: Sage Publications. Sinha, A. and Gibbs, T. (2004). “Social Stratification and Health in the Western Context.” Ed. Ember, C. and Ember, M. Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology: Health and Illness in the World’s Cultures. NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Trigger, B. (2003). Understanding Early Civilizations. NY: Cambridge University Press. Tumin, M. (2008). “Some principles of stratification: a critical analysis.” Pp. 41 – 48. Ed. Grusky, D. Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender in Sociological Perspective. CO: Westview Press. Read More