(a) Critically evaluate different types of social stratifications with suitable examples. (20 marks) (b) Discuss the bio-social…

(a) Types of Social Stratification: A Critical Evaluation Social stratification is the structured, ranked inequality of groups in access to wealth, power and prestige (Weber's three dimensions). Its main types differ in basis and rigidity.

Slavery rests on legal ownership of persons, as in ancient Rome and the American South. Estates are legally defined orders with fixed rights, as in feudal Europe (clergy, nobility, commoners). Caste is ascribed by birth, hierarchical, endogamous and linked to occupation and ritual purity, as in India. Class is based on economic position and is achieved, so in principle open, as in modern industrial societies, whether defined by ownership (Marx) or by market situation (Weber). Tribal societies are mostly egalitarian, as among the Nagas, though chiefs and clan ranking appear among the Khasi and Kachin.

Critique: Caste is often taken as closed, yet Srinivas showed positional mobility through Sanskritisation and the role of the dominant caste, though this changes position, not the structure. Dumont's emphasis on purity and pollution ignores power, and Béteille finds that class and caste now overlap. Untouchability was abolished by Article 17, yet inequality persists, and Dalit assertion, reservations and political mobilisation are changing hierarchy. Class is called open, but Bourdieu's work on reproduction of capital shows that inheritance limits mobility, and Indian class and caste overlap in education and employment. Comparing the Western class and Indian caste shows that class stresses achievement and caste ascription, but both reproduce inequality, and the two are better seen as a continuum.

(b) Bio-social Determinants of Fertility and Fecundity Fecundity is the biological capacity to reproduce; fertility is the actual reproductive performance, measured by births, for example Total Fertility Rate (TFR). Fertility is always below fecundity.

Biological determinants: age (female fecundity peaks in the twenties and falls after 35), age at menarche and menopause, nutrition and body fat, health (anaemia, STIs, PCOS, endometriosis), male sperm quality, lactational amenorrhoea and genetic factors. Primary and secondary sterility lower fertility.

Social determinants: age at marriage, marital stability, education and women's work, contraceptive and abortion use, breastfeeding and postpartum taboos, son preference, religion, income, urbanisation, and infant mortality, as parents replace lost children. Maternal mortality affects both.

Davis and Blake's intermediate variables, and Bongaarts' proximate determinants (marriage, contraception, abortion, lactational infecundability), show how social variables act through biology. Fertility falls with demographic transition: India's TFR was about 2.0 in NFHS-5 (2019-21), below replacement of 2.1.

(c) Anthropometry: Nutritional Status and Sports Capability Anthropometry is the systematic measurement of the human body's size, shape and composition, using the anthropometer, stadiometer, spreading and sliding calipers, skinfold calipers and tape.

Nutritional status: weight-for-height, height-for-age and weight-for-age, judged against WHO growth standards (2006), identify wasting, stunting and underweight in children; NFHS-5 found about 35.5% of Indian children under five stunted. Mid-upper-arm circumference screens acute malnutrition. In adults, BMI classifies underweight (below 18.5) and overweight (Asian cut-off 23); waist-hip ratio and skinfolds show fat distribution. Growth charts track individuals.

Sports capability: somatotyping (Heath-Carter endomorphy, mesomorphy, ectomorphy) matches build to events, such as ectomorphic marathoners and mesomorphic sprinters. Limb length, arm span, height and body-fat percentage help talent identification, favouring tall basketball players and light, compact gymnasts. Body composition is measured by skinfolds, bioimpedance and DEXA, to plan training and diet. Standard ISAK protocols give reliable data.