Symbols of Class Status

tT>HE TERMS sGatgs, position, and role have been used interchangeably | to refer to the set of rights and obligations which governs the behaviour 1 of persons acting in a given social capacity. In general, the rights and obligations of a status are fixed through time by means of external sanctions enforced by law, public opinion, and threat of socio-economic loss, and by internalized sanctions of the kind that are built into a conception of self and pve rise to guilt, remorse, and shame. A status may be ranked on a scaRe of prestige, according to the amount of social value that is placed upon it relative to other statuses in the same sector of social life. An individual may be rated on a scale of esteem, depending on how closely his performance approaches the ideal established for that particular status.2 Co-operative actilrity based on a differentiation and integration of statuses is a universal characteristic of social life. This kind of harmony requires that the occupant of each status act toward others in a manner which conveys the impression that his conception of himself and of them is the same as their conception of themselves and him. A workiIlg consensus of this sort therefore requires adequate communication about conceptions of status. The rights and obligations of a status are frequently ill-adapted to the requirements of ordinary communication. Specialized means of displaying ones position frequently develop. Such sign-vehicles have been called statgs symbols.3 They are the cues which select for a person the status that is to be imputed to him and the way in which others are to treat him. Status symbols visibly divide the social world into categories of persons, thereby helping to maintain solidarity within a category and hostility between different categories.4 Status symbols must be distinguished from collective