Classlessness - Definition and Overview

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Classlessness refers to a type of society in which social classes do not exist. Broadly speaking, such societies can be divided in two distinct categories:

1. Societies in which classes have never developed. These are usually the kind of societies where all people naturally play similar economic roles; they include most early human groups, as well as the more recent societies of the native inhabitants of North America, many Pacific islands, and so on.
2. Societies where classes have been abolished. Such a situation is usually the result of a voluntary decision by the members of a certain society, to abolish that society's class structure. Examples include all modern communes, most notably the Paris Commune, the kibbutzim, etc. Furthermore, the abolition of social classes and the establishment of a classless society is the ultimate goal of both communism and anarchism.

Classless societies are highly egalitarian, and they often do not use the concept of private property. Many are governed by a form of direct democracy.

Classlessness also refers to a the state of being required in order to operate effectively as a social anthropologist. Anthropological training includes making assessments of and therefore becoming aware of one's own class assumptions, so that these can be set aside from conclusions reached about other societies. Otherwise conclusions reached about studied societies will likely be coloured by the anthropologist's own class values. See the article on Class consciousness in this context. It is also argued by embourgeoisement theorists that the preservation of class identity, and hence of class distinctions, for various notional groupings in a society is divisive and leads to more ignorant discrimination than if everyone were educated to believe in classlessness.

See also

• proletariat, bourgeoisie, upper class, middle class, working class
• Class consciousness, Class conflict, Class warfare
• Class in the contemporary United States

Links

Cultural Identity and Ideology (http://myweb.lsbu.ac.uk/philip-hammond/1999b.html) by Philip Hammond

Further reading

The Affluent Worker in the Class Structure ISBN 0521095336 by John H. Goldthorpe