Morton Fried: The Three Types Of Societies

There are three types of rewards that may or may not be equally distributed within a society. These rewards include wealth, power and prestige. Furthermore, there are three basic types of societies identified by Morton Fried in which the equal or non-equal distribution of these rewards may occur. These societies include that of an egalitarian society, a ranked society, and a stratified society.

Egalitarian societies do not rely on wealth or power. Instead, people in this type of society do gain prestige through age, valuable skills, and an attractive personality. Everything is shared equally within this society and there is no reason for wealth because they tend to be a mobile type of society such as the hunter gatherers, and they are not able to bring many possessions with them. Therefore, there is no accumulation of wealth among the people of this society. The !Kung are an example of a egalitarian society. They have little possessions, which usually denotes wealth in Western culture. They are an extremely mobile people who travel to find food. Therefore, they have no need for possessions because they
These positions are mostly always gained through heredity. Power and prestige are given to those in high social rank, which usually falls upon the eldest in the lineage. Wealth is usually distributed among the society equally through redistribution. The Tikopia society is an example of a ranked society. The 1200 people of the island were divided into 4 patriclans and each patriclan had its own chief. There are also clan chiefs who have the most authority over others. However, they did not have great power over others within the society because they believed that each had rights to the land and ocean resources within the clan. They were honored but their wealth and power was not great, seeing as they used the system of