The system of social stratification initially based (at least in Feudal Europe) upon hereditary factors but later, under a developing capitalism with the emergence of a bourgeoisie, viewed by Marx as the consequence of the uneven distribution of resources and in particular of the means of production. For over 100 years, Class reigned as the supreme social variable in all social theorizing. One of the aspects of Postmodernism has been the de-emphasising of class, and the subsequent elevation of race and gender as significant and equal factors in the development of subject identity in the social process.

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