Social classes and castes (including fictional)

parent/engineer/warrior from http://www.aleph.se/Nada/Game/Countdown/alien.html

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athens' classes:

• can be generals
• can be knights
• can be hoplites
• thetes

sparta's:

• citizens
• non-citizen civilians
• slaves

sparta's constitution (note: there are not hereditary classes, just various parts of the Spartan constitution):

• elders (and kings, i guess)
• apelia: citizens and ephors
• non-citizens

modern social classes:

• upper classes (dont have to work, have a lot of influence; perceived to get what they want regardless of their value, to have the ability to exploit others (but the option to noblely choose not to do so))
• middle classes (have to work but have some human capital and perceived to have some bargaining power, have the most influence as a group)
• lower classes (perceived to have so little human capital that they are a commodity; so little bargaining power that they are exploited)

some of the above also somewhat matches the four varnas (if you really stretch): Brahmins: priests/scholars (upper class); like generals, they look at the big picture; like spartan elders, they interpret customs Kshatriyas: upper class or possibly upper middle class; like knights, they defend; like Spartan apelia constitutional body, they rule Vaishyas: lower middle class?. possibly like modern middle class? possibly like marx's petit bourgois? possibly similar to the Perioeci? Shudras: lower class. possibly similar to the Perioeci? like thetes? (dalits): like spartan slaves

anglo-saxon middle ages: royalty nobles non-noble landed gentry yeoman / franklin / Freemen / (do burghers go here too? i think so) serf (or 'villein') slave

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentry#The_historical_background_of_social_stratification_in_the_Western_world says that a primary division is: priest warrior worker

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifunctional_hypothesis

priest/warrior/worker maps onto the parent/warrior/engineer from http://www.aleph.se/Nada/Game/Countdown/alien.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_occupations : shi (gentry scholars), the nong (peasant farmers), the gong (artisans and craftsmen), and the shang (merchants and traders).

nowadays things seem to be expanded (athough there were always also non-warrior non-priest actors, etc). Can we make a slightly longer list replacing warrior, priest, common?

politician, scientist, (intellectual?), media, worker, priest?, merchant, emergency svcs?

thinker, connector, manager, merchant, worker, warrior? i guess athelete is warrior and wall st analyst hedge fund is thinker. But still a lot of the other don't quite fit in any of these. mb lawyers, consultant, administrators are all "administrators" but what about oldschool wall st traders? doctors? white collar vs blue collar worker vs waiter? programmer? pilot? life coach? adult gym instructor? teacher? cia agent? skydiving instructor? cult leader? prostitute? cryptoanalyst? actor? painter? historian? librarian? dj? clown? guy who pretends to stand still in the park? musician? guy who plays chess in the park? obviously this classification is incomplete

i guess there are various ways to divide professions:

• by what sort of thing you have to do day-to-day, what sort of personality you supposedly ideally have
• by what the topic is
• by what your function to society is
• by what your economic situation is (eg in this view, entreprenur is different from employee)
• by what your political rights and obligations are

the latter is perhaps closest to the priest-warrior-worker distinction, which is most often heard when describing feudalism, caste systems, and other systems of politico-socio-economic stratification. So we see perhaps why it seems less applicable today, where the system is that people have idential political rights regardless of their job.

still, in terms of the old systems, one might say that early fedualism would be an 'Age of the (Armed) Warrior' (eg (armed) security is at a premium, so the (armed) warriors are put in charge, and you can get the most power by providing services as an (armed) warrior, and being a good (armed) warrior); although i suppose the Catholic Church ended up getting a fair bit of power, as well. The present age might be said to be either an Age of the Merchant or an Age of the Scientist.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soninke_people#Social_organization_and_politics "Being king or a smith was not by choice, it was an inherited position."

• hooro (free men) "The Hooro are the rulers, they have the right to punish and dispense justice"
  • tunkalemmu (princes): exercise authority; only caste that can become king
  • mangu (advisors; originate from 'kuralemme', warriors)
  • hooro (priest): dispense justice, and educate the population
• naxamala (dependent men)
  • tago (blacksmiths)
  • sakko (carpenter): "They are the friends of the inhabitants of the forest. They are the confidants and the masters of devils. They are important because of their skills and knowledge with wood."
  • jaroo (praise-singer): "During ceremonies they are in charge of animation, speaking, and singing. They are the most famous in the “naxamala” dependent class . They are the only ones authorized to say anything they want. They are the orators of the society. They tell the history of most important Soninke families."
• garanko (cobbler)
  • (are there others?)
• komo (slaves): "The slaves have always been the major labor force in Soninke society. The prosperity of Soninke society was due to their dominance in farming. In the past there were more slaves than free-men."

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the Divergent castes: Abnegation (selfless rules), Dauntless (brave soldiers), Erudite (knowledge-valuing technicians and scientists), Amity (peace-loving friendly farmers) and Candor (honest lawyers)

the castes in Plato's republic: the philosopher-kings, the silver/military, and the bronze/iron (everyone else)

plato's five types of governments: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato%27s_five_regimes

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_occupations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_(Hinduism)

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