I would hypothesize that individuals born into an area or a population that is highly positioned from a socio-economic perspective would be more prone to accept social stratification that afforded the upper or upper middle castes some benefits. However, I would also expect that the lower the socio-economic of the region where the children are interviewed, the less likely the focus would be on social stratification, and the more likely people would be to argue for human rights.
Undoubtedly the readings from the syllabus would provide additional information that would coincide with the information gathered from the field research. This semester we have learned that many factors including socio-economic status, gender and ethnicity can all have an impact on one's culture, one's beliefs, one's religion and perhaps one's class stature.
Because India is a region where religion is heavily influencing, I would expect to also ask questions about religion, to find out how religion affected the rich and the poor alike. Given the globalizing effects of modernization, I would expect to see many youth's influenced by the secular beliefs in the West, which go against many of the traditional beliefs held by Indian youths that lack access to technology, which some may consider an interference.
I would use qualitative meta-analysis and triangular research meaning more than one research methodology to review how class stratification affects one's beliefs, and how one's beliefs affect class stratification. It might be interesting to conduct a comparative case study where one group of youth's living in a well-to-do region were compared with a group of youth's living in a poorer region of India lived to see how different the responses were. It might also be interesting to compare the experiences and beliefs of Indian youth's living in America to those of...
People living in India that are poor may not have their basic human needs fulfilled, which could lead to many psychological and emotional problems. There are many theories suggesting that people need to have their basic rights and needs met before they can function as capable members of society.
The readings in class suggest that human beings are "the world's most adaptable animals." This would suggest that people living in undernourished regions of the world would learn to adapt to their surroundings. The readings also suggest that people would adapt to their surroundings to learn as much as they can about life and about what they can and cannot control. It would be interesting to see whether the people of India felt that they could or could not control their environment. This would especially be of interest among the people that lived under harsh conditions, or among the youths that considered themselves of lower social status because of the social stratification system.
Frederickson suggests in the class readings that racism "exists" everywhere, but most especially when one ethnic group or class tries to "dominate" or "exclude" another. It would be interesting to see to what extent the various classes in India if they still exist and are prominent among the youth, affects another. It would be interesting to compare the answers gained from the field research with information learned in class, which suggests that racism and classism will continue to affect people throughout the world even in light of technological changes that would bring to light the humanistic efforts of so many classes throughout the world.
