What are overlapping and cross-cutting social differences? or Explain the cross-cutting differences with suitable examples.or Compare overlapping and cross-cutting of social differences with one example each. or How do overlapping and cross-cutting of differences create social divisions? Explain.or Make differences between overlapping and cross cutting differences.
Ans. Social divisions of one kind or the other exist in most parts of the world. A social difference means the * difference in a group of people due to their race, religion, language or culture.
Overlapping Social Differences
Overlapping differences happen when some social differences overlap other differences.
It becomes a social division when some social differences are joined by another set of social differences. For example, the difference in the Blacks and the Whites in America is due to their different race which is a social difference.
It becomes a social division when, say, the income factor is also added in that. The Blacks tend to be poor and homeless, while the Whites tend to be rich and educated. This creates a division in the people, making them feel that they belong to different communities.
In our country, Dalits tend to be poor and landless. They often face discrimination and injustice. Situations of this kind produce social division
.Cross-cutting Social Differences
Cross-cutting differences happen when one type of social difference is weakened by another set of social differences. Then, it becomes difficult to group people into a single category because they are going to have different opinions and views on different matters.
On some matters, there might be agreement on a particular issue, but there might be disagreement on another issue. For example, people in the Netherlands are predominantly Christian, but divided between Catholics and Protestants. Here class and religion cross-cut each other. Catholics and Protestants are about equally likely to be poor or rich and they do not have conflict between them.
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