Social stratification and the diffusion of innovations among the Sukuma of Tanzania

The concept of social stratification is applied to a non-European society which has always been described as egalitarian. Due to a number of historical influences a system of social stratification is emerging in Sukuma society, although its dimensions are different from those in Western societies. Furthermore, the author studies the usefulness of the stratification approach for the analysis of the diffusion of innovations in a social system and achieves results which question a number of conventional approaches in this field.