Stratification is a term used in different fields to describe the act or process of sorting data, people, and objects into distinct groups or layers. In the field of botany, seed stratification is a process of pre-treating seeds to simulate natural conditions that seeds would experience in the soil over- winter, which helps the seed "break dormancy" and initiate the germination process

. In sociology, social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political)

. Social stratification is defined in terms of three social classes: an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class

. Sociologists distinguish between two types of systems of stratification: closed systems and open systems. Closed systems accommodate little change in social position, while open systems are based on achievement and allow for movement and interaction between layers