Abstract
Social difference codes are widely shared cultural beliefs that define the socially significant distinctions on the basis of which a society is structured and inequality is organized (e.g., race, gender, occupation). They provide cultural schemas for enacting social relations on the basis of a given difference by indicating the attributes by which people may be categorized according to the distinction and the traits and behaviors that can be expected as a result. To encourage systematic theories about the reciprocal relations between the patterns of social bonds among people and the social difference codes that prevail in society, this paper suggests basic observations. Evidence indicates that the formation of ties through interaction fosters the development and use of shared difference codes. The formation of ties concomitantly creates difference, difference itself is social connection, and the formation of a difference connection is reciprocally related to the development of resource inequalities. Mutual dependence among categories of people transforms the evaluative bias of difference codes from competing in-group preferences into shared status beliefs that characterize one category as socially better than the others. Prevailing difference codes are modified when changing structural conditions change the conditions under which people from different categories interact.
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