Caste

{{SJ}}
'''Caste''' is a system of social status and hierarchy characterized not only by [[social class|social rankings]], wealth, and prestige, but also by hereditary occupations and {{wpl|endogamy||.}} Well-behaved and properly brought-up members of a caste are supposed to marry within that caste, or occasionally with members of similarly situated castes.

Casteism in contrast to [[racism]] is a multi-generationally-entrenched hierarchical system, enforced by religion in the case of [[Hinduism]], or by law and [[Slavery in the Bible|Christianity]] in the case of the [[United States]] and [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|68-69}} The concept of race is poorly-defined and arbitrary, but racism may overlap with casteism as it does in the United States.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|71-72}} Caste restricts people and their descendants to specific occupations, dwellings, and behaviors, so as to perpetuate the hierarchy. People's castes may be so thoroughly embedded that they may not even recognize their position in the system.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|33-35,39-40}}

Legally-entrenched social classes, also endogamous and hereditary, have been found in Europe, while [[anthropologists]] associate the paradigmatic ethnographic caste-system with the Indian subcontinent ([[India]], [[Pakistan]], [[Nepal]], Sri Lanka), where it is typically known as {{wpl|Jāti}}, from the [[Sanskrit]] for "birth" (जाति). Similar social structures have existed in a number of [[societies]], however, including {{wpl|Edo society|Edo-era}} [[Japan]] and various places in [[Latin America]]. The word ''caste'', from the Spanish and Portuguese {{wpl|casta|''casta''}} ("lineage" or "breed"), originated in [[Latin America]]. Spanish and Portuguese [[colonialism|colonizers]] constructed elaborate classifications based on individuals' degree of European, African, and Native American "blood".

In her groundbreaking book ''Caste'', Isabel Wilkerson described eight pillars that are used to maintain and enforce caste, each described in a chapter:<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|101-164}}
{{collist|2|
#Divine will and the laws of nature — [[religion]] as justification for caste (''varna'' in Hinduism; [[Curse of Ham]] and [[Slavery in the Bible]] in Christianity)
#[[Heritability]] — establishment of ancestry as a marker of caste (e.g., [[one-drop rule]] in the US, Nuremberg Race Laws in Nazi Germany<ref>[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nuremberg-race-laws What were the Nuremberg Race Laws?] ''United States Holocaust Memorial Museum''.</ref>)
#Endogamy and the control of marriage and mating — ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'' and other anti-[[miscegenation]] laws
#Purity versus pollution — untouchability, one-drop rule, {{wpl|Laws of Manu}} in India, Curse of Ham in the Bible, forbidding lower castes from bodies of water
#Occupational hierarchy — jobs that are considered lowly, dirty, and/or poorly-paid are reserved for the lowest castes, chattel [[slavery]], labor camps
#Dehumanization and stigma — treatment as less than human and [[scapegoat]]ing
#Terror as enforcement, cruelty as a means of control — [[pogroms]] of Jews in Europe leading up to the [[Holocaust]], [[lynching]] of African Americans, [[police brutality]] aimed at African Americans
#Inherent superiority versus inherent inferiority — active prevention of signs of success by the lower caste, even the least qualified upper-caste person must be held superior to the most qualified lower-caste person
}}

==In the Indian subcontinent==
The caste system is based on a theological concept called {{wpl|Varna (Hinduism)|''varna''||,}} again from the Sanskrit for "color" or "form" (वर्ण). ''Varna'' divides [[Hindu]] society and the many subgroupings of caste into five broad categories:

*the {{wpl|Brahmin|Brahmins}}: priests, teachers, and preachers.
*the {{wpl|Kshatriya|Kshatriyas}}: rulers and warriors.
*the {{wpl|Vaishya|Vaishyas}}: agriculturists, herdsmen, merchants, and artisans.
*the {{wpl|Shudra|Shudras}}: laborers.
*the {{wpl|Dalit|Dalits}}: (outside the caste system) streetsweepers, latrine cleaners.

In the Hindu theology of [[reincarnation]], the first three ''varnas'' are held to have been "twice born", meaning that those born into those groups must have spiritually progressed in their prior incarnations as human beings. Only members of the first three ''varnas'' are permitted to study the [[Veda]]s.<ref>Juergensmeyer, Mark (2006). The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-19972-761-2.</ref>  

These ''varnas'' were organized into castes during the [[British Empire|British rule of India]]:<ref>[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000169930004300304 The Logic of Affirmative Action: Caste, Class and Quotas in India]</ref> the ''castes'' became much more elaborate than this fourfold theological division, and include multiple subgroupings (''jāti'') that vary from one region to another.<ref>Basham, Arthur L. (1954), ''The Wonder That Was India: A Survey of the Culture of the Indian Sub-Continent before the Coming of the Muslims'', Grove Press, p. 148</ref>

===Untouchable and defiling castes===
In many places, it is considered defiling for members of the higher castes to have any dealings or conversation with certain low-caste people. These people have occupations that are locally considered unclean but necessary, such as burying the dead or butchering animals. This group of the "untouchable" people is collectively called the ''Dalits'' in India. The term Untouchable is now considered pejorative, and [[B. R. Ambedkar]], himself a Dalit advocated for the use of this term to refer to his people instead, ''dalit'' meaning "broken people".<ref name=wilkerson>''Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents'' by Isabel Wilkerson (2020) Random House. ISBN 0593230256.</ref>{{rp|26}}

Dalits have suffered from {{wpl|untouchability||,}} such that it is defiling for a member of a non-untouchable caste: 
*to be touched by a Dalit, 
*to touch an object previously touched by a Dalit,
*to touch a Dalit's shoes or clothing,
*to eat with a Dalit, 
*to enter the home of a Dalit, or 
*for a Dalit to enter the home of a non-untouchable.

A {{wpl|Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989|statute in India}} has sought to redress social problems caused by discrimination against Dalits, but enforcement has been only sporadic and discrimination within the legal system continues to exist.<ref>Human Rights Watch, [http://pantheon.hrw.org/reports/1999/india/ Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s “Untouchables”] (March 1999)</ref> The Hindu caste system is nevertheless slowly succumbing to social change due to improved transportation infrastructure and [[capitalism]]. [[Marriage]]s outside the caste have increased, especially since the 1970s, a process which blurs the lineages upon which caste itself is founded. However, while marriages among different ''jati'' have increased, marriages outside the four ''varna'' remain relatively less common.<ref>Karen Leonard and Susan Weller, "[http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~kbleonar/bio/Karen%20declining%20subcaste%20endogamy%20in%20India.pdf Declining subcaste endogamy in India: the Hyderabad Kayasths, 1900 - 1975], ''American Ethnologist'' 7(3), August 1980.</ref> 

Similar untouchable or outcast groups have existed elsewhere, including:
*The {{wpl|Burakumin|''Burakumin''}} of Japan;
*The {{wpl|Cagot|''Cagots''}} of southern [[France]] and northern [[Spain]]
*The {{wpl|Al-Akhdam|''Al-Akhdam''}} of [[Yemen]]
*The [[Roma]] or Gypsy people, especially in Eastern Europe.

==In Latin America==
A comparably elaborate system of racial classification existed in Latin America. The [[Spain|Spanish]] and [[Portugal|Portuguese]] colonists of the New World brought with them a pre-existing notion of {{wpl|limpieza de sangre|''limpieza de sangre''||,}} 'purity of blood', which they had already developed as a result of the {{wpl|Reconquista|''Reconquista''||,}} the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the [[Islam]]ic Moors of Grenada and Andalusia.  

The concept of ''limpieza de sangre'' originally involved favoring purely European and [[Christian]] ancestry over descendants of [[African]] Moors and other disfavored groups, including [[Jews]]. After the last [[Muslim]] state in the Iberian Peninsula fell to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492, the remaining Jews and Muslims were given the ultimatum to convert to [[Catholicism]], leave, or die. Those who chose conversion faced [[Spanish Inquisition|abiding persecution]] in Spanish society (and to a lesser extent in Latin America), and their ancestors were often believed to practice Judaism or Islam in secret. 

The Latin American system, though it gave English the word ''caste'', is not a true caste system, lacking the critical component of endogamy, marriage within the caste. Indeed, the system recognizes the inevitability of [[miscegenation]], and is based on classifying people according to their numbers of European, African, and Native American ancestors. In fact, one of the core components of the Spanish colonial caste system is the notion of ''{{wpl|blanqueamiento}}'', the rather absurd belief that "lesser" peoples could be "redeemed" by marrying into European ancestry.

[[File:Casta painting all.jpg|thumb|center|400px|This 18<sup>th</sup> century Mexican painting illustrates the elaborate system of racial and hereditary classifications in use in Spanish Latin America.]]

==In the United States==
The beginning of the caste system in the United States began with the first enslaved Africans were brought to North America in 1619. It developed with the institutionalization of permanent slavery of individuals and their descendants. It continued after the emancipation of all slaves after the end of the [[American Civil War]] and [[Reconstruction]] with legally-enforced [[Jim Crow laws]] and [[segregation]].

It may appear odd to some that inequality and oppression in the US is referred to as casteism rather than racism, but reference to a caste system dates back to at least 1849 when abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|24}} referred to it in a Massachusetts Supreme Court case:<ref>[https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/rbc/rbaapc/28400/28400.pdf Equality before the law, unconstitutionality of separate colored schools in Massachusetts] Argument Of Charles Sumner, Esq., Before The Supreme Court Of Massachusetts, In The Case Of Sarah C. Roberts vs. The City Of Boston, December 4, 1849. Via ''Library of Congress''.</ref>
{{cquote|The separation of children in the Schools, on account of race or color, is in the nature of Caste, and,
on this account, a violation of Equality.}}
The concept caste in America has been used for decades by anthropologists and scholars,<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|24}} When [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] visited India, he was recognized by dalits as the leader of American dalits, which he came to accept.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|22}}<ref>[https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/chapter-13-pilgrimage-nonviolence ''The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.'': Chapter 13: Pilgrimage to Nonviolence], edited by Clayborne Carson  (1998) Intellectual Properties Management in association with Warner Books. ISBN 0446676500. Via The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University.</ref>

Mainly, but far from exclusively, in the [[The South|U.S. South]] it gave rise to racialized identities such as "quadroon" and "octoroon", the "[[one-drop rule]]", "[[Pocahontas#The Pocahontas Exception|The Pocahontas Exception]]", and anti-miscegenation laws (''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'').

==In Nazi Germany==
{{main|Nazi Germany}}
During the period when [[Adolf Hitler]] was still consolidating power, a committee of Nazi bureaucrats was formed in June 1934 to discuss racial 'purity' and how to differentiate [[Aryan]]s from Jews.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|78}} The committee included 17 lawyers who had studied the American caste system of laws, using the laws as a model.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|79-81}} The committee was particularly impressed by the writings of two American [[eugenicist]]s, {{wpl|Lothrop Stoddard}} and [[Madison Grant]].<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|80}} Some of the members of  the committee even thought that the American laws went too far.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|84-85}} Eventually the more radical members of the committee prevailed, and the resulting document of the committee formed what was to become the Nuremberg Laws that specifically targeted Jews and thus created a caste system.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|79,86}}

==Caste and colorism==
Colorism is a worldwide phenomenon in which people of the same group with lighter skin colors are [[Bigotry|prejudicially]] preferred over people with darker skin colors. In the United States, colorism coincides with caste for [[African American]]s.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|238-239}} In connection to this,<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|238}} sociologist [[Erving Goffman]] noted:
{{quotebox|The stigmatized individual exhibits a tendency to stratify his "own" according to the degree to which their stigma is apparent and obtrusive. He can then take up in regard to those who are more evidently stigmatized than himself the attitudes the normals take to him.<ref>''Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity'' by Erving Goffman (1986) Simon & Schuster. {{isbn|0671622447}}.</ref>{{rp|107}}}}

==Nearly everyone suffers==
While it is unarguable that the people of lower castes suffer the most from casteism, but people in higher castes also suffer. A caste system is inherently anti-[[Meritocracy|meritocratic]], in other words the people who are most qualified are often not chosen for positions, damaging government and social system as a whole.<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|384-385}} A more direct way in which this happens upper caste people can suffer from so-called "deaths of despair", from [[suicide]], [[Drug abuse|drug overdoses]], and [[alcoholism]].<ref name=wilkerson/>{{rp|178-186}}

==See also==
*[[Segregation]]

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Discrimination]]
[[Category:Germany]]
[[Category:Hinduism]]
[[Category:India]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Nazism]]
[[Category:United States]]
[[Category:White supremacy]]

Categories: Discrimination, Germany, Hinduism, India, Racism, Nazism, United States, White supremacy