Class and Caste
...e accident of birth (ascribed) it appears to outside observers. Castes are strongly endogamous, and offspring are automatically members of their parents caste. The classic case is the caste system of India. Coupled with strict endogamy and membership by descent in Indian castes is an association of particular castes with specific occupations and customs, such as food habits and styles of dress along with rituals involving notions of purity and impurity. The literally thousands of castes, or jatis, are organized into a hierarchy of four named categories, or varnas, at the top f which are the priests or Brahmins, the bearers of universal order and values and of highest ritual purity. Dominant at the local level, besides fulfilling warrior functions, they control all village lands, Furnishing services to the landowners, and owning tools of their trade are two lower-ranking, landless caste groups of artisans and laborers, At the bottom of the system, owning neither land nor the tools of there are the outcasts, or “untouchable.” Considered the most impure of all people, India’s untouchables constitute a large pool of labor at the beck and call of those controlling economic and political affairs the land holding warrior caste. India, South Africa, China and the United States are all very different countries, in different parts of the world with different countries, in different parts of the world. Social classes are manifested through different patterns, one is association. Not just who interacts with whom but how and in what context. In Western society, informal, friendly relations take place mostly within one’s own class. Relations with members of other classes tend to be less informal and occur in the context of specific situation. For example, a corporate executive and a janitor normally are member of different socia...