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31 Tertiary sources published within the last 25 years on the subject of "caste"

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Wikipedia uses secondary sources for details, but tertiary sources for determining emphasis within an article.

OED

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Oxford English Dictionary ("caste, n.", Oxford English Dictionary, Second edition; online version June 2012, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1989, retrieved 05 August 2012 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help))

caste, n. 2a. spec. One of the several hereditary classes into which society in India has from time immemorial been divided; ... This is now the leading sense, which influences all others.

Webster's Unabridged

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Webster's Unabridged Dictionary ("caste", Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, Merriam-Webster, 2002, retrieved 5 August 2012).

caste n. 1 obsolete : .... 2 : one of the hereditary classes into which the society of India is divided in accordance with a system fundamental in Hinduism, reaching back into distant antiquity, ....

Encyclopæida Britannica Online

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Madan, T. N.; Editors (2012), caste, Encyclopæida Britannica Online {{citation}}: |last2= has generic name (help)

caste, any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation, that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus in India. Although sometimes used to designate similar groups in other societies, the “caste system” is uniquely developed in Hindu societies.

References:

Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition

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Lagasse, Paul, ed. (2007), "Caste", The Columbia Encyclopedia, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-14446-9, retrieved 24 September 2012 Quote:

caste [Port., casta=basket], ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste systems are found outside India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one's birth and may only rarely be transcended. Certain religious minorities may voluntarily constitute a quasi-caste within a society, but they are less apt to be characterized by cultural distinctiveness than by their self-imposed social segregation. A specialized labor group may operate as a caste within a society otherwise free of such distinctions (e.g., the ironsmiths in parts of Africa). In general, caste functions to maintain the status quo in a society.

Castes in India

Nowhere is caste better exemplified by degree of complexity and systematic operation than in India. The Indian term for caste is jati, which generally designates a group varying in size from a handful to many thousands. There are thousands of such jatis, and each has its distinctive rules, customs, and modes of government. The term varna (literally meaning "color" ) refers to the ancient and somewhat ideal fourfold division of Hindu society: (1) the Brahmans, the priestly and learned class; (2) the Kshatriyas, the warriors and rulers; (3) the Vaisyas, farmers and merchants; and (4) the Sudras, peasants and laborers. These divisions may have corresponded to what were formerly large, broad, undifferentiated social classes. Below the category of Sudras were the untouchables, or Panchamas (literally "fifth division" ), who performed the most menial tasks.

Although there has been much confusion between the two, jati and varna are different in origin as well as function. The various castes in any given region of India are hierarchically organized, with each caste corresponding roughly to one or the other of the varna categories. Traditionally, caste mobility has taken the form of movement up or down the varna scale. Indian castes are rigidly differentiated by rituals and beliefs that pervade all thought and conduct (see dharma). Extreme upper and lower castes differ so widely in habits of everyday life and worship that only the close intergrading of intervening castes and the intercaste language communities serve to hold them together within the single framework of Indian society.

The explanation that Indian castes were originally based on color lines to preserve the racial and cultural purity of conquering groups is inadequate historically to account for the physical and cultural variety of such groups. Castes may reflect distinctiveness of religious practice, occupation, locale, culture status, or tribal affiliation, either exclusively or in part. Divergence within a caste on any of these lines will tend to produce fission that may, in time, result in the formation of new castes. Every type of social group as it appears may be fitted into this system of organizing society.

The occupational barriers among Indian castes have been breaking down slowly under economic pressures since the 19th cent., but social distinctions have been more persistent. Attitudes toward the untouchables only began to change in the 1930s under the influence of Mohandas Gandhi's teachings, who called the group Harijans. Although untouchability was declared illegal in 1949, resistance to change has remained strong, especially in rural areas. As increased industrialization produced new occupations and new social and political functions evolved, the caste system adapted and thus far has not been destroyed.

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International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2008)

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Ramu, G. N. (2008), "Caste", in William A. Darity (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, (Macmillan social science library), Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, ISBN 978-0-02-865967-1, retrieved 24 September 2012

Caste: Nearly all societies have had some form of social stratification, whether ascriptive or achieved, based on race, class, religion, ethnicity, language, education, or occupation. The Hindu ascriptive caste system in India is perhaps the most complex and rigid. It is based on birth, which determines one’s occupation (especially in contemporary rural India), and is maintained by endogamy, commensality, rituals, dietary practices, and norms of purity and pollution. The English term caste is derived from the Portuguese word casta, which refers to lineage, breed, or race. ... (The remaining sections of the article are: THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM, CASTE IN MODERN INDIA, SOME VISIBLE CHANGES IN CASTE RELATIONS, OTHER RELIGIONS AND CASTE, CASTE OUTSIDE INDIA) (full text in link)

References

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2008)-related article

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Roberts, Nathaniel P. (2008), "Anthropology of Caste", in William A. Darity (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, (Macmillan social science library), Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, ISBN 978-0-02-865967-1, retrieved 24 September 2012 Quote:

The term caste refers, paradigmatically, to a social institution in India and elsewhere in South Asia in which endogamous descent groups, known as castes or subcastes, are hierarchically ranked. It has also been used to described hereditary forms of social stratification in non—South Asian contexts, such as Japan, the American South, and elsewhere. The validity of usage outside of South Asian contexts, however, ultimately turns on how we are to understand the paradigmatic Indian case—a matter of considerable and ongoing debate. This article therefore confines itself to the study of caste in India, from its emergence in the colonial period to today. ..." (full text in link) ... The Ritual Consensus: Speculative histories and detailed catalogues of caste-based customs dominated colonial anthropology until systematic village-based fieldwork in the 1950s looked at these customs' everyday context to see how caste actually worked. That more sophisticated approach, which the influential Indian anthropologist M. N. Srinivas exemplified, helped undermine stereotypes of caste society as static and passively determined by religious ideology. Srinivas showed that wealth and physical force often trumped mere ritual (1959), and that, although an individual's ritual status was indeed fixed by their jati, whole jatis could sometimes increase their status by adopting the customs of higher-ranked castes (1956). Srinivas's important insights nevertheless remained within the received picture of the caste system as an essentially religious affair by treating the control of land and servile labor, merchant capital, the state, and sheer physical dominance—all of which were termed secular—as extrinsic factors that might interact with caste, but were not an inherent part of it. (New paragraph) The tendency to idealize caste as inherently distinct from these less exotic aspects of social reality was taken to a new extreme by French sociologist Louis Dumont, whose Homo Hierarchicus went so far as to attack empiricism itself as "Westernistic" and therefore incapable of grasping caste's true, Indian essence (1980 [19661, p. 32). ... Dumont's brilliant synthesis of the existing scholarship made Homo Hierarchicus a standard reference for all future discussions of caste, despite disagreement over its visionary epistemology. At one extreme, American anthropologist McKim Marriott (1976) embraced an all-determining cultural hiatus between India and the West even more absolute than Dumont's, for the secular factors Dumont had merely downgraded to a subordinate level were dissolved entirely in Marriott's ethnosociology—an account built completely on native categories, thereby consigning non-culturally recognized reality to theoretical oblivion. On the other side, many sober-minded anthropologists continued to regard both secular realities and caste ideology as a matter of empirical inquiry, while nevertheless accepting the culturalist definition of caste as ritual order.

Bibliography

Encyclopedia of Gender and Society

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Iyer, Nalini (2008), "Caste", in O'Brien, Jodi (ed.), Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, p. 114–116, ISBN 978-1-4129-0916-7, retrieved 15 September 2012

Caste: Caste is a form of social organization that is unique to India and is based on Hindu religious belief. This essay defines the meaning of the caste system and describes the ways in which it has been used to control sexuality, marital status, and economic and social life among women in India. Sociologists have found the caste system a very difficult and complex to describe because the idea of caste has evolved over time and function differently in various parts of India. However, there are some common features to caste that are easily identified. These include the concepts of purify and pollution that govern interpersonal relationships, including occupation, food, kinship, marriage, and religious rituals. Certain castes are considered more pure than others, and Hindus arc obligated to confine their relationships, especially those pertaining to marriage and food, to their particular caste groups. Although the caste system derives from Hinduism, it also informs the social organization of other religious groups in India, including Jains, Christians, and Muslims. ... Although India today is a secular democratic republic that has constitutionally abolished untouchability, the caste system has not been eradicated. Since independence from the British in 1947, the Indian government has pursued affirmative action (referred to as the "reservation system") to enable members of economically underprivileged castes to have better access to education and government jobs. The reservation system has been attacked by upper castes as propagating reverse discrimination. Although the caste system has evolved over time and continues to change, it still holds enormous power in daily social life, politics (caste-based parties, voting blocs), and economics in contemporary India.

Further Readings

Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society

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Gupta, Dipankar (2008), "Caste", in Schaefer, Richard T. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, Thousand Oaks: SAGE, pp. 246–250, ISBN 978-1-4129-2694-2, retrieved 5 August 2012

Caste:

What makes Indian society unique is the phenomenon of caste. Economic, religious, and linguistic differentiations, even race-based discrimination, are known elsewhere, but nowhere else does one see caste but in India (and, by extension, the subcontinent). This entry reviews the history of caste and discusses its impact on individuals and society. Caste is unique because it ordains a hierarchy that is based on the extent of purity, or lack of it, that supposedly characterizes the bodily substances of every person. Accordingly, the earliest Hindu text, the Rg Veda (c.1500 BC) puts the Brahmans, as the purest, on top, followed by warriors (Kshatriyas), commoners (Vaisyas), and helots (Sudras) at the bottom. This schematization is known as the Varna system. There is also a fifth category, the Untouchables, but this cluster of castes came to be designated as such much later, perhaps around the 1st or 2nd century AD. In addition, as time went on, the fourfold Varna category in the Rg Veda yielded to hundreds of endogamous units, or jatis. Technically speaking, only the latter are called castes. These units prescribe the frontiers of marriage alliances, and each jati has specific rituals peculiar to itself and, in a large number of cases, a traditional occupation attached to its members. All jatis are regional in character; none of them have have an all-India spread. In fact, most jatis are relevant and recognized only within a radius of about 200 to 300 miles. Caste still continues to function in India as discrete ethnic groups rather than as constituents of a continuous hierarchy of purity in which every Hindu acquiesces. Today, it is possible to say that caste as a system is dying but that identities are alive and well, and it is taking many generations for caste to wither away. Race and Caste: There are clear differences between race and caste. Unlike in race, the physical markers are not visible in caste. The bodily substances that are meant to distinguish between castes are intangible and culturally coded, but the belief is that they can be easily transferred through touch and proximity.Further, caste ideology holds that such commingling of substances pollutes both parties, not just members of the so-called superior caste, though the latter are more seriously affected. This is why the caste order includes strict rules of social intercourse and of sexual /marital relations to ensure that bodily substances of different provenances do not commingle. Each caste has its domain, and it is the duty of everybody in that community to strictly maintain norms regarding pollution. Again, unlike with race, in the caste system, a child whose parents belong to different castes is not considered to carry equal

amounts of both substances from the parents, but is characterized by a third.

Further Readings:

Encyclopedia of the Developing World

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Sooryamoorthi, Radhamany (2006), "Caste Systems", in Leonard, Thomas M. (editor) (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Developing World, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 252–, ISBN 978-0-415-97662-6, retrieved 5 August 2012 {{citation}}: |editor-first= has generic name (help)

CASTE SYSTEMS Caste is an age-old institution, evoked through several centuries. As a system of stratification, it has existed in many parts of the world and is being practiced today in some countries. But the caste system of closed endogamous descent groups as prevalent and practiced in India is not found elsewhere (Bayly 2010; Kolenda 1984). Caste is a well-entrenched phenomenon in countries like India. ...

References and Further Reading

Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions

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Wendy Doniger, ed. (1999), "Caste", Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions, Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, p. 186, ISBN 978-0-87779-044-0, retrieved 24 September 2012

CASTE, group of people having a specific social rank, defined generally by descent, marriage, commensality, and occupation. Although the term caste is applied to hierarchically ranked groups in many different societies around the world, the caste system in its most developed form is found in India. The word (from the Portuguese casta, meaning "race" or "lineage") was first applied to Indian society by Portuguese travelers in the 16th century. A roughly analogous word used in many Indian languages is JATI ("birth group"). There are about 3,000 castes and more than 25,000 subcastes in India, some with several hundred members and others with millions. ... .... (Note: the rest of the article describes the caste system in India.)

Encyclopedia of International Development

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Pavri, Firooza (2004), "Caste", in Tim Forsyth (ed.), Encyclopedia of International Development, Abingdon, Oxon, OX ; New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 63–, ISBN 978-0-415-25342-0

Caste The jati (caste) system, which evolved during the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE), of Hinduism refers to the endogamous social groups comprising contemporary and Vedic Hindu society and the rules of behavior that govern interaction between these groups. ... (Note: after six long paragraphs on India, it ends with:) Finally, while caste is distinctively Indian in origin, social scientists also often use it to describe inflexible social barriers in other contexts.

Further reading


Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World

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Sonnad, Subhash R. (2003), "Caste", in Christensen, Karen; Levinson, David (eds.), Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, pp. 115–121, ISBN 978-0-7619-2598-9, retrieved 5 August 2012

It has also been argued that the colonial rule with its divide-and-conquer policy crystallized already existing caste differences. While this criticism is valid to some extent, evidence provided by early observers, travelers, and writers indicates that many caste divisions and prac-tices were quite inflexible prior to the British rule in India. Another theory argues that the status of a caste con-ferred social power in India though it V, as not hiehly correlated with economic or political power. The status conferred on a caste was dependent on adherence to the social, relieious, and cultural norms specific to that par-ticular group. This theory does not provide an adequate explanation for this unique type of a status inconsis-tency., where power is independent of the usual corre-lates. In addition, some of the tenets about status as a Theories of Caste A number of scholars, Hindu religious leaders, and commentators have speculated about the origins of the caste system. Weber, Hocart, Dumont, Marriott, Milner, Ghurye, and Srinivas are among the widely discussed group of caste theorists. The theories are complex and wide ranging in scope. and they are presented here in a simplified form. The issues of ritual purity and pollution are attributed to the fact that the four different orders of the society (varnas) originated from different parts of the body, namely, the mouth, arms, thighs, and feet. The hierarchical status and functions of the four varnas have been attributed to this origin. This explanation is too biological and religious in nature to serve as a satisfactory social explanation. Another point of view is presented to explain the definition of the term varna, which means color. The original settlers in India were dark. The group of people who reached India from outside and who gradually conquered the original local inhabitants proceeded to subjugate them to a lower status and to stratify the social system. This theory does not address the problem of the multiplicity of jatis and the absence of such a development in all the other conquered parts of the world. Another explanation takes a conflict perspective and suggests that the system was created and sustained by the monarch of the conquering country as supreme authority. The occupational categories solidified and developed into castes. A different type of explanation posits that to maintain ritual purity, the Brahmans could not associate with unclean occupations. Though widely discussed, both these theories also fail to explain adequately why all the other agricultural nations did not develop such an elaborate caste system. It has also been argued that the colonial rule with its divide-and-conquer policy crystallized already existing caste differences. While this criticism is valid to some extent, evidence provided by early observers, travelers, and writers indicates that many caste divisions and practices were quite inflexible prior to the British rule in India. Another theory argues that the status of a caste conferred social power in India though it was not highly correlated with economic or political power. The status conferred on a caste was dependent on adherence to the social, religious, and cultural norms specific to that particular group. This theory does not provide an adequate explanation for this unique type of a status inconsistency, where power is independent of the usual correlates. In addition, some of the tenets about status as a zero-sum game are open to discussion. There is generally no argument with the criticisms of feminists about patriarchal families and domination of females in the traditional caste system. However, the feminist perspectives do not adequately explain the origin, proliferation, hereditary occupations and purification aspects of the caste phenomenon.

Further reading

Routledge international encyclopedia of women

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Kannabiran, Kalpana (2000), "Caste", in Kramarae, Cheris; Spender, Dale (eds.), Routledge international encyclopedia of women: global women's issues and knowledge, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 142–144, ISBN 978-0-415-92088-9, retrieved 5 August 2012

Caste: Caste is a hierarchical, hegemonic ranking of social groups found predominantly on the Indian subcontinent. A word of Portuguese and Spanish origin ....

The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery, Volume 1

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Salamone, Frank A. (1997), "Caste", in Rodriguez, Junius P. (ed.), The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery, Volume 1, Santa Barbara, CA; Oxford, UK: ABC-CLIO, p. 133, ISBN 978-0-87436-885-7, retrieved 5 August 2012

Caste: There is a strenuous argument among social scientists over whether the word "caste" can be used anywhere other than in referring to India. The major characteristics of India's caste system are that castes are hereditary, ranked hierarchically, religiously based, theoretically rigid, endogamous, tied to occupations, and politically supported. Additionally, there are rules of ritual purity to prevent or cleanse contamination. (New Paragraph) As the slave trade and transatlantic slavery ended, the number of slaves in African societies increased, es-pecially in those areas where plantations flourished. These slaves began forming a common identity and often acted in concert to achieve certain goals. Control over their daily life was limited, however, because of the power of African monarchs to enforce effective ju-risdiction over their activities. Thus, numerous slave revolts marked late-nineteenth-century Africa. Reforms that slaveowners developed had the effect of making slavery more like a caste status. For example, in Zanzibar, slave families were specifically encouraged, and plots of land were given to nuclear families. This marriage within a group that is tied to a particular oc-cupation is the definition of caste. Moreover, effective legislation granted specific rights to slaves, as in Cal-abar where slaves received immunity from execution. In general, codified rights and duties were attached to slave status, and the position was inherited by a married couple's offspring (Manning, 1990). (New Paragraph) In South Africa and the United States, it can be and has been argued that the relationship between the races had caste-like characteristics. Certainly, both apartheid and segregation had hereditary, rank, religious, endogamous, occupational, and hierarchical as-pects. There was, moreover, a stunning lack of social mobility in both systems and clear aspects of ritual purity tied to contamination beliefs.

For Further Reading

Cultural Anthropology

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Nanda, Serena; Warms, Richard L. (2010), Cultural Anthropology, Cengage Learning, pp. 282–, ISBN 978-0-495-81083-4, retrieved 10 August 2012

Caste systems exist in various cultures; in many West African societies blacksmiths, praise-singers, and leather workers function as endogamous castes. In traditional European society peasants and nobility were endogamous castes and in Japan the Burakumin people, who were set apart based on their participation in "unclean" occupations, represented a caste, although they were defined in racial terms. Indeed, before the 1950s era of expanding civil rights, black/white relations in the American South also incorporated many elements of a caste system. The ascribed status of race prohibited people from intermarrying, eating together, and interacting with each other in ways very similar to those of a caste system (Dollard 1937). Most frequently however, caste is identified with India, where it is deeply and historically embedded in culture and plays a central role in social stratification. Caste system in India The unique elements of the Indian caste system are its complexity ...

Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives

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Eller, Jack David (2009), Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives, Taylor & Francis, pp. 203–204, ISBN 978-0-415-48538-8, retrieved 11 August 2012

The best-known closed or caste system is that of India, in which caste membership is ascribed at birth. It would not be quite correct to say that membership is ascribed "by" birth, although usually one belongs to the caste of one's parents. However, you are not in your caste because you are born to certain parents: rather, you are born to certain parents because you are in your caste. Castes, or jatis, represent a combination of economic, kinship, political, and religious elements. You do share your caste with your kin and most immediately inherit it from them. Your occupation or economic contribution is also defined by caste: castes are, in fact, occupational groups. Beals (1980) reports that Gopalpur had fifty different jatis resident in or passing through the village, each with its own role, including priest, farmer, blacksmith, salt-maker, barber, butcher, stoneworker, leatherworker, and so on. While these were clearly economic roles, he notes that there was no direct correlation between the wealth of an individual or group and his or her or its caste: any person in any jati might be rich or poor, and there were as many rich shepherds and farmers as there were rich priests in the village. Rather, the defining feature of a jati was its spiritual condition — its ritual purity and spiritual cleanliness. Humans who were "purer" as a result of behaviors in their past lives were born into higher jatis, and those who were more "impure" were born into lower ones. The lowest castes did the dirtiest work, including handling dead (animal and human) bodies and other unclean substances. ...

Social & Cultural Anthropology in Perspective

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Lewis, I. M. (1985 (reprinted 2003)), Social & Cultural Anthropology in Perspective, Cambridge University Press (reprinted by Transaction Publishers), pp. 190–191, ISBN 978-0-7658-0986-5, retrieved 10 August 2012 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

The immense potential for social differentiation which economic specialization offers is nowhere more logically or elaborately realized than in the Indian caste system. Unlike the situation in Rwanda and many other stratified societies where power is held by a minority, here, despite considerable regional variations, the high castes and their numerous sub-divisions are generally in the majority. Partly for this reason, and because of its very distinctive cultural (and especially ritual) features, and the way in which hierarchy is assumed to be the natural order of things, many scholars insist that caste is uniquely Indian and Hindu, and does not exist elsewhere. The same, of course, can be said of any social institution. But whether we accept this parochial view or not (and we shall return to the issue later), the fact is that over three hundred million Hindus see human society as a composite structure of five interlocking but rigidly demarcated divisions.

Concise Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology

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Morris, Mike (27 March 2012), "caste", Concise Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology, John Wiley & Sons, p. 33, ISBN 978-1-4443-3209-4, retrieved 10 August 2012

caste. The hereditary and hierarchical (see HIERARCHY) division Of SOCIETY in (usually) India, associated there with Hinduism. Members of a caste share the same profession and STATUS and traditionally avoid physical contact with members of other castes. Subdivisions of castes ("jatis") are linked to particular obligations and rights (the "jajmani" system). Anthropologists disagree on whether caste should be read in ways similar to SOCIAL STRUCTURES outside India or as something unique. The nature of jajmani conventions has also been disputed. The word "caste" derives from Spanish and Portuguese, casta ("race"). (Further reading: Dumont (1980); Beteille (1996).)

References

A Dictionary of Sociology

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Scott, John; Marshall, Gordon (2005), "caste", A Dictionary of Sociology, Oxford University Press, p. 66, ISBN 978-0-19-860987-2, retrieved 10 August 2012

caste An institution of considerable internal complexity, which has been over-simplified by those seeking an ideal type of rigid hierarchical social stratification, based on extreme closure criteria. In Max Weber's writings it was synonymous with ethnic status stratification and constituted one end of the continuum which contrasted status honour stratification with commercial classes and the market. Possibly the clearest definition is that proffered by André Béteille, who describes a caste as 'a small and named group of persons characterized by endogamy, hereditary membership and a specific style of life which sometimes includes the pursuit by tradition of a particular occupation and is usually associated with a more or less distinct ritual status in a hierarchical system, based on concepts of purity and pollution' (Caste, Class and Power, 1965). Caste is especially important in the lives of Indian Hindus, for whom its basis is the traditional idea of the five varna: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and Untouchable. Within each vama there are myriad jati, which are small endogamous ....

Penguin dictionary of sociology

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Abercrombie, Nicholas; Hill, Stephen; Turner, Bryan S. (2006-02-28), "caste", The Penguin dictionary of sociology, Penguin, p. 46, ISBN 978-0-14-101375-6

caste A caste system is a form of social STRATIFICATION in which castes are hierarchically organized and separated from each other by rules of ritual purity. The lowest strata of the caste system are referred to as 'untouchables', because they are excluded from the performance of rituals which confer religious purity. In this hierarchical system, each caste is ritually purer than the one below it. The caste system is an illustration of SOCIAL CLOSURE in which access to wealth and prestige is closed to social groups which are excluded from the performance of purifying rituals. This ritual segregation is further reinforced by rules of ENDOGAMY. In Max Weber's study of India (1958a), caste represented an important illustration of social ranking by prestige and formed part of a wider interest in pariah groups. ... There is considerable debate as to whether the caste system is specific to Hindu culture, or whether its principal features are more widely found in other societies where hierarchically organized, endogamous strata are present. In the first position, caste cannot be defined independently of 'caste system', which is specific to classical Hindu society. In the second argument, the term caste is extended to embrace the stratification of ethnic groups, for example in the southern states of the USA. While the Hindu caste system is organized in terms of four major castes (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra) there is considerable diversity at the local, village level ....

Reference

Dictionary of Sociology

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Lawson, Tony (2001), "caste", Dictionary of Sociology, Taylor & Francis, p. 25, ISBN 978-1-57958-291-3, retrieved 10 August 2012

caste: a social class within the stratification system of India. The system is based on four traditional groups organized in a hierarchy and originally based on an occupational classification. The system is now hereditary, with caste being determined at birth by parents' caste membership, and cannot be changed during a lifetime. The system is a complicated one with the four main castes being subdivided into thousands of "jati," or subcastes. The four main castes from top to bottom are: 1. Brahmin: 2. Kshatriyas: 3. Vaishyas; 4. Sudras. Standing below the castes are the Harijan. who are literally "out-caste" and who occupy a position in society that makes them the object of much discrimination.

References
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A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences

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Mitchell, Geoffrey Duncan (2006), "Castes (part of SOCIAL STRATIFICATION)", A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences, New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction Publishers, pp. 194–195, ISBN 978-0-202-30878-4, retrieved 10 August 2012

Castes A pure caste system is rooted in the religious order and may be thought of as a hierarchy of hereditary, endogamous, occupational groups with positions fixed and mobility barred by ritual distances between each caste. Empirically, the classical Hindu system of India approximated most closely to pure caste. The system existed for some 3,000 years and continues today despite many attempts to get rid of some of its restrictions. It is essentially connected with Hinduism. In theory all Hindus belong to one of four main groups, denoted by a colour, these were originally in order of precedence the Kshatriyas (a warrior group), the Brahmans (a priestly group), the Vaishyas (trading and manufacturing people) and the Sudras (servants and slaves). These are all mentioned in the Hindu writings of the sixth century B.C. Later the Brahmans replaced the Kshatriyas in the prime position. Outside these four main castes there are over fifty million so-called 'outcastes' but of course these too are part of the caste system, sharing the dominant beliefs about ritual pollution they are among the least privileged and their occupations are among the least esteemed, e.g. those of the tanner or the washerman. ... For its members, a caste system is a coherent and comprehensive system of allocating ritualistic functions on the basis of a ritualistic social order to which all subscribe. It is precisely on this score that to apply the concept of caste to the social stratification of slave-states of North America is both inaccurate and misleading. Here the deep and entrenched social divisions between the white and coloured populations, although, as in contemporary South Africa, given the veneer of religious sanction, arise not from allocation of differential functions in a ritual order but from allocation of menial tasks to men of distinct colour.

Reference

Dictionary of Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

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Winthrop, Robert H. (1991), Dictionary of Concepts in Cultural Anthropology, ABC-CLIO, pp. 27–30, ISBN 978-0-313-24280-9, retrieved 10 August 2012

CASTE 1. An explicitly hierarchical social system based on hereditary, endogamous groups, in which each is characterized by a specific status, occupation, mode of life, and pattern of customary interactions with other such groups. 2. One of the endogamous units of such a system. Caste is one of a number of terms (cf. order, estate, class) denoting a ranked segment of society. Although caste is used primarily with reference to India, it is a European term, applied (at least originally) by Europeans to the analysis of Hindu life. ... The following analysis will consider caste primarily as an Indian phenomenon, with some attention also given to the relevance of caste as a cross-cultural category. In the Hindu perspective, society is of necessity highly differentiated; there is a PATTERN of behavior appropriate to each caste and stage of life. ... (New Section) Caste in India ... (New Section) Theories of Caste Anthropological debate regarding the caste concept has been dominated by two related questions: (1) What principles determine caste ranking? and (2) Is caste a cross-cultural phenomenon, or is it limited to the South Asian CULTURE AREA? ... whether caste phenomena can be found entirely outside the South Asian culture sphere remains a fundamental point of controversy (see Bartlett et al. 1976; Berreman 1968; see also INEQUALITY).

References

The Dictionary of Anthropology

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Lindholm, Charles (2002), "caste, caste societies", in Thomas Barfield (ed.), The Dictionary of Anthropology, Oxford, UK: Blackwell; New York, NY: Wiley, pp. 50–51, ISBN 978-1-57718-057-9

caste, caste societies: In a caste society groups of persons engaged in specific occupations or with specific characteristics are ranked hierarchically. These ranks are ostensibly based on the degree of pollution incurred by work at the caste specialty or by other group characteristics, and one's position in the caste scale may be regarded as a reward or punishment for spiritual attainments (see PURITY/POLLUTION). India is the most famous (some say the only) caste society. There caste is broken into four great varnas: the "twice-born" Brahman priests, Kshatriya warriors, and Vaisiya merchants, and the "once-born" Sudra peasants. Beneath these and officially excluded from the caste system are the Untouchables (Gandhi's harijans, or "children of God," now self-designated as Dalits, or "oppressed"), who fill the most polluting occupations. Although the Brahmans are universally recognized as the least spiritually polluted caste, there is no absolute consensus as to who is on top or why. For instance, religious renunciants can make claims to special holiness either by showing extraordinary asceticism and purity, or by engaging in cannibalism and self-degradation or indulging in intoxication and excess (J. Parry 1982; Lynch 1990). Furthermore, the Kshatriya, who traditionally served as rulers, established competing axes of valuation for themselves to counterbalance the Brahmans' claims to pre-eminence (Inden 1990; Heesterman 1985). In fact, Dirks (1987) argued that the Brahmanical portrait of caste was simply a wishful fantasy of priests in a colonial atmosphere that favored the disjuncture between kingly power and religious legitimacy. Among ordinary people, however, the main competition between castes remains at a lower level of organization. All the varnas are divided into multitudinous jatis, or local, endogamous occupational groups, that constitute the varied labor force of the society. These jatis can and do contest their relative positions and attempt to rise in the ranks through what Srinivas (1962) famously called "Sanskritization': emulating the attributes of higher caste groups. Thus, an economically successful lower caste may take up less polluting occupations and habits and claim higher caste status. Whether these claims are accepted varies (F. Bailey 1957), but clearly slow upward (and downward) mobility in the caste rank of jati was far more likely prior to colonial censuses, which fixed caste positions immutably in written records. Academic definitions of caste are also not solidified, and fall into two mutually exclusive positions. The first is structural-functional and views caste as a category or type, comparable in many respects to hierarchical organizations elsewhere. In this vein, Gerald Berreman wrote that "a caste system resembles a plural society whose discrete sections all ranked vertically." (1968: 55). Indian caste therefore is analogous to social structures elsewhere in which rank is ascribed, such as American racial grading (Goethals 1961; Bujra 1971). The second school understands Indian caste as a total symbolic world, unique, self-contained, and not comparable to other systems. Most of these theorists would agree with the classic definition by Bougle, who wrote that "the spirit of caste unites these three tendencies: repulsion, hierarchy and hereditary specialization" (1971: 9); controversies are primarily over which of these aspects is stressed. Dumont, the best known of the symbolic school, based his interpretation of caste on the attributes of hierarchy and repulsion. In his book Homo hierarchicus (1970), he focused on the rigidity of caste positions at each end of the hierarchical spectrum (Brahmans and outcastes) and the radical opposition in Hindu thought between categories of power and categories of status. LEACH, on the other hand, gave first place to hereditary specialization; the diagnostic of the system, for him, was that "every caste, not merely the upper elite, has its special 'privileges" (1960a: 7). A somewhat different approach was taken by Marriott and Inden. They postulated an indigenous monism, grounded in the assumption that in a caste society "all living beings are differentiated into genera, or classes, each of which is thought to possess a defining substance" (1974: 983). These substances, according to the theory, arc formed by various transactions, particularly exchanges of food. Marriott and Inden were then able to develop transactional flow charts that locate all different Indian groups within their paradigm. A difficulty for interpretive theory is the place of non-Hindus within a caste system. For instance, Muslims, who make up approximately 12 percent of India's population, advocate the equality of all believers and deny the validity of notions of pollution (Lindholm 1986). The problem of accommodating such nonbelievers within caste society is not merely academic, as present-day sectarian battles chillingly testify.

References:

The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology

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Johnson, Allan G. (2000), "caste", The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User's Guide to Sociological Language, Wiley, p. 34, ISBN 978-0-631-21681-0, retrieved 10 August 2012

caste. A caste is a rigid category into which people arc born with no possibility of change. In some systems Of STRATIFICATION AND INEQUALITY, the distribution of rewards and resources is organized around castes. In India, the caste system historically has consisted of four basic categories - Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra - each with its own specific and rigid location in the stratification system. In addition to these, an "outcaste" of "untouchables" is beneath the lowest caste. The crossing of caste boundaries is rigidly prohibited through controls over occupational distribution and residence, and especially through control over the choice of marriage partners. Within the four major castes, there are numerous sub-castes among which a certain amount of mobility is possible. According to the Indian caste system, which is codified in the Hindu religion, people may move from one caste to another across several life-times through the process of reincarnation. Such movements depend upon successful performance in the present caste position, which means that the system provides a powerful incentive for enforcing acceptance of the caste system itself and its inequalities. Although the concept of caste is associated almost exclusively with India, elements of caste can be found in a few other societies, such as Japan during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and more recently in the United States and South Africa. Although the caste system was officially banned in India in 1949, its influence remains in rural areas.

Reference

(Dated reference) Dictionary of Anthropology

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Winich, Charles (1956), "caste", Dictionary of Anthropology, Citadel Press, p. 100, ISBN 978-0-8065-2919-6

caste. An hierarchical system of social control in India, with each sub-group assigned a ranked status, depending on its origin and religious strictness. In Europe, a minority group with its own culture, such as the Gypsies. In the United States, a hereditary class status, the members of which are limited in residence, job, marriage, and economic possibilities. In India, theoretically there are four castes: Brahmans, warriors, farmers and business men, and workers. When seven years old, members of the three top castes have a spiritual rebirth. In actuality, there are more than four castes. and Brahmans are not all priests. Pollution by leather and contact with the lowest group is a common religious idea, as is the idea that only persons of the same caste can eat together. Some foods are forbidden. Endogamy is the rule. Hereditary occupations for caste members are common.

The Dictionary of Human Geography

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Nagar, Richa (2011), "caste", in Derek Gregory (ed.), The Dictionary of Human Geography, Ron Johnston, Geraldine Pratt, Michael Watts, Sarah Whatmore, John Wiley & Sons, p. 72, ISBN 978-1-4443-5995-4, retrieved 10 August 2012

caste An endogamous social hierarchy of enduring political significance, believed to have emerged some 3500 years ago around highly questionable categories of Aryans and non-Aryans in the Indian subcontinent. The former - comprising brahmart, kshatriya and vaishya - emerged as dominant occupational castes of so-called dvija (twice-born). The shudra caste(s) - regarded as non-Aryan and 'mixed' - were occupationally marginalized and racialized, as was also the case later with the `outcastes' (Dalit), whose touch was deemed polluting (Thapar, 1966). This order was challenged from the sixth century BCE, but all major religions in India came to bear the social imprint of caste. Brahman social dominance was bolstered by a British neo-Brahmanical ruling IDEOLOGY, and provoked a backlash (Bose and Jalal, 1997). Significantly, leaders such as Lohia analytically separated the high castes from women, shudra, Dalit, Muslim and adivasi ('indigenous') and underscored the political necessity of marriages between shudra and dvija, while disrupting the rift between manual and brain work, which contributed to the formation, rigidification and violence of caste.

Suggested reading
  • Lohia, Rammanohar (1964), The caste system, Hyderabad, India: Navahind, retrieved 25 September 2012

Dictionary of the Social Sciences

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Calhoun, Craig (2002), "caste", Dictionary of the Social Sciences, Oxford University Press, p. 60, ISBN 978-0-19-512371-5, retrieved 10 August 2012

caste The term that the Portuguese and later the British used to describe the hereditary Hindu system of rank that organizes society in India. In principle, there are four castes—the priests (Brahmin), the warriors (Kshatriya), the merchants (Vaisiya), and the peasants (Sudra). There is also a group below and excluded from the caste system—the untouchables. The exclusivity of the castes was reinforced through rigid norms that governed contact among them and that especially proscribed marriage outside each caste. Traditionally, caste dictated employment possibilities according to a system that ranked occupations by their degree of spiritual pollution. In practice, in an occupationally complex and modernizing society, the castes are divided into many subcastes, which vary across localities. Certain occupations are open or vied for by more than one caste, and a significant minority in Indian society rejects the system altogether—notably the Muslims. India has proved a rich and difficult subject of anthropological and sociological interpretation—one that resists simple accounts of caste practices. The study of the Indian caste system has also had an impact on the accounts of divided societies more generally, contributing the notion of a SUBALTERN as a way of thinking about subordination that cuts across lines of class, race, and gender.

References
  • None

Anthropology: The Human Challenge

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Haviland, William A.; Prins, Harald E. L.; Walrath, Dana (2010), Anthropology: The Human Challenge, Cengage Learning, pp. 536–537, ISBN 978-0-495-81084-1, retrieved 11 August 2012 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

A caste is a closed social class in a stratified society in which membership is determined by birth and fixed for life. The opposite of the principle that all humans are born equal, the caste system is based on the principle that humans neither are nor can be equal. Castes are strongly endogamous, and offspring are automatically members of their parents' caste. (New Section) TRADITIONAL HINDU CASTE SYSTEM The classic ethnographic example of a caste system is the traditional Hindu caste system of India (also found in other parts of Asia, including Nepal and Bali). Perhaps the world's longest surviving social hierarchy, it encompasses a complex ranking of social groups on the basis of "ritual purity:' Each of some 2,000 different castes considers itself as a distinct community higher or lower than other castes, although their particular ranking varies among geographic regions and over time. (After seven long paragraphs on the Hindu caste system, the textbook has the following one paragraph on other castlike situations.) ... Castelike situations are found in other places in the world. In Bolivia, Ecuador, and several other South and Central American countries, for example, the wealthy upper class is almost exclusively white and rarely intermarries with people of non-European descent. In contrast, the lower class of working poor in those countries is primarily made up of American Indian laborers and peasants. Likewise, most European stratified societies were historically organized in closed social classes known as estates—ranked as clergy, nobility, and citizens and each with distinctive political rights (privileges). These were hierarchically identified by titles and forms of address, and they were publicly identified by distinctive dress and codes of behavior.

International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences

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Das, Veena (2001), "Caste", in Neil J. Smelser (ed.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences, Paul B. Baltes, Oxford, UK: Pergamon; Elsevier, pp. 1529–1532, ISBN 978-0-08-043076-8, retrieved 25 September 2012

Caste as the Ideology of Indian society
Louis Dumont's (1980) Homo Hierarchicus has long been regarded as an outstanding contribution to the understanding of caste. Dumont argued that principles of hierarchy and holism were central for explaining the caste system. The principle of hierarchy in India. he proposed, was based upon the religious opposition between pure and impure pollution incurred in the biological processes of life and death was removed in India not through processes of reciprocity (I bury your dead—you bury mine) but through principles of hierarchy. The task of removal of pollution was assigned to the lower castes who became permanently imbued with it. Thus the separation between castes as well as their hierarchical ordering could be derived from the opposition between pure and impure. The scheme had the simplicity and elegance to make the bewildering diversity of Indian civilization immediately knowable, especially to Western readers. Dumont's characterization of Indian society has been challenged on the ground that what he saw as a timeless ideology was itself a result of certain practices of classification and enumeration instituted in the context of colonial administration that gave a domi-nant place to Brahmanical texts as representatives of Indian society. An important intervention made by McKim Marriott (1990) needs mention here. Marriott provided a significant alternative to Dumont's formulation. arguing that different transactional strate-gies defined the position of different castes it was not a simple case of hierarchy versus equality hut rather of a universe governed by a complex set of rules and strategies reaarding, matching, mixina, and marking, through which different regional and local configurations of castes were generated. What was at stake for both Dumont and Marriott. despite their differences, was the representation of India as the 'other' of the modern West. They were much less interested in either the concrete historical processes through which insti-tutions were formed or the contemporary changes in the caste system. It is instructive to compare this with the way that caste was rendered in the work of the Indian anthropologist, M. N. Srinivas. Srinivas's stake in the local and his deep concern with the way caste was shaping Indian democratic politics distinguish him from these authors. ....
Bibliography
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  • Appadurai A 1996 Number in the colonial imagination. In: Appadurai A Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, pp.114-39
  • MeiIle A 1996 Caste in contemporary India. In: Fuller C J (ed.) Caste Today. Oxford University Press. Delhi. India
  • Charsley S 1996 'Untouchable': What is in the name? Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute 2: 1-23
  • Cohn B S 1984 The census, social structure and objectification in South Asia. Folk 26: 25-49
  • Deliege R 1992 Replication and consensus: Untouchability, caste and ideology in India. Man 27: 155-73
  • Dirks N B 1992 Castes of mind. Representations 37: 56-78
  • Dumont L 1980 Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications. University of Chicago Press. Chicago
  • Dushkin L 1972 Scheduled caste politics. In: Mahar J M (ed.) The Untouchables in Contemporary India. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. AZ
  • Galanter M 1972 The abolition of disabilities: Untouchability and the law. In: Mahar J M (ed.) The Untouchables in Contemporary India. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ
  • Gandhi M K 1954 The Removal of Untouchability. Navajivan Press, Ahmadabad. India
  • Ghurye G S 1932 Caste and Race in India. Kegan Paul. London
  • Khare R S 1984 The Untouchable as HUnself: Ideology, Identitv and Pragmatism Among the Lucknow Chamars. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. UK
  • Kothari R 1970 Caste in Indian Politics. Orient Longmans. Delhi, India
  • Marriott M (ed.) 1990 India Through Hindu Categories. Sage. Delhi, India
  • Muru2kar L 1991 Dalit Panther Movement in Maharashtra: A Sociological Appraisal. Popular Prakashan. Bombay. India
  • Omvedt G 1995 Dalit Visions: The Anti-Caste Movement and the Construction of an Indian Identity. Orient Longman. New Delhi. India
  • Risley H R [1908] 1969 The People of India.. Oriental Books, New Delhi. India
  • Smith R S 1986 "Rule-by-records and rule-by-reports: Complementary aspects of the British imperial rule of law." Contributions to Indian Sociology, 19(1): 153-76.
  • Srinivas, M. N. 1971 Social Change in Modern India. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
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