Caste System

(noun)

an elaborate and complex social system that combines some or all elements of endogamy, hereditary transmission of occupation, social class, social identity, hierarchy, exclusion and power

Related Terms

Examples of Caste System in the following topics:

  • Caste Systems

    • Caste systems are closed social stratification systems in which people inherit their position and experience little mobility.
    • Some sociologists suggest that caste systems come in two forms: racial caste systems and non-racial caste systems.
    • Several statutes recognized offsprings of mixed castes, much like caste system of colonial Spain.
    • Social systems identical to caste systems found elsewhere in the world have historically existed in Europe as well.
    • Compare the caste system in ancient India with the estate system in feudal Europe

  • Race Relations in Mexico: The Color Hierarchy

    • Mexican society still shows traces of the racial and ethnic caste system that was instituted by the Spanish during the colonial period.
    • This division is a remnant of the colonial Spanish caste system, which categorized individuals according to their perceived level of biological mixture between these two groups.
    • This artist's rendering of the Spanish racial/ethnic caste system imposed in Mexico during the colonial period illustrates the hierarchy from white Europeans to dark-skinned Native Americans or indigenous people.
    • Explain how racial relations in Mexico have been influenced by the colonial caste system

  • The Incest Taboo, Marriage, and the Family

    • A classic example is seen in India's caste system, in which unequal castes are endogamous.
    • Class, caste, ethnic and racial endogamy typically coexists with family exogamy and prohibitions against incest.

  • Open vs. Closed Stratification Systems

    • In an open class system, people are ranked by achieved status, whereas in a closed class system, people are ranked by ascribed status.
    • Sociologists who study stratification have identified open class systems and compared them to closed class systems.
    • These types of class systems are achievement-based economic system with social mobility and relations between classes.
    • Compared with industrialized open systems, pre-industrial societies have mostly been found to be closed class systems where there is low social mobility.
    • A society in which traditional or religious caste systems dominate, opportunity for social mobility is unlikely.

  • Social Mobility

    • By contrast, in the traditional Indian caste system the highest social position was occupied by those who demonstrated priestliness.
    • Societies present different opportunities for mobility depending on their systems of value.

  • The U.S. Political System

    • Although nothing in U.S. law requires it, in practice, the political system is dominated by political parties.
    • Although individual citizens are the only ones who can cast votes, special interest groups and lobbyists may influence elections and law-making with money and other resources.

  • Democracy in the U.S.

    • Unlike the United Kingdom and other similar parliamentary systems that directly choose a particular political party, Americans vote for a specific candidate.
    • People vote for electors who pledge, in turn, to cast their electoral votes for a particular candidate.
    • The modern political party system in the United States is a two-party system dominated by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
    • Diagram the basic form of the United States government, focusing on its branches and electoral system

  • Weber's Model for Bureaucracy

    • Weber listed the following as preconditions for the emergence of bureaucracy: the growth in size and density of the population being administered, the growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out, and the existence of a monetary economy requiring a more efficient administrative system.
    • This resulted in public demands for a new administrative system that treated all humans equally.
    • For Weber, the implementation of bureaucracies in government was a kind of rationalization, in which traditional motivators for behavior were cast aside.
    • Regarding Western societies, Weber called this increasing rationalization an "iron cage" that trapped individuals in systems based solely on efficiency, rational calculation, and control.

  • Thinking Globally

    • These elections appear similar on the surface: people go to polling places, cast votes, and elect leaders.
    • Some scholars use world systems theory.
    • World systems theory stresses that the world system (not nation states) should be the basic unit of social analysis.
    • The most well-known version of the world system approach has been developed by Immanuel Wallerstein in 1970s and 1980s.
    • Other approaches that fall under world systems theory include dependency theory and neocolonialism.

  • Theories of Deviance

    • The criminal justice system is also structured to reflect differences in power and property, as white collar crime illustrates.
    • It may also be the case that it is difficult to collect such statistics, but that is also likely due to the fact that a system for tracking such crimes has not been put into place because such crimes are not seen as warranting the same amount of attention as exists for other types of crimes.
    • The process of re-casting one's past actions in light of a current identity is referred to as retrospective labeling.
    • A very clear example of retrospective labeling can be seen in how the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were re-cast after the incident took place.