[youeseh]

Certainly, I hope anyone commenting on this will take note of the publishing date being more than 100 years ago.

Who your kids end up marrying is mentioned as a big driver of caste in the article. I think that holds true today as well. All things being equal, your professor / lawyer / doctor parents probably don't want you to marry a janitor.

And, I'm pretty sure this is true everywhere.

In a highly competitve place (mostly due to population), they'll say something like, "he's from the janitor class, but thats okay, because he's a doctor" to justify marrying outside the caste.

[the_omegist]

> And, I'm pretty sure this is true everywhere. In a highly competitve place (mostly due to population), they'll say something like, "he's from the janitor class, but thats okay, because he's a doctor" to justify marrying outside the caste.

Well, I don't think there is a concept of "janitor class" "everywhere"...

Of course social classes exist everywhere, but I think your example just shows what a caste system is : if a son-of-janitor becomes a doctor the in-laws in most modern societies will see a doctor, whereas in a caste system they will see a (son-of-) janitor.

[unmole]

> Certainly, I hope anyone commenting on this will take note of the publishing date being more than 100 years ago.

That's irrelevant when discussing the mechanism, genesis and development of a system that goes back millienia.

> they'll say something like, "he's from the janitor class, but thats okay, because he's a doctor"

What are you basing this on? Exogamy between castes remains very low, even between different high castes.

[mohanmcgeek]

> Exogamy between castes remains very low, even between different high castes.

What are you basing this on?