Bách khoa toàn thư nền nông nghiệp thế giới - Vùng Nam Á - Vần C | Castes Hindu 57 Castes Hindu The caste system is a form of hierarchical kin-based social organization of great antiquity found in South Asian societies. The term from the Portuguese casta is frequently contrasted with such other social categories as race class tribe and ethnic group. In India caste together with the village community and the extended family forms the main element of social structure. This system consists of hierarchically arranged in-marrying groups that were traditionally associated with a specific occupational specialization. Interrelations between castes arose out of the need of one caste for the goods or services of another. These relations are governed by codes of purity and pollution. The word caste itself is homologous with any of three different indigenous terms. Varna which was an ancient allIndia classification system consisting of a fourfold division of society perhaps arose out of a blending of the nomadic warrior culture of Aryans with the settled urban agrarian culture of the Indus Valley. The religious text Rig Veda spells out and justifies this stratification system putting the Brahman or priest at the top followed by the Kshatriya or warrior Vaisya or landowner and trader and Shudra or artisan and servant in that order. Later a fifth vama of Untouchables developed called Panchama to accommodate intercaste offspring. The word caste may also be coterminous with the word jati which is a hereditary occupational unit. Hindu texts say that jatis of which there are several thousand emerged out of intermarriages between vamas. Modem theory holds that jatis developed as other social groups like tribes or those practicing a new craft or occupational skill became integrated into the classic vama system. This process continues today as groups on the fringes of Hindu society become part of it by claiming a jati designation. Lastly caste may refer to gotra which is an exogamous descent group within a jati. It may be anchored territorially and .
