Editing Caste (section)

==Caste in sociology and entomology==
The initial observational studies of the division of labour in ant colonies attempted to demonstrate that ants specialized in tasks that were best suited to their size when they emerged from the pupae stage into the adult stage.{{Sfn|Gordon|2010|p=26}} A large proportion of the experimental work was done in species that showed strong variation in size.{{sfn|Gordon|2010|p=26}} As the size of an adult was fixed for life, workers of a specific size range came to be called a "caste", calling up the traditional caste system in India in which a human's standing in society was decided at birth.{{sfn|Gordon|2010|p=26}}

The notion of caste encouraged a link between scholarship in entomology and sociology because it served as an example of a division of labour in which the participants seemed to be uncompromisingly adapted to special functions and sometimes even unique environments.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=80}} To bolster the concept of caste, entomologists and sociologists referred to the complementary social or natural parallel and thereby appeared to generalize the concept and give it an appearance of familiarity.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|pp=80&ndash;82}} In the late 19th- and early 20th centuries, the perceived similarities between the Indian caste system and [[Ant#polymorphism|caste polymorphism]] in insects were used to create a correspondence or parallelism for the purpose of explaining or clarifying racial stratification in human societies; the explanations came particularly to be employed in the United States.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=81}} Ideas from [[heredity]] and [[natural selection]] influenced some sociologists who believed that some groups were predetermined to belong to a lower social or occupational status.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=81}} Chiefly through the work of [[W. Lloyd Warner]] at the [[University of Chicago]], a group of sociologists sharing similar principles came to evolve around the creed of caste in the 1930s and 1940s.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=81}}

The ecologically oriented sociologist [[Robert E. Park]], although attributing more weight to environmental explanations than the biological nonetheless believed that there were obstacles to the assimilation of blacks into American society and that an "accommodation stage" in a biracially organized caste system was required before full assimilation.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}} He did disavow his position in 1937, suggesting that blacks were a minority and not a caste.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}} The Indian sociologist [[Radhakamal Mukerjee]] was influenced by Robert E. Park and adopted the concept of "caste" to describe race relations in the US.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|pp=81&ndash;82}} According to anthropologist Diane Rodgers, Mukerjee "proceeded to suggest that a caste system should be correctly instituted in the (US) South to ease race relations."{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|pp=81&ndash;82}} Mukerjee often employed both entomological and sociological data and clues to describe caste systems.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}} He wrote "while the fundamental industries of man are dispersed throughout the insect world, the same kind of polymorphism appears again and again in different species of social insects which have reacted in the same manner as man, under the influence of the same environment, to ensure the supply and provision of subsistence."{{sfn|Mukerjee|1926|p=228}} Comparing the caste system in India to caste polymorphism in insects, he noted, "where we find the organization of social insects developed to perfection, there also has been seen among human associations a minute and even rigid specialization of functions, along with ant- and bee-like societal integrity and cohesiveness."{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}} He considered the "resemblances between insect associations and caste-ridden societies" to be striking enough to be "amusing".{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}}