Editing Caste (section)

== Outside South Asia ==
=== Southeast Asia ===
[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een soedra een man uit de laagste kaste van Bali. TMnr 60002169.jpg|thumb|upright|A Sudra caste man from [[Bali]]. Photo from 1870, courtesy of [[Tropenmuseum]], [[Netherlands]].]]

==== Indonesia ====
{{Main|Balinese caste system}}
[[Bali]]nese caste structure has been described as being based either on three categories—the noble triwangsa (thrice born), the middle class of ''dwijāti'' (twice born), and the lower class of ''ekajāti'' (once born), much similar to the traditional Indian [[Varna (Hinduism)|BKVS social stratification]] — or on four castes<ref name="boon">{{cite book |title=The Anthropological Romance of Bali 1597-1972: Dynamic Perspectives in Marriage and Caste, Politics and Religion |first=James |last=Boon |year=1977 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] Archive |isbn=978-0-521-21398-1}}</ref>
*[[Brahmin]]as – [[priest]]
*[[Kshatriya|Satrias]] – [[knight]]hood
*[[Vaishya|Wesias]] – [[commerce]]
*[[Shudra|Sudras]] – [[Involuntary servitude|servitude]]

The Brahmana caste was further subdivided by Dutch ethnographers into two: Siwa and Buda. The Siwa caste was subdivided into five: Kemenuh, Keniten, Mas, Manuba and Petapan. This classification was to accommodate the observed marriage between higher-caste Brahmana men with lower-caste women. The other castes were similarly further sub-classified by 19th-century and early-20th-century ethnographers based on numerous criteria ranging from profession, endogamy or exogamy or polygamy, and a host of other factors in a manner similar to ''castas'' in [[Spanish Empire|Spanish colonies]] such as [[New Spain|Mexico]], and caste system studies in British colonies such as India.<ref name="boon" />

====Philippines====
[[File:Naturales 3.png|thumb|upright|A [[Tagalog people|Tagalog]] royal couple (''[[maginoo]]''), from the [[Boxer Codex]] ({{Circa|1590}})]]
In the Philippines, pre-colonial societies do not have a single social structure. The class structures can be roughly categorised into four types:<ref name="Scott1979">{{cite journal |last1=Scott |first1=William Henry |title=Class Structure in the Unhispanized Philippines |journal=Philippine Studies |date=1979 |volume=27 |issue=2, Special Issue in Memory of Frank Lynch |pages=137–159 |jstor=42632474}}</ref>
* Classless societies – egalitarian societies with no class structure. Examples include the [[Mangyan people|Mangyan]] and the [[Kalanguya people]]s.<ref name="Scott1979" />
* Warrior societies – societies where a distinct warrior class exists, and whose membership depends on martial prowess. Examples include the [[Mandaya people|Mandaya]], [[Bagobo people|Bagobo]], [[Tagakaulo people|Tagakaulo]], and [[B'laan people]]s who had warriors called the ''bagani'' or ''magani''. Similarly, in the [[Cordillera Central (Luzon)|Cordillera highlands]] of [[Luzon]], the [[Isneg people|Isneg]] and [[Kalinga people]]s refer to their warriors as ''mengal'' or ''maingal''. This society is typical for [[head-hunting]] ethnic groups or ethnic groups which had seasonal raids (''[[mangayaw]]'') into enemy territory.<ref name="Scott1979" />
* Petty [[Plutocracy|plutocracies]] – societies which have a wealthy class based on property and the hosting of periodic prestige feasts. In some groups, it was an actual caste whose members had specialised leadership roles, married only within the same caste, and wore specialised clothing. These include the ''kadangyan'' of the [[Ifugao people|Ifugao]], [[Bontoc people|Bontoc]], and [[Kankanaey people|Kankanaey]] peoples, as well as the ''baknang'' of the [[Ibaloi people]]. In others, though wealth may give one prestige and leadership qualifications, it was not a caste per se.<ref name="Scott1979" /> 
*Principalities – societies with an actual ruling class and caste systems determined by birthright. Most of these societies are either [[Greater India|Indianized]] or [[Islamized]] to a degree. They include the larger coastal ethnic groups like the [[Tagalog people|Tagalog]], [[Kapampangan people|Kapampangan]], [[Visayan people|Visayan]], and [[Moro people|Moro]] societies. Most of them were usually divided into four to five caste systems with different names under different ethnic groups that roughly correspond to each other. The system was more or less [[feudalistic]], with the ''datu'' ultimately having control of all the lands of the community. The land is subdivided among the enfranchised classes, the ''sakop'' or ''sa-op'' ([[vassal]]s, lit. "those under the power of another"). The castes were hereditary, though they were not rigid. They were more accurately a reflection of the interpersonal political relationships, a person is always the follower of another. People can move up the caste system by marriage, by wealth, or by doing something extraordinary; and conversely they can be demoted, usually as criminal punishment or as a result of debt. Shamans are the exception, as they are either volunteers, chosen by the ranking shamans, or born into the role by innate propensity for it. They are enumerated below from the highest rank to the lowest:<ref name="Scott1979" /><ref name="arcilla">{{cite book |last=Arcilla |first=José S. |title=An Introduction to Philippine History |publisher=[[Ateneo de Manila University Press]] |year=1998 |page=14&ndash;16 |isbn=978-971-550-261-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uxEYobbU-D8C&q=timawa&pg=PA14}}</ref><ref name="scott2">{{cite book |last=Scott |first=William Henry |title=Barangay: sixteenth-century Philippine culture and society |publisher=[[Ateneo de Manila University Press]] |isbn=978-971-550-135-4 |year=1994}}</ref>{{pn|date=February 2025}}
:* Royalty – ([[Visayan people|Visayan]]: ''[[kadatoan]]'') the ''[[datu]]'' and immediate descendants. They are often further categorised according to purity of lineage. The power of the ''datu'' is dependent on the willingness of their followers to render him respect and obedience. Most roles of the datu were judicial and military. In case of an unfit ''datu'', support may be withdrawn by his followers. ''Datu'' were almost always male, though in some ethnic groups like the [[Banwaon people]], the female shaman (''[[Philippine shamans|babaiyon]]'') co-rules as the female counterpart of the ''datu''. 
:* Nobility – (Visayan: ''[[tumao]]''; [[Tagalog people|Tagalog]]: ''[[maginoo]]''; [[Kapampangan people|Kapampangan]] ''ginu''; [[Tausug people|Tausug]]: ''bangsa mataas'') the ruling class, either inclusive of or exclusive of the royal family. Most are descendants of the royal line or gained their status through wealth or bravery in battle. They owned lands and subjects, from whom they collected taxes.
:* [[Philippine shamans|Shamans]] – (Visayan: ''babaylan''; Tagalog: ''katalonan'') the spirit mediums, usually female or feminised men. While they were not technically a caste, they commanded the same respect and status as nobility. 
:* Warriors – (Visayan: ''[[timawa]]''; Tagalog: ''[[maharlika]]'') the martial class. They could own land and subjects like the higher ranks, but were required to fight for the ''datu'' in times of war. In some Filipino ethnic groups, they were often tattooed extensively to record feats in battle and as protection against harm. They were sometimes further subdivided into different classes, depending on their relationship with the ''datu''. They traditionally went on seasonal raids on enemy settlements. 
:* Commoners and slaves – (Visayan, [[Maguindanao people|Maguindanao]]: ''[[ulipon]]''; Tagalog: ''[[alipin]]''; Tausug: ''kiapangdilihan''; [[Maranao people|Maranao]]: ''kakatamokan'') – the lowest class composed of the rest of the community who were not part of the enfranchised classes. They were further subdivided into the commoner class who had their own houses, the servants who lived in the houses of others, and the slaves who were usually captives from raids, criminals, or debtors. Most members of this class were equivalent to the European [[serf]] class, who paid taxes and can be conscripted to communal tasks, but were more or less free to do as they please.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

=== East Asia ===

==== China and Mongolia ====
During the period of the [[Yuan dynasty]], ruler [[Kublai Khan]] enforced a ''Four Class System'', which was a legal caste system.{{cn|date=February 2025}} The order of four classes of people in descending order were:
* [[Mongols|Mongolian]]
* [[Semu]] people
* [[Han Chinese|Han]] people (in the northern areas of China)
* Southerners (people of the former Southern [[Song dynasty]])

==== Tibet ====
{{See also|Social classes of Tibet}}
There is significant controversy over the [[social classes of Tibet]], especially with regards to the [[serfdom in Tibet controversy]].{{cn|date=February 2025}} There were three main feudal social groups in [[Tibet]] prior to 1959, namely ordinary [[Laity|laypeople]] (''mi ser'' in Tibetan), lay nobility (''sger pa''), and [[monk]]s.<ref>Snellgrove, ''Cultural History'', pp. 257–259</ref> 

{{ill|Heidi Fjeld|no|vertical-align=sup}} has put forth the argument that pre-1950s Tibetan society was functionally a caste system, in contrast to previous scholars who defined the Tibetan social class system as similar to European [[Feudalism|feudal]] [[serfdom]], as well as non-scholarly western accounts which seek to romanticise a supposedly egalitarian ancient Tibetan society.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

==== Japan ====
{{Main|Edo society}}
[[File:Edo social structure.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|A social hierarchy chart based on old academic theories. Such hierarchical diagrams were removed from Japanese textbooks after various studies in the 1990s revealed that peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were in fact equal and merely social categories.<ref name="tokyoshoseki"/><ref name="uki300823"/><ref name="shimonoseki"/> Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest [[List of Japanese court ranks, positions and hereditary titles|court ranks]], higher than most court nobles.<ref name="kakaku">{{cite web |url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%AE%B6%E6%A0%BC-43286# |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307120204/https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%AE%B6%E6%A0%BC-43286 |script-title=ja:家格 |language=ja |title=Kakaku |trans-title=Family status |website=Kotobank |archive-date=7 March 2024 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref>]]
In Japan's history, social strata based on inherited position rather than personal merit, were rigid and highly formalised in a system called {{lang|ja-latn|mibunsei}} ({{lang|ja|身分制}}). At the top were the Emperor and Court nobles ([[kuge]]), together with the [[Shōgun]] and [[daimyō]].{{cn|date=February 2025}}

Older scholars believed that there were {{nihongo3|[[Four divisions of society|four classes]]|士農工商|Shi-nō-kō-shō}} of "[[samurai]], peasants (''hyakushō''), craftsmen, and merchants (''[[chōnin]]'')" under the daimyo, with 80% of peasants under the 5% samurai class, followed by craftsmen and merchants.{{sfn|Beasley|1972|p=22}} However, various studies have revealed since about 1995 that the classes of peasants, craftsmen, and merchants under the samurai are equal, and the old hierarchy chart has been removed from Japanese history textbooks. In other words, peasants, craftsmen, and merchants are not a social pecking order, but a social classification.<ref name="tokyoshoseki">{{cite web |url=https://www.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/question/e/syakai.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130175341/https://www.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/question/e/syakai.html |script-title=ja:「士農工商」や「四民平等」の用語が使われていないことについて |language=ja |title='Shinōkōshō' ya ' sì mín píng děng ' No yōgo ga tsukawa rete inai koto ni tsuite |trans-title=Regarding the absence of the terms "Shi-no-Ko-Sho" and "Equality of the Four Classes" |website=[[Tokyo Shoseki]] |archive-date=30 November 2023 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="uki300823">{{cite web |url=https://www.city.uki.kumamoto.jp/2028316 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830135959/https://www.city.uki.kumamoto.jp/2028316 |script-title=ja:第35回　教科書から『士農工商』が消えた ー後編ー　令和3年広報うき「ウキカラ」8月号 |language=ja |title=Dai 35-kai kyōkasho kara "shinōkōshō" ga kieta ̄ kōhen ̄-rei wa 3-nen kōhō uki 'ukikara' 8 tsuki-gō |trans-title=No. 35: The disappearance of the four classes of samurai, farmers, artisans and merchants from textbooks - Part 2 - August issue of the Reiwa 3rd year Uki Public Relations "Ukikara" |website=[[Uki, Kumamoto]] |archive-date=30 August 2023 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="shimonoseki">{{cite web |url=https://www.city.shimonoseki.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/58936.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606001503/https://www.city.shimonoseki.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/58936.pdf |script-title=ja:人権意識のアップデート |language=ja |title=Jinken ishiki no appudēto |trans-title=Update on human rights awareness |website=[[Shimonoseki]] |archive-date=6 June 2023 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref>
[[File:The four classes of society by Ozawa Nankoku.jpeg|thumb|The four classes of society in Japan during the [[Edo period]]. The [[samurai]] represented a hereditary social class defined by the right to bear arms and to hold public office, as well as high social status.]]
Marriage between certain classes was generally prohibited. In particular, marriage between [[daimyo]] and court nobles was forbidden by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] because it could lead to political maneuvering.{{cn|date=February 2025}} For the same reason, marriages between daimyo and high-ranking [[hatamoto]] of the samurai class required the approval of the Tokugawa shogunate. It was also forbidden for a member of the samurai class to marry a peasant, craftsman, or merchant, but this was done through a loophole in which a person from a lower class was adopted into the samurai class and then married. Since there was an economic advantage for a poor samurai class person to marry a wealthy merchant or peasant class woman, they would adopt a merchant or peasant class woman into the samurai class as an adopted daughter and then marry her.<ref name="asahi">{{cite web |url=https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/42642?page=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307171356/https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/42642?page=2 |script-title=ja:結婚は主君の許可が必要だが、離婚するときはどうだった？江戸時代「武士」の一生行事 |language=ja |title=Kekkon wa shukun no kyoka ga hitsuyōdaga, rikon suru toki wa dōdatta? Edo jidai 'bushi' no isshō gyōji |trans-title=Marriage required the permission of the lord, but what about divorce? The life events of the Edo period "samurai" |publisher=[[The Asahi Shimbun]] |date=31 January 2022 |archive-date=7 March 2024 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="livedoor">{{cite web |url=https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/24377409/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307171300/https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/24377409/ |script-title=ja:江戸時代の武家の結婚は簡単じゃなかった。幕府の許可も必要だった|language=ja |title=Edo jidai no buke no kekkon wa kantan janakatta. Bakufu no kyoka mo hitsuyōdatta |trans-title=Marriage among samurai in the Edo period was not easy. They needed permission from the shogunate. |website=Livedoor News |date=6 June 2023 |archive-date=7 March 2024 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref> Samurai had the right [[Kiri-sute gomen|to strike and even kill]] with their sword anyone of a [[Four divisions of society|lower class]] who compromised their [[honour]].<ref name=World>[https://samurai-world.com/kirisute-gomen/ Kirisute-gomen - Samurai World]</ref>

[[Japan]] had its own untouchable caste, shunned and ostracised, historically referred to by the insulting term ''eta'', now called ''[[burakumin]]''. While modern law has officially abolished the class hierarchy, there are reports of discrimination against the ''buraku'' or ''burakumin'' underclasses.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nair |first=Ravi |url=http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF39.htm |title=Class, Ethnicity and Nationality: Japan Finds Plenty of Space for Discrimination |publisher=South Asia Human Rights Documentation System |date=18 June 2001 |access-date=30 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331133636/https://hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF39.htm |archive-date=31 March 2022}}</ref> The ''burakumin'' are regarded as "ostracised".<ref>{{cite journal |first=William H. |last=Newell |date=December 1961 |title=The Comparative Study of Caste in India and Japan |journal=[[Asian Survey]] |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=3–10 |doi=10.2307/3023467 |jstor=3023467}}</ref> The ''burakumin'' are one of the main [[demographics of Japan|minority groups in Japan]], along with the [[Ainu people|Ainu]] of [[Hokkaido]] and those of [[Zainichi Korean|Korean]] or [[Chinese in Japan|Chinese]] descent.

==== Korea ====
{{Korean caste system}}
[[File:Korea-History-Goban Game in Seoul Korea 1904 (LOC).jpg|thumb|upright|A typical Yangban family scene from 1904. The Yoon family had an enduring presence in Korean politics from the 1800s until the 1970s.]]
The [[baekjeong]] ({{lang|ko|백정}}) were an "untouchable" outcaste of Korea. The meaning today is that of butcher. It originates in the [[Goryeo-Khitan Wars|Khitan invasion of Korea]] in the 11th century. The defeated [[Khitan people|Khitans]] who surrendered were settled in isolated communities throughout Goryeo to forestall rebellion. They were valued for their skills in hunting, herding, butchering, and making of leather, common skill sets among nomads. Over time, their ethnic origin was forgotten, and they formed the bottom layer of Korean society.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

In 1392, with the foundation of the Confucian [[Joseon dynasty]], Korea systemised its own native class system. At the top were the two official classes, the [[Yangban]], which literally means "two classes". It was composed of scholars ({{lang|ko-latn|munban}}) and warriors ({{lang|ko-latn|muban}}). Scholars had a significant social advantage over the warriors. Below were the {{lang|ko-latn|jung-in}} ({{lang|ko|중인-中人}}: literally "middle people"). This was a small class of specialised professions such as medicine, accounting, translators, regional bureaucrats, etc. Below that were the {{lang|ko-latn|sangmin}} ({{lang|ko|상민-常民}}: literally 'commoner'), farmers working their own fields. Korea also had a [[serf]] population known as the ''nobi''. The nobi population could fluctuate up to about one third of the population, but on average the nobi made up about 10% of the total population.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rodriguez |first1=Junius P. |title=The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=978-0-87436-885-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalencycl01rodr/page/392 392] |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalencycl01rodr |url-access=registration |quote=10 percent of the total population on average, but it could rise up to one-third of the total. |access-date=14 February 2017 |language=en |year=1997}}</ref> In 1801, the vast majority of government nobi were emancipated,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kim |first1=Youngmin |last2=Pettid |first2=Michael J. |title=Women and Confucianism in Choson Korea: New Perspectives |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |isbn=978-1-4384-3777-4 |page=141 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwgUa6WWFBMC&pg=PA141 |access-date=14 February 2017 |language=en |date=1 November 2011}}</ref> and by 1858 the nobi population stood at about 1.5% of the total population of Korea.<ref name="nobi">{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Gwyn |title=Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-75917-9 |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J0iRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 |access-date=14 February 2017 |language=en |date=23 November 2004}}</ref> The hereditary nobi system was officially abolished around 1886–87 and the rest of the nobi system was abolished with the [[Gabo Reform]] of 1894,<ref name="nobi" /> but traces remained until 1930.

The opening of Korea to foreign [[Christian mission]]ary activity in the late 19th century saw some improvement in the status of the {{lang|ko-latn|baekjeong}}. However, everyone was not equal under the Christian congregation, and even so protests erupted when missionaries tried to integrate {{lang|ko-latn|baekjeong}} into worship, with non-{{lang|ko-latn|baekjeong}} finding this attempt insensitive to traditional notions of hierarchical advantage.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} Around the same time, the {{lang|ko-latn|baekjeong}} began to resist open social discrimination.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=In Search of Human Rights: The Paekchŏng Movement in Colonial Korea |title=Colonial Modernity in Korea |first=Joong-Seop |last=Kim |editor1-first=Gi-Wook |editor1-last=Shin |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-last=Robinson |year=1999 |page=326 |publisher=Harvard Univ Asia Center |isbn=978-0-674-00594-5}}</ref> They focused on social and economic injustices affecting them, hoping to create an [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]] Korean society. Their efforts included attacking social discrimination by upper class, authorities, and "commoners", and the use of degrading language against children in public schools.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Korean Paekjŏng under Japanese rule: the quest for equality and human rights |first=Joong-Seop |last=Kim |year=2003 |page=147}}</ref>

With the [[Gabo reform]] of 1896, the class system of Korea was officially abolished. Following the collapse of the [[Enlightenment Party|Gabo government]], the new cabinet, which became the Gwangmu government after the establishment of the [[Korean Empire]], introduced systematic measures for abolishing the traditional class system. One measure was the new household registration system, reflecting the goals of formal [[social equality]], which was implemented by the loyalists' cabinet. Whereas the old registration system signified household members according to their hierarchical social status, the new system called for an occupation.<ref name="proper">{{cite journal |last=Hwang |first=Kyung Moon |date=2004 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |title=Citizenship, Social Equality and Government Reform: Changes in the Household Registration System in Korea, 1894–1910 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=355–387 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X04001106}}</ref>

While most Koreans by then had surnames and even {{lang|ko-latn|[[bongwan]]}}, although still substantial number of {{lang|ko-latn|[[cheonmin]]}}, mostly consisted of [[serfs]] and slaves, and [[Untouchability|untouchables]] did not. According to the new system, they were then required to fill in the blanks for surname in order to be registered as constituting separate households. Instead of creating their own family name, some {{lang|ko-latn|cheonmins}} appropriated their masters' surname, while others simply took the most common surname and its {{lang|ko-latn|bongwan}} in the local area. Along with this example, activists within and outside the Korean government had based their visions of a new relationship between the government and people through the concept of citizenship, employing the term {{lang|ko-latn|inmin}} ("people") and later, {{lang|ko-latn|kungmin}} ("citizen").<ref name="proper"/>

==== North Korea ====
{{Main|Songbun}}
The [[Committee for Human Rights in North Korea]] reported that "Every North Korean citizen is assigned a heredity-based class and socio-political rank over which the individual exercises no control but which determines all aspects of his or her life."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9313174/North-Korea-caste-system-underpins-human-rights-abuses.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9313174/North-Korea-caste-system-underpins-human-rights-abuses.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=North Korea caste system 'underpins human rights abuses' |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=UK |date=6 June 2012 |access-date=3 November 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Called ''[[Songbun]]'', [[Barbara Demick]] describes this "class structure" as an updating of the hereditary "caste system", a combination of [[Confucianism]] and [[Communism]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Demick |author-link=Barbara Demick |title=Nothing to Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea |publisher=Fourth Estate |location=London |date=2010 |pages=26–27}}</ref> It originated in 1946 and was entrenched by the 1960s, and consisted of 53 categories ranging across three classes: loyal, wavering, and impure. The privileged "loyal" class included members of the [[Workers' Party of Korea|Korean Workers' Party]] and [[Korean People's Army]] officers' corps, the wavering class included peasants, and the impure class included [[Collaboration with Imperial Japan|collaborators with Imperial Japan]] and [[Land tenure|landowners]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cha |first=Victor D. |url=http://archive.org/details/impossiblestaten0000chav_j2c1 |title=The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future |publisher=Ecco |others=Internet Archive |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-06-199850-8 |location=New York |page=186 |language=en}}</ref> She claims that a bad family background is called "tainted blood", and that by law this "tainted blood" lasts three generations.{{sfn|Demick|2010|pp=28, 197, 202}}

=== West Asia ===
==== Kurdistan ====
===== Yazidis =====
{{further|Yazidi social organization}}
There are three hereditary groups, often called castes, in [[Yazidism]]. Membership in the Yazidi society and a caste is conferred by birth. Pîrs and Sheikhs are the [[priestly caste]]s, which are represented by many sacred lineages ({{langx|ku-Latn|Ocax}}). Sheikhs are in charge of both religious and administrative functions and are divided into three endogamous houses, Şemsanî, Adanî and Qatanî who are in turn divided into lineages. The Pîrs are in charge of purely religious functions and traditionally consist of 40 lineages or clans, but approximately 90 appellations of Pîr lineages have been found, which may have been a result of new sub-lineages arising and number of clans increasing over time due to division as Yazidis settled in different places and countries. Division could occur in one family, if there were a few brothers in one clan, each of them could become the founder of their own Pîr sub-clan ({{Langx|ku-Latn|ber}}). Mirîds are the lay caste and are divided into [[Kurdish tribes|tribes]], who are each affiliated to a Pîr and a Sheikh priestly lineage assigned to the tribe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pirbari |first1=Dimitri |last2=Mossaki |first2=Nodar |last3=Yezdin |first3=Mirza Sileman |date=March 2020 |title=A Yezidi Manuscript:—Mišūr of P'īr Sīnī Bahrī/P'īr Sīnī Dārānī, Its Study and Critical Analysis |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=53 |issue=1–2 |pages=223–257 |doi=10.1080/00210862.2019.1669118 |s2cid=214483496 |issn=0021-0862}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Omarkhali |first=Khanna |date=31 December 2008 |title=On the Structure of the Yezidi Clan and Tribal System and its Terminology among the Yezidis of the Caucasus |journal=[[Journal of Kurdish Studies]] |volume=6 |pages=104–119 |doi=10.2143/jks.6.0.2038092 |issn=1370-7205}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Omarkhali |first=Khanna |title=The Yezidi religious textual tradition: from oral to written categories, transmission, scripturalisation and canonisation of the Yezidi oral religious texts |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-447-10856-0 |page=27 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |oclc=1007841078}}</ref>

==== Iran ====
Pre-Islamic [[Sassanid]] society was immensely complex, with separate systems of social organisation governing numerous different groups within the empire.<ref name="Nicolle, p. 11">Nicolle, p. 11</ref> Historians believe society comprised four<ref>
These four are the three common "Indo-Euoropean" [[Trifunctional hypothesis|social tripartition]] common among ancient Iranian, Indian and Romans with one extra Iranian element (from Yashna xix/17). cf. Frye, p. 54.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Persian Night: Iran under the Khomeinist Revolution |date=1986 |first=Amir |last=Taheri |publisher=Encounter books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Why the Middle East Lagged Behind: The Case of Iran |page=72 |first=Kāẓim |last=ʻAlamdārī |publisher=University Press of America}}</ref> [[social class]]es, which linguistic analysis indicates may have been referred to collectively as "pistras".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chaudhuri |first=K. N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYY6AAAAIAAJ&dq=pistra+iran&pg=PA55 |title=Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750 |date=1990 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press|CUP Archive]] |isbn=978-0-521-31681-1 |language=en}}</ref> The classes, from highest to lowest status, were priests ({{transliteration|fa|Asravan}}), warriors ({{transliteration|fa|Arteshtaran}}), secretaries ({{transliteration|fa|Dabiran}}), and commoners ({{transliteration|fa|Vastryoshan}}).

==== Yemen ====
{{further|Al-Akhdam}}
In [[Yemen]] there exists a hereditary caste, the [[Africa]]n-descended [[Al-Akhdam]] who are kept as perennial manual workers. Estimates put their number at over 3.5 million residents who are discriminated, out of a total Yemeni population of around 22 million.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-999239 |title=Yemen's Al-Akhdam face brutal oppression |work=[[CNN]] |access-date=22 October 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131129072703/http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-999239 |archive-date=29 November 2013}}</ref>

=== Africa ===
{{Main|Caste systems in Africa}}
Various sociologists have reported caste systems in Africa.<ref name="Obinna1">{{cite journal |title=Contesting identity: the Osu caste system among Igbo of Nigeria |first=Elijah |last=Obinna |pages=111–121 |journal=African Identities |volume=10 |issue=1 |year=2012 |doi=10.1080/14725843.2011.614412 |s2cid=144982023}}</ref><ref name="James B. Watson 356–379">{{cite journal |title=Caste as a Form of Acculturation |first=James B. |last=Watson |journal=[[Southwestern Journal of Anthropology]] |volume=19 |number=4 |date=Winter 1963 |pages=356–379 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.19.4.3629284 |s2cid=155805468}}</ref><ref name="tamari1" /> The specifics of the caste systems have varied in ethnically and culturally diverse Africa; however, the following features are common – it has been a closed system of social stratification, the social status is inherited, the castes are hierarchical, certain castes are shunned while others are merely endogamous and exclusionary.<ref>{{cite web |title=Caste discrimination in Africa |first=Leo |last=Igwe |publisher=International Humanist and Ethical Union |date=21 August 2009 |url=http://www.iheu.org/caste-discrimination-africa |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003061801/http://www.iheu.org/caste-discrimination-africa |archive-date=3 October 2009}}</ref> In some cases, concepts of purity and impurity by birth have been prevalent in Africa. In other cases, such as the ''[[Nupe people|Nupe]]'' of Nigeria, the ''[[Beni Amer]]'' of East Africa, and the ''[[Tira people|Tira]]'' of Sudan, the exclusionary principle has been driven by evolving social factors.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Caste and government in primitive society |first=S. F. |last=Nadel |journal=[[Journal of Anthropological Society]] |volume=8 |pages=9–22 |year=1954}}</ref>

====West Africa====
[[File:GriotFête.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Griot]], who have been described as an endogamous caste of West Africa who specialise in oral story telling and culture preservation. They have been also referred to as the bard caste.]]
Among the [[Igbo people|Igbo]] of [[Nigeria]] – especially [[Enugu State|Enugu]], [[Anambra State|Anambra]], [[Imo State|Imo]], [[Abia State|Abia]], [[Ebonyi State|Ebonyi]], [[Edo State|Edo]] and [[Delta state|Delta]] states of the country – scholar [[Elijah Obinna]] finds that the [[Osu caste system]] has been and continues to be a major social issue. The Osu caste is determined by one's birth into a particular family irrespective of the religion practised by the individual. Once born into Osu caste, this Nigerian person is an outcast, shunned and ostracised, with limited opportunities or acceptance, regardless of his or her ability or merit. Obinna discusses how this caste system-related identity and power is deployed within government, Church and indigenous communities.<ref name="Obinna1"/>

The ''osu'' class systems of eastern [[Nigeria]] and southern [[Cameroon]] are derived from indigenous religious beliefs and discriminate against the "Osus" people as "owned by deities" and outcasts.

The [[Songhai people|Songhai]] economy was based on a caste system. The most common were metalworkers, fishermen, and carpenters. Lower caste participants consisted of mostly non-farm working immigrants, who at times were provided special privileges and held high positions in society. At the top were noblemen and direct descendants of the original Songhai people, followed by freemen and traders.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.africankingdoms.com|title=Kingdoms of Ancient African History |website=africankingdoms.com |access-date=22 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190519102901/http://africankingdoms.com/ |archive-date=19 May 2019}}</ref>

In a review of social stratification systems in Africa, Richter reports that the term caste has been used by French and American scholars to many groups of West African artisans. These groups have been described as inferior, deprived of all political power, have a specific occupation, are hereditary and sometimes despised by others. Richter illustrates caste system in [[Ivory Coast]], with six sub-caste categories. Unlike other parts of the world, mobility is sometimes possible within sub-castes, but not across caste lines. Farmers and artisans have been, claims Richter, distinct castes. Certain sub-castes are shunned more than others. For example, exogamy is rare for women born into families of woodcarvers.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Further considerations of caste in West Africa: The Senufo |first=Dolores |last=Richter |journal=[[Africa (journal)|Africa]] |date= January 1980 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=37–54 |doi=10.2307/1158641 |jstor=1158641 |s2cid=146454269}}</ref>

Similarly, the [[Mandé peoples|Mandé]] societies in [[Gambia]], [[Ghana]], [[Guinea]], [[Ivory Coast]], [[Liberia]], [[Senegal]] and [[Sierra Leone]] have social stratification systems that divide society by ethnic ties. The Mande class system regards the ''jonow'' slaves as inferior. Similarly, the [[Wolof people|Wolof]] in Senegal is divided into three main groups, the ''geer'' (freeborn/nobles), ''jaam'' (slaves and slave descendants) and the underclass ''neeno''. In various parts of West Africa, [[Fula people|Fulani]] societies also have class divisions. Other castes include ''Griots'', ''Forgerons'', and ''Cordonniers''.<ref name="Griot">{{cite journal |last1=Feder |first1=Lisa |title=Negotiating between Manding and American1 Sensibilities. Anthropology and Humanism |journal=Two World Systems Collide |date=June 2020 |volume=45 |issue=1 |page=60 |doi=10.1111/anhu.12280 |url=https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/anhu.12280 |access-date=8 March 2025}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

Tamari has described endogamous castes of over fifteen West African peoples, including the [[Toucouleur people|Tukulor]], [[Songhai people|Songhay]], [[Dogon people|Dogon]], [[Senufo people|Senufo]], [[Minyanka language|Minianka]], Moors, [[Mandinka people|Manding]], [[Soninke people|Soninke]], [[Wolof people|Wolof]], [[Serer people|Serer]], [[Fula people|Fulani]], and [[Tuareg people|Tuareg]]. Castes appeared among the [[Mandinka people|''Malinke'' people]] no later than 14th century, and was present among the ''Wolof'' and ''Soninke'', as well as some ''Songhay'' and ''Fulani'' populations, no later than 16th century. Tamari claims that wars, such as the ''Sosso-Malinke'' war described in the ''Sunjata'' epic, led to the formation of blacksmith and bard castes among the people that ultimately became the Mali empire.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

As West Africa evolved over time, sub-castes emerged that acquired secondary specialisations or changed occupations. Endogamy was prevalent within a caste or among a limited number of castes, yet castes did not form demographic isolates according to Tamari. Social status according to caste was inherited by off-springs automatically; but this inheritance was paternal. That is, children of higher caste men and lower caste or slave concubines would have the caste status of the father.<ref name="tamari1">{{cite journal |journal=[[The Journal of African History]] |year=1991 |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=221–250 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700025718 |title=The Development of Caste Systems in West Africa |first=Tal |last=Tamari |s2cid=162509491}}</ref>

====Central Africa====
[[Ethel M. Albert]] in 1960 claimed that the societies in [[Central Africa]] were caste-like social stratification systems.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Socio-Political Organization and Receptivity to Change: Some Differences between Ruanda and Urundi |first=Ethel M. |last=Albert |journal=[[Southwestern Journal of Anthropology]] |volume=16 |number=1 |date=Spring 1960 |pages=46–74 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.16.1.3629054 |s2cid=142847876}}</ref> Similarly, in 1961, Maquet notes that the society in [[Rwanda]] and [[Burundi]] can be best described as castes.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Premise of Inequality in Ruanda: A Study of Political Relations in a Central African Kingdom |first=Jacques J. |last=Maquet |year=1962 |pages=135–171 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-19-823168-4}}</ref> The [[Tutsi]], noted Maquet, considered themselves as superior, with the more numerous [[Hutu]] and the least numerous [[Twa]] regarded, by birth, as respectively, second and third in the hierarchy of Rwandese society. These groups were largely endogamous, exclusionary and with limited mobility.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Power in Ruanda |first=Helen |last=Codere |journal=[[Anthropologica]] |volume=4 |number=1 |year=1962 |pages=45–85 |jstor=25604523 |doi=10.2307/25604523}}</ref>

==== Horn of Africa ====
In Ethiopia, there have been a number of studies of castes. Broad studies of castes have been written by [[Alula Pankhurst]], who has published a study of caste groups in [[South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region|SW Ethiopia]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pankhurst |first=Alula |date=1999 |title='Caste' in Africa: the evidence from south-western Ethiopia reconsidered |journal=[[Africa (journal)|Africa]] |volume=69 |number=4 |pages=485–509 |doi=10.2307/1160872 |jstor=1160872}}</ref> and a later volume by Dena Freeman writing with Pankhurst.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Freeman |first1=D. |last2=Pankhurst |first2=A. |date=2003 |title=Peripheral people: The excluded minorities of Ethiopia |location=Lawrenceville, NJ |publisher=Red Sea Press}}</ref>{{pn|date=February 2025}}

[[File:NSRW Africa Midgan.png|thumb|upright|The [[Madhiban]] (Midgan) specialise in leather occupation. Along with the Tumal and Yibir, they are collectively known as ''sab''.<ref name="Lewis" />]]
In a review published in 1977, Todd reports that numerous scholars report a system of social stratification in different parts of Africa that resembles some or all aspects of caste system. Examples of such caste systems, he claims, are to be found in [[Ethiopia]] in communities such as the [[Gurage people|Gurage]] and [[Konso people|Konso]]. He then presents the Dime of Southwestern Ethiopia, amongst whom there operates a system which Todd claims can be unequivocally labelled as caste system. The Dime have seven castes whose size varies considerably. Each broad caste level is a hierarchical order that is based on notions of purity, non-purity and impurity. It uses the concepts of defilement to limit contacts between caste categories and to preserve the purity of the upper castes. These caste categories have been exclusionary, endogamous and the social identity inherited.<ref>{{cite journal |title=La Caste en Afrique? (Caste in Africa?) |first=D. M. |last=Todd |journal=[[Africa (journal)|Africa]] |date=October 1977 |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=398–412 |doi=10.2307/1158345 |jstor=1158345 |s2cid=144428371}}</ref>

Among the [[Kingdom of Kafa|Kafa]], there were also traditionally groups labelled as castes. "Based on research done before the Derg regime, these studies generally presume the existence of a social hierarchy similar to the caste system. At the top of this hierarchy were the Kafa, followed by occupational groups including blacksmiths (Qemmo), weavers (Shammano), bards (Shatto), potters, and tanners (Manjo). In this hierarchy, the Manjo were commonly referred to as hunters, given the lowest status equal only to slaves."<ref>{{cite book |first=Sayuri |last=Yoshida |chapter=Why did the Manjo convert to Protestant? Social Discrimination and Coexistence in Kafa, Southwest Ethiopia? |title=Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies |editor1-first=Svein |editor1-last=Ege |editor2-first=Harald |editor2-last=Aspen |editor3-first=Birhanu |editor3-last=Teferra |editor4-first=Shiferaw |editor4-last=Bekele |location=Trondheim |date=2009 |pages=299–309 [299]}}</ref>

The [[Borana Oromo]] of southern [[Ethiopia]] in the [[Horn of Africa]] also have a class system, wherein the Wata, an acculturated hunter-gatherer group, represent the lowest class. Though the Wata today speak the [[Oromo language]], they have traditions of having previously spoken another language before adopting Oromo.<ref name="Westermann">{{cite book |first1=Edwin William |last1=Smith |first2=Cyril Daryll |last2=Forde |first3=Diedrich |last3=Westermann |title=Africa |year=1981|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=853}}</ref>

The traditionally nomadic [[Somali people]] are divided into clans, wherein the [[Rahanweyn]] agro-pastoral clans and the occupational clans such as the [[Madhiban]] were traditionally sometimes treated as outcasts.<ref>{{cite book |first=I. M. |last=Lewis |title=A pastoral democracy: a study of pastoralism and politics among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa |publisher=LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster |date=1999 |pages=13–14}}</ref> As Gabooye, the Madhiban along with the [[Yibir]] and Tumaal (collectively referred to as ''sab'') have since obtained political representation within [[Somalia]], and their general social status has improved with the expansion of urban centers.<ref name="Lewis">{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=I. M. |title=Understanding Somalia and Somaliland: Culture, History, Society |year=2008 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-70084-9 |page=8}}</ref>

===Europe===

==== Basque Country ====
For centuries, through the modern times, the majority regarded [[Cagot]]s who lived primarily in the [[Basque Country (greater region)|Basque region]] of France and Spain as an inferior caste, and a group of untouchables.<ref>{{cite book |last=Delacampagne |first=Christian |title=L'invention du racisme: Antiquité et Moyen-Âge |language=fr |trans-title=The invention of racism: Antiquity and the Middle Ages |publisher=[[Fayard]] |series=Hors collection |date=1983 |location=Paris |isbn=9782213011172 |doi=10.3917/fayar.delac.1983.01 |url=https://www.cairn.info/l-invention-du-racisme--9782213011172.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419111416/https://www.cairn.info/l-invention-du-racisme--9782213011172.htm |archive-date=19 April 2023 |pages=114–115, 121–124}}</ref> While they had the same skin color and religion as the majority, in the churches they had to use segregated doors, drink from segregated fonts, and receive communion on the end of long wooden spoons. It was a closed social system. The socially isolated Cagots were endogamous, and chances of social mobility non-existent.<ref name="indi-2008-07-28">{{cite news |last=Thomas |first=Sean |date=28 July 2008 |title=The Last Untouchable in Europe |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-last-untouchable-in-europe-878705.html |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |access-date=28 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112024608/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-untouchable-europe-878705.html |archive-date=12 January 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Jolly |first=Geneviève |date=2000 |title=Les cagots des Pyrénées: une ségrégation attestée, une mobilité mal connue |language=fr |trans-title=The cagots of the Pyrenees: an attested segregation, a poorly known mobility |journal={{ill|Le Monde alpin et rhodanien|fr}} |volume=28 |number=1–3 |pages=197–222 [205] |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/mar_0758-4431_2000_num_28_1_1716 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213120731/https://www.persee.fr/doc/mar_0758-4431_2000_num_28_1_1716 |archive-date=13 February 2023 |quote=L'étendue des aires matrimoniales et la distribution des patronymes constituent les principaux indices de la mobilité des cagots. F. Bériac relie l'extension des aires matrimoniales des cagots des différentes localités étudiées (de 20 à plus de 35 km) à l'importance et la densité relative des groupes de cagots, corrélant la recherche de conjoints lointains à l'épuisement des possibilités locales. A. Guerreau et Y. Guy, en utilisant la documentation gersoise exploitée par G. Loubès et les documents publiés par Fay pour le Béarn et la Chalosse (XVe–XVIIe s.) concluent que l'endogamie des cagots semble s'opérer au sein de trois sous-ensembles qui correspondent à ceux que distingue la terminologie à partir du XVIe siècle: agotes, cagots, capots. Au sein de chacun d'eux, les distances moyennes d'intermariage sont relativement importantes: entre 12 et 15 km en Béarn et Chalosse, plus de 30 km dans le Gers, dans une société où plus de la moitié des mariages se faisaient à l'intérieur d'un même village. |trans-quote=The extent of marital areas and the distribution of surnames are the main indices of cagot mobility. F. Bériac links the extension of the matrimonial areas of the Cagots of the different localities studied (from 20 to more than 35 km) to the importance and the relative density of the groups of cagots, correlating the search for distant spouses with the exhaustion of possibilities local. {{ill|Alain Guerreau|fr}} and Y. Guy, using the [[Gers]] documentation exploited by G. Loubès and the documents published by Fay for Béarn and [[Chalosse]] (15th–17th century) conclude that the endogamy of Cagots seems to operate within three subsets that correspond to those distinguished by terminology from the 16th century: agotes, cagots, capots. Within each of them, the average intermarriage distances are relatively long: between 12 and 15 km in Béarn and Chalosse, more than 30 km in the Gers, in a society where more than half of marriages took place at home, inside the same village.}}</ref>

==== United Kingdom ====
In July 2013, the UK government announced its intention to amend the [[Equality Act 2010]], to "introduce legislation on caste, including any necessary exceptions to the caste provisions, within the framework of domestic discrimination law".<ref>{{cite web |website=Government Equalities Office |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225658/130726-Caste-Discrimination.pdf |title=Caste legislation introduction – programme and timetable |access-date=2 June 2016}}</ref> Section 9(5) of the Equality Act 2010 provides that "a [[Minister (government)|Minister]] may by [[Statutory order|order]] amend the statutory definition of race to include caste and may provide for exceptions in the Act to apply or not to apply to caste".{{cn|date=February 2025}}

From September 2013 to February 2014, [[Meena Dhanda]] led a project on "Caste in Britain" for the UK [[Equality and Human Rights Commission]] (EHRC).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/research-report-91-caste-britain-socio-legal-review |title=Research report 91: Caste in Britain: Socio-legal Review |website=[[Equality and Human Rights Commission]] |access-date=21 October 2017 |archive-date=27 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227084332/https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/research-report-91-caste-britain-socio-legal-review}}</ref>

=== Americas ===
==== Latin America ====
{{Main|Casta}}
{{See also|Mestizaje}}
[[File:Casta painting all.jpg|thumb|150px|Casta painting showing 16 racial groupings. Anonymous, 18th century]]
In colonial Spanish America (16th-early 19th centuries), there were legal divisions of society, the Republic of Spaniards ({{lang|es|República de Españoles}}), comprising European whites, African slaves ({{lang|es|negros}}), and mixed-race {{lang|es|[[casta]]s}}, the offspring of unions between whites, blacks, and indigenous. The Republic of Indians ({{lang|es|República de Indios}}) comprised all the various indigenous peoples, now classified in a single category, {{lang|es|indio}}, by their colonial rulers. In the social and racial hierarchy, European Spaniards were at the apex, with legal rights and privileges. Lower racial groups (Africans, mixed-race castas, and pure indigenous), had fewer legal rights and lower social status. Unlike the rigid caste system in India, in colonial Spanish America there was some fluidity within the social order.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cope |first=R. Douglas |title=The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660–1720 |location=Madison |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |date=1994}}</ref>

==== United States ====
{{main|Caste discrimination in the United States}}
In the opinion of [[W. Lloyd Warner]], discrimination in the Southern United States in the 1930s against [[African Americans|Blacks]] was similar to Indian castes in such features as [[Residential segregation in the United States|residential segregation]] and marriage restrictions.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1086/217391 |title=American Caste and Class |journal=[[American Journal of Sociology]] |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=234–237 |year=1936 |last1=Warner |first1=W. Lloyd |s2cid=146641210}}</ref> In her 2020 book ''[[Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents]]'', journalist [[Isabel Wilkerson]] used caste as an analogy to understand racial discrimination in the United States.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

[[Gerald Berreman|Gerald D. Berreman]] contrasted the differences between discrimination in the United States and India. In India, there are complex religious features which make up the system, whereas in the United States race and color are the basis for differentiation. The caste systems in India and the United States have higher groups which desire to retain their positions for themselves and thus perpetuate the two systems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berreman |first=Gerald |date=September 1960 |title=Caste in India and the United States |journal=[[American Journal of Sociology]] |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=120–127 |jstor=2773155 |doi=10.1086/222839 |s2cid=143949609}}</ref>

The process of creating a homogenized society by social engineering in both India and the Southern US has created other institutions that have made class distinctions among different groups evident. Anthropologist [[James C. Scott]] elaborates on how "global [[capitalism]] is perhaps the most powerful force for homogenization, whereas the state may be the defender of local difference and variety in some instances".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scott |first=James C. |author-link=James C. Scott |title=Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed |date=1998 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=0-300-07016-0 |location=New Haven |page=8 |oclc=37392803}}</ref> The caste system, a relic of feudalistic economic systems, emphasizes differences between socio-economic classes that are obviated by openly free market capitalistic economic systems, which reward individual initiative, enterprise, merit, and thrift, thereby creating a path for social mobility.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}} When the feudalistic slave economy of the [[southern United States]] was dismantled, [[Jim Crow laws]] and acts of [[domestic terrorism]] committed by [[white supremacists]] prevented many industrious [[African Americans]] from participating in the formal economy and achieving economic success on parity with their white peers, or destroying that economic success in instances where it was achieved, such as [[Greenwood District, Tulsa|Black Wall Street]], with only rare but commonly touted exceptions to lasting personal success such as [[Maggie L. Walker|Maggie Walker]], [[Annie Turnbo Malone|Annie Malone]], and [[Madam C. J. Walker|Madame C.J. Walker]]. Parts of the United States are sometimes divided by race and class status despite the national narrative of integration.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

A survey on caste discrimination conducted by Equality Labs{{efn|Described as a "Dalit rights organisation"<ref name="The Hindu opposes">{{cite news |first=Sriram |last=Lakshman |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/group-opposes-protection-from-caste-discrimination-in-california-varsitys-faculty-union/article38319866.ece |title=Group opposes protection from caste discrimination in California Varsity's faculty union |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=24 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250114005223/https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/group-opposes-protection-from-caste-discrimination-in-california-varsitys-faculty-union/article38319866.ece |archive-date=14 January 2025}}</ref> and a "nonprofit organization focused on ending what it calls caste apartheid".<ref>{{cite news |first=Nani Sahra |last=Walker |url=https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-04/fight-to-add-caste-as-protected-category-in-us |title=Even in the U.S. he couldn't escape the label 'untouchable' |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=4 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814010520/https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-04/fight-to-add-caste-as-protected-category-in-us |archive-date=14 August 2024}}</ref>}} found 67% of Indian Dalits living in the US reporting that they faced caste-based harassment at the workplace, and 27% reporting verbal or physical assault based on their caste.{{sfn|Equality Labs, 2018|pp=20, 27}} However, the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] study in 2021 criticizes Equality Labs findings and methodology noting Equality Labs study "relied on a nonrepresentative snowball sampling method to recruit respondents. Furthermore, respondents who did not disclose a caste identity were dropped from the data set. Therefore, it is likely that the sample does not fully represent the South Asian American population and could skew in favor of those who have strong views about caste. While the existence of caste discrimination in India is incontrovertible, its precise extent and intensity in the United States can be contested".<ref>{{cite web |date=9 June 2021 |first1=Sumitra |last1=Badrinathan |first2=Devesh |last2=Kapur |first3=Jonathan |last3=Kay |first4=Milan |last4=Vaishnav |title=Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2021/06/social-realities-of-indian-americans-results-from-the-2020-indian-american-attitudes-survey?lang=en |publisher=[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] |access-date=9 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128050508/https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2021/06/social-realities-of-indian-americans-results-from-the-2020-indian-american-attitudes-survey?lang=en |archive-date=28 January 2025}}</ref>

In 2023, [[Seattle]] became the first city in the United States to ban discrimination based on caste.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64727735 |title= Seattle becomes first US city to ban caste discrimination |first=Max |last=Matza |date=22 February 2023 |work=[[BBC News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241228045646/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64727735 |archive-date=28 December 2024}}</ref>