Caste

Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a lifestyle which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution. Its paradigmatic ethnographic example is the division of Indian society into rigid social groups, with roots in India's ancient history and persisting until today. However, the economic significance of the caste system in India has been declining as a result of urbanization and affirmative action programs. A subject of much scholarship by sociologists and anthropologists, the Indian caste system is sometimes used as an analogical basis for the study of caste-like social divisions existing outside India.

Etymology

The English word "caste" derives from the Spanish and Portuguese casta, which the Oxford English Dictionary quotes John Minsheu's Spanish dictionary (1599) to mean, "race, lineage, or breed". When the Spanish colonized the New World, they used the word to mean a "clan or lineage." However, it was the Portuguese who employed casta in the primary modern sense when they applied it to the thousands of in-marrying hereditary Indian social groups they encountered upon their arrival in India in 1498. The use of the spelling "caste," with this latter meaning, is first attested to in English in 1613.

Caste (play)

Caste is a comedy drama by Thomas William Robertson, first seen in 1867. The play was the third of several successes by Robertson produced in London's West End by Squire Bancroft and his wife Marie Wilton. As its name suggests, Caste concerns distinctions of class and rank. The son of a French nobleman marries a ballet dancer and then goes to war. When word arrives that he has been killed in action, his mother tries to wrest the child from his penniless widow.

History

The play was based on the short story "The Poor Rate Unfolds a Tale", written by Robertson in 1866 for Rates and Taxes, a Christmas publication edited by Tom Hood.

The play was first seen on 6 April 1867 at the Prince of Wales' Theatre, produced by Squire Bancroft and his wife the actress Marie Wilton, to whom it was dedicated. They had produced Robertson's plays Society in 1865 and Ours in 1866. These plays have a novel naturalistic style, in which the characters behave like real people, with settings and stage properties that add realism to the drama; the actors were in sympathy with this style, and the plays were successful. Caste, in the same vein, was particularly enduring; during the next few years it was revived three times at this theatre, totalling 650 performances under the Bancroft management.

Caste (disambiguation)

Caste may refer to:

See also