Compare And Contrast India And Caste System

North American and Indian culture beliefs may not have many things in common, but they do have similarities in how their societies are separated. The caste system in India and the social class or class system in North America is how these societies or cultures divide their population. These two structures are similar but they also have their differences. According to, Sociology: The Essentials, caste system is defined as a system of stratification (characterized by low social mobility) in which one’s place in the stratification system is determined by birth. This is also acknowledged as an ascribed status. “This system in found in the traditional Hindu population of India” (Haviland 256). Although it is found in other parts of the world,

In North America, it is not indicated as a caste system, but is classified as a social class or class system. In Sociology: The Essentials, social class or class is described as the social structural position groups hold relative to the economic, social, political, and cultural resources of society. With this characterization in mind, a persons “class determines the access different people have to these resources and puts groups in different positions of privilege and disadvantage” (Sociology 172). With this perception of class in mind, it shows that people do not have the same amount of resources or privileges as others. Each of these different classes has people with the same opportunities or privileges that other classes may not have. For example, the higher class, that has almost everything, will have more opportunities than someone in the lower class that is homeless and does not have a lot of personal items. Other examples of inequality that occurs within the class system, is that people with a different color skin as another person that thinks they are superior to someone who has a different skin tone as someone else, also there is an unfairness between men and

In history, it can be seen when the Jim Crow Laws were set in motion. In the PBS article, “Jim Crow Laws”, it is said that the Jim Crow laws are the segregation and disenfranchisement laws that represented a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South for three quarters of a century beginning in the 1890’s. These laws affected these laws that were set affected the majority of the black community, the school systems, restrooms, and several other things. “In legal theory, blacks received “separate but equal” treatment under the law”. This is what the government thought was “equal”, but regrettably that was certainly not the case. “In actuality, public facilities for blacks were nearly always inferior to those for whites, when they existed at all” (Jim Crow Laws). Unfortunately, racism is still seen today, but not as often as it had been in the last four decades or