WW Chapter 5: Society and Inequality in Eurasia/North Africa

     Caste. To me, this word represents the economic division between people. Usually it's the barrier dividing the rich and the poor. In some cases, like in ancient civilizations, caste was divided up into categories such as: peasant, merchant, knight, royalty, etc. However, nowadays it's the low income, the middle class, and the wealthy (to me anyway). The reason I bring this up is because the chapter starts out with a quote that states "Caste has no impact on life today". The man who said this was Chezi K. Ganesan. 

     Personally, I completely disagree with this. Caste has had a major impact since it first originated. To this day, castes are one of the major influences on our societies. Can people move up in the world? ABSOLUTELY! Is it easy? ABSOLUTELY NOT. People are still born into a family that is part of whatever class they're a part of. Some are just luckier than others. However, just because you're born into a wealthy family doesn't necessarily make you a good person. On the contrary, people with more power usually tend to abuse of the poor and not help them at all. For example, I saw an independent film about the economic crisis going on. It was a film by Michael Moore. He went around asking powerful people in the government to have their children enlist to the army. The majority of them never even glanced his way. Those that did take the time to speak to him simply took the brochure, nodded awkwardly and walked away. This, along with various other reasons, is why I believe caste has always had a major impact on our societies.

     Going back to the content of the chapter, the first society we look at is China. China consisted of a government with state officials that were all men. These men represented the best of men who were willing to put the government first. The government was much more important to them than their own families and their religion. 

     In China wealth meant land...and land meant power, or at least a bit of power. The more powerful Landlord you were in China, the more things you could get away with, such as not paying your taxes. This would only make it worse for peasants. Speaking of peasants...

     Peasants are always the lowest class in any society. This represented most of the Chinese populations. However, China is a rare case in which Merchants were the most oppressed peoples. They were forbidden to do things like wear silk clothing, ride horses, or carry weapons.

     The next place we take a look at is India. We're talking about Caste as Varna. It originated from an encounter between Aryan invaders and the darker native people.

     This type of caste system consisted of four different caste levels. The top being Brahmins, which consisted of priests who helped the world function. The next were the Kshatriya. They were warriors in charge of protecting society. The Vaisya, commoners who cultivated the land. At the very bottom were Sudras. They were primarily servants to the upper class. There was a completely different set of caste system in urban areas know as the jatis.

     The third civilization we looked at was Rome. They had an incorporation of slavery. They had a huge portion of their population that were slaves and people that were considered horrible human beings. The usual forms of rebellion and resistance were present. People would work poorly, fake illness, run away, you name it. I would probably do the same.