ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 11 



its ultimate outgrowth results in the organization of aristocracies in 

 various grades, with subordinate classes, as serfs and slaves. Again 

 it appears in the organization of guilds. This form of organization 

 was well represented not many generations ago in England, and 

 relics of it still exist among the English people. It appears again 

 in another form in India by the differentiation of people into castes, 

 each caste having a distinct calling or group of callings. 



In my studies of sociology it has often been a matter of surprise 

 to me that the state has not oftener and to a larger extent been 

 based upon an organization dependent upon callings, trades, or 

 occupations — that is, that the state has not oftener been organized 

 upon an operative or industrial basis. But when we accumulate the 

 facts of history relating to castes, classes, guilds, &c., it appears 

 that the method has been tried in many ways and it has never suc- 

 ceeded in securing justice to that extent as to commend its adoption. 



A caste may be briefly described as a body of men constituting 

 a unit or integral part in the state, and such a body of men are or- 

 ganized upon the basis of the industries or callings which they pur- 

 sue. Around this organization are centered many other institutional 

 characteristics. Marriage within the group is prescribed, marriage 

 without the group prohibited ; and many religious sanctions grow 

 up around these institutions, and many social barriers to prevent 

 escape from the body and entrance into another. 



Much has been written about these castes of India, sometimes 

 from the standpoint of religion, sometimes from the standpoint of 

 conquest, and sometimes from the standpoint of McClennan, erro- 

 neous theories relating to exogamy and endogamy, names which he 

 gave to correlative parts of the marriage institution found among 

 most of the tribes of the world who are organized upon a kinship 

 basis. It is true that the institution of caste exhibited in India may 

 be profitably studied from each of these standpoints, but the essential 

 characteristic of caste organization is this : That the people are 

 thereby organized upon an operative basis, about which religious 

 and social sanctions are gradually accumulated ; that such an or- 

 ganization is in part the result of internal agencies arising from the 

 differentiation of industries, or division of labor, as it is called in 

 political economy, and in part by conquest, as the conquerors 

 usually engage in those vocations deemed most honorable, and 

 compel the conquered to engage in those considered least honorable. 

 By such methods, i. e., the division of labor through the inherit- 



