Defenders of the caste system say that the system began just as job segregation, but that doesn’t explain the endogamy that is prevalent in the system.
A majority of the people in India still have issues in marrying outside their caste.
The breeding may not have been deliberate as in blood type matching, but the duties of every caste and how a person matched the ideals of his caste were factors in deciding marriage.
Brahmins give their daughters away in marriage to learned pundits.
Kshatriyas gave their daughters away in marriage to soldiers who achieved victories and kings who had territory.
Vaishyas gave their daughters away in marriage to rich merchants and so on..
Deliberate notion of heridity, yes I think that is true. We match for the patrilineal and matrilineal lineage and avoid marriage with someone who is of the same patrilineal lineage for more than 3 generations and matrilineal for 1 generation.
But this isn’t enough to say that India was “doing eugenics”. Eugenics involves a conscious effort to ensure that people with “the desired traits” produce more children than other people. Did that occur?
They were doing deliberate breeding with a notion of heredity? Or just segregation by job into union-castes? There’s a big difference.
Nearly everyone was doing that.
Eugenics always plays at sophistication, but it’s rooted in very old (false) folk intuitions.
I hope I understood your question correctly..
Defenders of the caste system say that the system began just as job segregation, but that doesn’t explain the endogamy that is prevalent in the system.
A majority of the people in India still have issues in marrying outside their caste.
The breeding may not have been deliberate as in blood type matching, but the duties of every caste and how a person matched the ideals of his caste were factors in deciding marriage.
Brahmins give their daughters away in marriage to learned pundits. Kshatriyas gave their daughters away in marriage to soldiers who achieved victories and kings who had territory. Vaishyas gave their daughters away in marriage to rich merchants and so on..
Deliberate notion of heridity, yes I think that is true. We match for the patrilineal and matrilineal lineage and avoid marriage with someone who is of the same patrilineal lineage for more than 3 generations and matrilineal for 1 generation.
But this isn’t enough to say that India was “doing eugenics”. Eugenics involves a conscious effort to ensure that people with “the desired traits” produce more children than other people. Did that occur?
Interesting question—Probably only in the kshatriya caste where polygyny was practiced. Not so in the other castes.