ABSTRACT
In both the United States and India there are regional differences in the rules, functions, and nature of the respective nation's caste systems. The American ideal of mate-selection procedure flatly contradicts the principle of caste endogamy, while the South Asian point of view is more congruent with a caste system. Hierarchy is a necessary feature of a caste system and this distinguishes it from ethnic groups in a plural society. Castes are composed of individuals of equivalent statuses and thus are status groups in which all members have the same "quality of social honor or lack of it" in respect to their being caste members. One implication of a multicaste system is that any two castes may be approximately equal in rank, or some may occupy indeterminate positions in the hierarchy in respect to others. The caste system in India is sometimes said to be comprehensible only when viewed against the religious matrix of Hinduism.
