ABSTRACT
The rule of descent, as in the hereditary nobility of England or Germany, gives a fixed system, the alternative to which is some kind of selection—by election or appointment as in our politics; by purchase, as formerly in the British army and navy. Out of caste sentiment arise institutions, social, political and economic—like the medieval system in Europe, much of which still survives—whose tendency is to define and perpetuate hereditary distinctions. If the transmission of function from father to son has become established, a caste spirit, a sentiment in favor of such transmission and opposed to the passage from one class into another, may arise and be shared even by the unprivileged classes. Perhaps the best way to understand caste is to open our eyes and note those forces at work among ourselves which might conceivably give rise to it. The individual thinks of himself and his family as identified with his caste.
