India Caste Blog

India Caste Blog

I have always been intrigued about the India Caste system.  It’s not uncommon that cultures divide people into levels from rich to poor, superior to the inferior, based on knowledge, wealth, what contributions they make to society, etc. What I found more interesting is that the India Caste system had very defined levels (four ranked classes, or varnas) ~

1.     Brahmins (priests)

2.     Kshatriya (warriors and rulers charged with protecting and governing society)

3.     Vaisya (commoners that cultivated the land), and

4.     Sudras, the native people who were regarded as servants.

The top three were considered pure Aryans and “twice born” – their status was not only from birth but also from formal initiation into their respective varnas and status as people of Aryan descent. These individuals were considered born into their class; birth determined social status for most people. There was little social mobility available for most, and more intriguing is that they remained in that class for life.  You could not elevate your status within your lifetime regardless of schooling, or achievements.

And then there were the ‘Untouchables” . . . It should be called the unmentionable fifth class because I have not read anywhere that it is considered a class. These individuals deal with burying the dead, have contact with and deal with killing animals/meat production, etc. In this period of time they would wear either bells or wood clappers on themselves to signal to upper castes that an untouchable was near. There is an entire cleansing process that takes place if one accidentally comes in physical contact with an untouchable.

My personal interpretation of this caste system is that it is unfair in many ways. First, it is a lifetime sentence. Second, there are many restrictions (e.g., marriage of an upper caste individual with one from a lower caste ~ although this does occur, it is with unfavorable results for the upper class individual – family abandonment, an outcast within their born caste level).

Hazda Blog ~

I have never blogged before, so please be patient . . . 

            I must admit I became instantly awake when it was discussed in class about the discovery of a group of humans whose culture closely resembled a period in time we refer to as Paleolithic. The fact that there could possibly be groups of people that were descendants from the hunter-gatherer existence that remained unchanged from more than 10,000 years ago, and found in todays’ world is astounding to me. 

            The discovery of a group of people, known as the Hazda from Northern Tanzania have been mostly isolated from the outside world, but who have also not evolved into a Neolithic stage of agriculture and domesticating of animals. This piqued my curiosity on a number of levels.

            This is not the first time I have heard about people being found in remote locations in which their lives have remained untouched by the outside world. My first reaction is - leave them alone. They don’t need us and we will probably only hurt them – by exposing them to illnesses (even the common cold) and diseases that they have no resistance against.  

            However, my human curiosity asks ~ Who are you? and where have you been that you have been so isolated and hidden that no one has previously known that you exist?  Even more of a curiosity is why haven’t you evolved from hunter-gatherers when throughout the entire world regardless of location and without any influences from other continents all other humans progressed into the Neolithic stage of agriculture and domestication of animals?

Interesting facts you may not know about the Hazda ~

1.     They love to eat baboon. The head and brain are prized eats and given to the elder in the encampment. They throw the head into the fire to simmer, boil, cook the brains, etc. and then crack the skull open and eat the insides.

2.     They hate snakes ~ for obvious reasons.

3.     Their language includes clicks and gollic pops.

4.     The poison the men smear on their arrowheads, made of the boiled sap of the desert rose, is powerful enough to bring down a giraffe. But, NOT an Elephant. Hunter beware ~

5.     Their small hut shelters can be constructed in about an hour and look like upside down bird nests.

6.     They are serial monogamists, changing spouses every few years.

7.     Camp size is usually no more than 20 to 30 people, because that’s the largest number who can share a good-size game animal or two and feel decently fed.

8.     They share their meat communally.

9.     They are looked down on by other close ethnic groups and referred to as the ‘untouchables of Tanzania’.

10. They do not celebrate or acknowledge birthdays, weddings, or funerals. For their dead they simply dig a hole, put them in it and walk away. In the past they would just leave them where they died and let the scavengers eat them.

            The truth is that regardless of the terrible conditions of the Hazda lands, the world is encroaching on it and has already taken over approximately 90 percent. The Hazda are not fighters, they just kept moving out of the way. But now, there is no longer a place to move away to. They are up against a fence of a National Reserve where the animals have gone, but they cannot. So now what? What happens to the Hazda people? Do we absorb them into our economy as welfare recipients?

            The truth is, after two million years, the age of the hunter-gatherer is almost certainly over. The Hazda may hold onto their language, and storytelling and dance rituals, but it’s inevitable that their hunting days will become non-existent. I believe that the loss of the Hazda would be a loss to all of humanity.

 My best, Heidi