1 Despite India's rapid economic development in recent decades, it still insinuates itself into the social, economic, and political fabric of the country. The caste system of India, having lasted for around 3500 years, has proved to be one of the most enduring of Indian institutions. We show that economic considerations were of utmost importance in the emergence of the caste system. We suggest that India's caste system is so unique because the Brahmins sought to preserve and orally transmit the Hindu scriptures for over a millennium with no script. Our model also speaks to other aspects of caste, such as commensality restrictions and arranged/child marriages. We demonstrate why the caste system embodies gender asymmetries in punishments for violations of endogamy and tolerates hypergamy (marrying up) more than hypogamy (marrying down). Endogamy is embraced by a group to minimize an externality that arises when group members marry outsiders. The theory explains the core features of the caste system: its hereditary and hierarchical nature, and its insistence on endogamy (marriage only within castes). We propose a theory of the origins of India's caste system by explicitly recognizing the productivity of women in complementing their husbands' occupation-specific skill.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |