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by danans
1569 days ago
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Due to historical endogamy of Indian castes, there are very often phenotypes that are associated with relative position in the caste hierarchy. This is highly regional, and far from exact, but leads to examples like the GP gave. These patterns are often used by people as a shorthand for categorizing another's relative caste and often as the basis for discrimination. At a very broad generalization, upper caste individuals tend to skew more toward more west asian, and less regional/indigenous phenotypes. The trait most strongly associated with higher caste is fairer complexion, which is the basis of great deal of South Asian discrimination, and has ancient roots reaching back millennia, though it was reinforced by colonial powers. There are many exceptions to this though, and a lot of stories about people being misidentified as one caste it the other on the basis of complexion. People pay close attention to this because phenotypes are a type of currency, especially in matters related to marriage and community identification, and also power relationships. |
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