Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World

From the standpoint of a conceptual analysis of race and culture contacts, caste may be said to represent both a stage beyond slavery in the development of race relations and also a generic form of social organization in which people with different racial backgrounds find an accommodation. This chapter will be concerned, therefore, with those situations in which Europeans have attempted to maintain a status structure in which they constitute a higher caste by prohibiting intermarriage and social intercourse with the lower colored caste. The organization of race relations on the principle of caste will be analyzed in relation to the occupational status of white and colored peoples, the cultural differences between them, and racial status and social control. The concluding section of this chapter will deal with the economic, political, and social forces which have undermined or are undermining the organization of race relations on the basis of caste, and which are making class an important factor in race relations.

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