Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s6.3

c8.s6.3

The reciprocal relationship of different groups and the order in which they were formed have been somewhat confusedly discussed. It is sufficient that these concentric circles, which embrace a wider and wider area, are in the Āryan world conceived upon a common type, for us to be able to consider the clan and the tribe, whatever names they may take in different countries, as no more than an expansion of the family, the organization of which they copy and extend.¹ Their genealogy is at bottom of little importance to us; the fact is that their respective constitutions are strictly analogous: in speaking of the family constitution it is, by the same token, the constitution of the tribe and of the clan which I have in mind.