The article compares race and caste as two forms of inequality, and argues that inequalities of caste are illuminated in the same way as those of race by a consideration of gender. A comparison of race and caste shows a remarkable similarity in the contrasting attitudes towards women of lower and higher ranks, characteristic of men in privileged positions in both systems. The sexual use and abuse of women appears in the most extreme forms in the treatment of women of the lowest rank by men of the highest; there is moreover an unremitting concern with the purity of women at the top, associated with ideas of bodily substance brought to light in recent studies of kinship. The article argues the case for limited comparisons and questions the utility of drawing radical contrasts between whole civilisations.
