An outcast is someone who is rejected or cast out, as from home or from society [1] or in some way excluded, looked down upon, or ignored. In common English speech, an outcast may be anyone who does not fit in with normal society, which can contribute to a sense of isolation.
Compare the concept of sending to Coventry.
In Ancient Greece, the Athenians had a procedure known as ostracism in which all citizens could write a person's name on a shard of broken pottery (called ostraka) and place it in a large container in a public place. If an individual's name was written a sufficient number of times, he was ostracized—banished from the city for ten years. This was normally practiced against individuals who had behaved in some way that offended the community.
Outcasts, in the India caste system, are individuals or a group that for some reason were rejected by any other caste. It is contrary to caste system, where even pariahs have their own caste. Furthermore, however, foreigners not ruled by the Indian nobility in India and all foreigners were sometimes perceived as outcastes and untouchables.
To be exiled is to be away from one's home (i.e., city, state or country), while either being explicitly refused permission to return or being threatened with imprisonment or death on return. It can be a form of punishment. Exile can also be a self-imposed departure from one's homeland. Self-exile can be a protest by the person who claims it, or done to avoid persecution or legal matters (tax, criminal allegations, or otherwise), through shame, repentance, or to isolate oneself in order to devote time to a particular thing. Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [2] states that, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile."
In the Old Testament, Ishmael, the son of Abraham, was cast out after the birth of Isaac, his half-brother, who is considered the forebear of the Israelites. Genesis 16:12 of the Bible prophesies Ishmael's life as an outcast: "And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." [3]
A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to: marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), follow lifestyles often linked to a particular occupation, hold a ritual status observed within a hierarchy, and interact with others based on cultural notions of exclusion, with certain castes considered as either more pure or more polluted than others. Its paradigmatic ethnographic example is the division of India's Hindu society into rigid social groups. Its roots lie in South Asia's ancient history and it still exists. However, the economic significance of the caste system in India has been declining as a result of urbanisation and affirmative action programs. A subject of much scholarship by sociologists and anthropologists, the Hindu caste system is sometimes used as an analogical basis for the study of caste-like social divisions existing outside Hinduism and India. In colonial Spanish America, mixed-race castas were a category within the Hispanic sector, but the social order was otherwise fluid.
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the sacraments.
Ostracism was an Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or a potential tyrant, though in many cases popular opinion often informed the expulsion. The word "ostracism" continues to be used for various forms of shunning.
Burakumin is a term for ethnic Japanese people who are believed to be descended from members of the pre-Meiji feudal class which were associated with kegare, such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners. The term encompasses both the historical eta and hinin outcasts. During Japan's feudal era, these occupations acquired a hereditary status of oppression, and became an unofficial class of the Tokugawa class system during the Edo period. After the feudal system was abolished, the term burakumin came into use to refer to the former caste members and their descendants, who continued to experience stigmatization and discrimination.
Ishmael is a character in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), which opens with the line "Call me Ishmael." He is the first-person narrator of much of the book. Because Ishmael plays a minor role in the plot, early critics of Moby-Dick assumed that Captain Ahab was the protagonist. Many either confused Ishmael with Melville or overlooked the role he played. Later critics distinguished Ishmael from Melville, and some saw his mystic and speculative consciousness as the novel's central force rather than Captain Ahab's monomaniacal force of will.
Varṇa, in the context of Hinduism, refers to a social class within a hierarchical traditional Hindu society. The ideology is epitomized in texts like Manusmriti, which describes and ranks four varnas, and prescribes their occupations, requirements and duties, or Dharma.
Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimination are found all over the world, untouchability involving the caste system is largely unique to South Asia.
Dalit, also some of them previously known as untouchables, is the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold varna of the caste hierarchy and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Several scholars have drawn parallels between Dalits and the Burakumin of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea and the peasant class of the medieval European feudal system.
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designated in one or other of the categories. For much of the period of British rule in the Indian subcontinent, they were known as the Depressed Classes.
Social rejection occurs when an individual is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. The topic includes interpersonal rejection, romantic rejection, and familial estrangement. A person can be rejected or shunned by individuals or an entire group of people. Furthermore, rejection can be either active by bullying, teasing, or ridiculing, or passive by ignoring a person, or giving the "silent treatment". The experience of being rejected is subjective for the recipient, and it can be perceived when it is not actually present. The word "ostracism" is also commonly used to denote a process of social exclusion.
Paraiyar, Parayar or Maraiyar is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and in Sri Lanka.
Badi is a Hill Dalit community in Nepal. The 1854 Nepalese Muluki Ain categorized Badi as "Impure and Untouchable " category. Badi are categorized under "Hill Dalit" among the 9 broad social groups, along with Damai, Sarki, Kami and Gaine by the Government of Nepal. 'Badi' means Vadyabadak, one who plays musical instruments, in Sanskrit. Sometimes called untouchables among the untouchables, they support their impoverished families through daily wages and fishing, woodcutting and making musical instruments.
Caste-related violence in India has occurred and continues to occur in various forms.
A pariah state is a nation considered to be an outcast in the international community. A pariah state may face international isolation, sanctions or even an invasion by nations who find its policies, actions, or even its very existence unacceptable.
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, also known as Ramaswami, EVR, Thanthai Periyar was a Dravidian social reformer and politician from India, who founded the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. On the caste system in India, Periyar dealt harshly with the practice of discrimination and its subordination of the different levels it created in society. He attacked those who used the system to take advantage of the masses through exploitation and subjugation.
Waiting for a Visa is an autobiographical document written by B. R. Ambedkar during the period of 1935–36. The manuscript was published as a booklet, posthumously, on March 19, 1990, by the People's Education Society. The composition comprises a collection of anecdotes from Ambedkar himself and other individuals, intended to exemplify the practice of untouchability in Indian society.
Eknath (1533–1599), was an Indian Hindu saint, philosopher and poet. He was a devotee of the Hindu deity Vitthal and is a major figure of the Warkari movement. Eknath is often viewed as a spiritual successor to the prominent Marathi saints Dnyaneshwar and Namdev.
The Osu caste system is a traditional practice in Igboland, characterized by social segregation and restrictions on interaction and marriage with a group of individuals known as Osu. The Osu individuals historically were marginalized by the Igbo deities (Alusi), and as a result, they are often perceived as inferior and segregated from the Nwadiala or diala class.
"Labels of primary potency" (LoPP) describe the salient and powerful social labels that “act like shrieking sirens, deafening us to all finer discriminations that we might otherwise perceive.” The term was coined by Gordon Allport in his book, The Nature of Prejudice. These labels usually have negative connotations. Labels of primary potency are formed in the same ways as those in labeling theory, and these labels are usually highly visible features, such as disabilities, and skin colour. Such features are magnified and stand out in a person's mind amongst the other features of a man's complex nature, thus masking other important attributes of the individual. As a result, social objects lose their individuality. Furthermore, these qualities may not be accurate for a given individual, thus fostering misconceptions.
Buddhism arose in India in the 5th century BC, when the predominant religion in the region was Brahmanism, a predecessor of modern-day Hinduism. Brahmanism supported a religiously and socially motivated caste system, which continues to play a significant role in the society of Hindu India today. Due to differing metaphysical and ethical doctrines, Buddhist attitudes towards caste have historically diverged from and rejected those of Hinduism in several ways.
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