Dom

The model for traditional Indian society
was as a collection of endogamous
subgroups known as jatis (“birth”).
These jatis were organized (and their
social status determined) by the group’s
hereditary occupation, over which each
group has a monopoly. In traditional
northern Indian society, the Doms are a
jati whose hereditary occupation was
cremating corpses. They have extremely
low social status because of their habitual contact with dead bodies, considered the most violently impure objects
of all. Despite their low status, some of
the Doms are unbelievably wealthy,
particularly the ones who control the
cremation ghats in the city of Benares,
for without their cooperation, a body
cannot be burned. The word ghat refers
to any flat area on the bank of a river. In
most cases ghats are used as places for
bathing (snana), but in some other
cases they are also places for burning
bodies, so that the ashes can be placed
in the river to ritually “cool” them.