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According to Haviland, social systems identical to caste system elsewhere in the world, are not new in Europe.
Stratified societies were historically organized in Europe as closed social systems, each endogamous, into for example nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie and peasants.
These had distinctive privileges and unequal rights, that were neither a product of informal advantages because of wealth nor rights enjoyed as another citizen of the state.
These unequal and distinct privileges were sanctioned by law or social mores, confined to only that specific social subset of the society, and were inherited automatically by the offspring.
In some European countries, these closed social classes were given titles, followed mores and codes of behavior according to their closed social class, even wore distinctive dress.
Royalty rarely married a commoner ; and if it did, they lost certain privileges.
This endogamy limitation wasn't limited to royalty ; in Finland, for example, it was a crime-until modern times-to seduce and defraud into marriage by declaring a false social class.
In parts of Europe, these closed social caste-like groups were estates.

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