Race Vs Religion

Over history various methods have been used to justify discrimination. Although religion and race were both successful in instituting social hierarchies, the implications of their characterizations were quite different. Though similar in their origins, the transition from religion to race as the basis for discrimination depicts a transition from a focus on changeable characteristics to impermeable differences to support the institution of segregated communities. While religious stratification was often mutable, hierarchies based on race were …

…between the use of religion and race as methods of discrimination. While both methods originated in response to economic and/or political change, the permanence and effects of both stratification systems were quite different. While religious based discrimination left opportunity for mobility between the castes, race based discrimination, on the contrary, was quite permanent in nature. As a result, both methods of exclusion had quite different effects on the treatment of African and Jewish civilizations.