I just learned of a group called the Cagot's who existed as despised caste in France and Spain similar to India's untouchables.
Who were the Cagot's?
The Cagots were a persecuted and despised minority found in the west of France and northern Spain. Evidence of the group exists back as far as AD 1000.
Cagots were shunned and hated. While restrictions varied by time and place, they were typically required to live in separate quarters in towns, called cagoteries, which were often on the far outskirts of the villages. Cagots were excluded from all political and social rights. They were not allowed to marry non-Cagots, enter taverns, hold cabarets, use public fountains, sell food or wine, touch food in the market, work with livestock, or enter the mill. They were allowed to enter a church only by a special door, and during the service, a rail separated them from the other worshippers. Either they were altogether forbidden to partake of the sacrament, or the Eucharist was given to them on the end of a wooden spoon, while a holy water stoup was reserved for their exclusive use. They were compelled to wear a distinctive dress, to which, in some places, was attached the foot of a goose or duck (whence they were sometimes called "Canards"). So pestilential was their touch considered that it was a crime for them to walk the common road barefooted or to drink from the same cup as non-Cagots. The Cagots were often restricted to the trades of carpenter, butcher, and rope-maker.
The Cagots were not an ethnic group, nor a religious group. They spoke the same language as the people in an area and generally kept the same religion as well. Their only distinguishing feature was their descent from families identified as Cagots. Few consistent reasons were given as to why they should be hated; accusations varied from Cagots being cretins, lepers, heretics, cannibals, to simply being intrinsically evil. The Cagots did have a culture of their own, but very little of it was written down or preserved; as a result, almost everything that is known about them relates to their persecution. Their cruel treatment lasted through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Industrial Revolution, with the prejudice fading only in the 19th and 20th centuries.
AHC: Avoid the dissolution of the Cagot's as a distinct group/Have the Cagot's persist as a distince group into 20th century
It will be intresting to see different scenarios.
Questions
1. Assuming that following the French revolution no effort is made to integrate Cagot's into teh mainstream and end discrimination against them, would they then keep French fertility trends or might they be more fecund?
2. How could the French revolution avoid including Cagot's? What would be the motivation/reasoning?
3. Would Cagot's assuming they still existed in the 20th century, be less willing to enlist than other Frenchmen? Might they be excluded from the army? Would Cagot's be more likely than the average French to cooperate with the German occupiers?
4. Could a distinct Cagot religion appear? Maybe due to their persecution and exclusion they might not accept converts? Or maybe they would be more sympathethic due to their persecution?
5. How would the existance of a Cagot caste affect post colonial attitudes toward France and Spain? By region North America, Latin America, Africa(especially former French Africa), Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Indian subcontinent and East Asia?
6. How could Cagot's remain persecuted if the state offically did not persecute them?
7. Could the Cagot's develop into a ethnic group?
8. Could Cagot's be prevented from emigrating? legally or not.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagot
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-last-untouchable-in-europe-878705.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20080218031011/http://www.iheu.org/node/2451
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1633170/
https://www.quora.com/Why-were-Cagots-persecuted
https://medium.com/@linearcblog/who...ropes-last-untouchables-linear-c-ee0f7d7d31f4
http://evoandproud.blogspot.no/2013/10/the-cagots.html