The development of industrial capitalism did not move in a smooth ascending line. - Eric Wolf

To understand how caste works concretely, one must, however, look beyond kinship organization and ritual idiom to the political economy of caste.

Slaving gave rise to a division of labor in which the business of capture, maintenance, and overland transport of slaves was in African hands, while Europeans took charge of transoceanic transport, the "seasoning" or breaking in of slaves, and their eventual distribution.

There may be "pie in the sky when you die" but how the pie is dished out on the ground has considerable existential relevance.