Buzz
In the ancient traditions of Hinduism in India, a member of the Dalit caste is labeled as 'untouchable.' This term can also apply to those who fall outside the caste system. Despite the efforts of modern India's founder, Mahatma Gandhi, untouchables in India continue to face oppression in numerous forms.
In addition to being forbidden from marrying outside their caste (a practice known as endogamy), many untouchables live in isolated areas of villages and cities. They are often relegated to poorly-paid jobs that are regarded as 'dirty.' Even though the governments of India and Pakistan have legally recognized the rights of untouchables, the community still experiences widespread prejudice.
People in the West tend to believe that strict caste systems are an Eastern phenomenon. In reality, the closest Western counterpart to caste might be social class, a flexible hierarchy that shifts based on circumstances. While the working class and poor in developed nations might not experience as much upward mobility as they hope, they likely enjoy more freedom than India's untouchables.
In France, there exists a deeply despised group known as the Cagots. Living in the Pyrenees Mountains, these individuals have long been shunned, segregated, and excluded from mainstream society. What is most puzzling is that no one is entirely sure why the Cagots have been treated with such animosity.
10. A Disappearing Community
By the 21st century, the Cagots in France had experienced a significant decline in numbers. For over a millennium, the Cagots of southwestern France lived on the fringes of European society, and now their distinct culture and history could fade away permanently.
Around 2008, British media outlets began to feature Marie-Pierre Manet-Beauzac, a woman known as 'the last Cagot.' What set Manet-Beauzac apart was her brave decision to publicly identify as a Cagot. For a mother of three, making such a declaration could be perilous.
Manet-Beauzac uncovered her Cagot heritage through genealogical research, which revealed that her ancestors included many carpenters, basket weavers, and impoverished peasants. This historical background points to her Cagot lineage, as these mountain dwellers have been linked to various trades since their first mention in historical records in the 11th century.
Today, we have more information about the historical oppression of the Cagots than about their current population in France and northern Spain. It's possible that the Cagot culture may soon vanish completely.
9. Prejudices
For much of their history, the Cagots were seen as a people afflicted with disease. Their neighbors spread tales of Cagots having misshapen heads, webbed feet, and absent earlobes. The term 'Cagot ear' is still used today to describe an ear that lacks an earlobe.
The rumors of physical deformities among the Cagots likely reflect the impact of inbreeding. Since the Cagots were required to practice endogamy for much of their existence, it wouldn't be surprising if many were the result of close intermarriage.
Other myths surrounding the Cagots included claims that they had green blood that would seep from their bellies on Good Friday. Their skin was believed to emit a foul odor that could spoil apples and other fruits just by contact. Some even went as far as to say the Cagots were a group of black magicians performing dark rituals in their remote villages.
In the Middle Ages, laws were introduced to ensure that the 'unclean' Cagots were kept away from the 'pure' French. Stereotypes likely played a significant role in the legal discrimination they faced.
8. Possible Origin: Moorish Soldiers
One of the more persistent theories behind the Cagots' historical hatred comes from nearby Spain. In 711, an Islamic army led by Arabs, primarily consisting of Berber and other North African tribal soldiers, conquered Visigothic Spain, which included parts of modern-day Portugal. This led to Spain becoming part of the Umayyad Caliphate, based in Damascus.
However, this situation changed when the city of Cordoba declared Islamic Spain independent from the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad in 929. Contrary to the popular belief of a tolerant Islamic Spain, the Cordobans parted ways with the Abbasid realm due to disagreements over the absence of jihadist zeal from the sophisticated court in Baghdad.
For centuries, Christian knights in Spain and France fought countless battles against the Islamic rulers of Andalusia. After the failed expedition into France in 732, Islamic rule in Spain gradually began to decline, with several Christian kingdoms gaining their independence.
During the Middle Ages, several fervently jihadist Berber dynasties from North Africa, such as the Almoravids and Almohads, attempted to restore Islamic control in Iberia, bringing renewed religious conflict between Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
One popular theory suggests that the Cagots of France are descendants of Muslim soldiers from Spain who eventually migrated northward. Some claim that the Cagots were despised by their Christian neighbors due to their Berber or Moorish ancestry. It has even been suggested that the Cagots may carry sub-Saharan African DNA, as Islamic Spain had one of the largest black populations in Europe during the Middle Ages.
7. Possible Origin: Descendants of the Visigoths
The theory linking the Cagots to Moorish ancestry primarily stems from the observation that Cagots tend to have darker skin compared to their non-Cagot neighbors. However, DNA analysis has shown that Cagots are genetically no different from other populations in the Pyrenees. According to Graham Robb's book The Discovery of France, the Cagots' genetics are unremarkable, suggesting they are entirely European in origin.
One of the origin theories regarding the Cagots is that they are descendants of the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe that ruled over Spain, parts of Portugal, and France following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
Although often labeled as 'barbarians' by the Romano-Iberian populations they ruled, the Visigoths were in fact a highly cultured people who preserved much of Spain's Greco-Roman and Christian heritage. Writer Dario Fernandez-Morera argues that the Visigoths were the most 'Romanized' of all the Germanic tribes and maintained strong relations with Constantinople.
The Umayyad conquest in the eighth century destroyed much of the evidence that could have been studied about the Visigoths. It is quite possible that some of these Germanic people sought refuge in France, which was then ruled by another Germanic group, the Franks.
While the idea of Visigothic ancestry is plausible, it doesn’t fully explain the centuries of animosity toward the Cagots. After all, it was the Visigothic Kingdom of Asturias that played a pivotal role in preserving Christian civilization in Spain by defeating the Umayyad army at the Battle of Covadonga.
6. Possible Origin: Cathars
One theory suggests that the Cagots' long-standing hatred may stem from their possible descent from the Cathars, a religious sect violently uprooted from French society during the Albigensian Crusade.
In the early 13th century, both the Catholic Church and the King of France sought to suppress the autonomy of the local rulers of Languedoc, a region in southern France. In 1208, Pope Innocent III launched a formal crusade against Raymond V, Count of Toulouse, excommunicating him and sending the ruthless warlord Simon de Montfort after him.
The crusade led to a series of brutal sieges in southern France, particularly around the Cathar stronghold of Carcassonne. In the end, the Catholic Church and the French crown in Paris emerged victorious, with Languedoc being absorbed into the domain governed from Paris.
Catharism was virtually eradicated. The once-thriving faith had deep roots in southern France, where the Cathars considered themselves 'good Christians,' asserting that the Roman church had corrupted true Christian practices. They had no official priesthood, but they did have a select group of enlightened leaders known as the 'Goodmen.'
In many ways, the Cathars can be seen as a precursor to the Protestant movements that would emerge during the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. However, the Cathar belief in dualism, the notion of a good and a bad God, distinguished them as Christian Gnostics.
The despised Cathars may have gone underground after the fall of Carcassonne. Did they become the Cagots? This question remains unresolved, though historical evidence suggests that anti-Cagot sentiments existed prior to the Cathar conflict.
5. Possible Origin: A Medieval Guild
In the medieval period, entire sectors and their workers were often structured as guilds. These guilds went beyond being mere early labor unions—they frequently provided mutual support, insurance, and safeguards to their members. Some guilds even held economic monopolies, meaning no significant construction project could proceed without their backing.
Because of their somewhat isolated and secretive nature, many guilds became the center of rumors and speculations. In fact, many of the modern-day theories about the Freemasons likely originate from the group's supposed beginnings as a medieval stonemason guild.
Since the Cagots have predominantly worked as carpenters throughout history, it’s possible that they began as a guild. Historian Graham Robb suggested that economic rivalries between Cagot craftsmen and other tradesmen during the Middle Ages might have led to the development of social prejudices against them.
4. Mark Of Shame
In European history, the yellow Star of David stands as a notorious symbol of legalized prejudice. During the era of National Socialist rule in Germany, Jews were compelled to wear the yellow star on their garments so that everyone could immediately recognize them as undesirable outsiders in the German state.
In the Middle Ages, local lords and some kings in Western Europe imposed a similar policy on Jews, forcing them to wear identifiable marks on their clothing to signify their identity. A comparable mandate was enforced upon the Cagots.
The emblem that the Cagots were required to wear was a red or yellow goose's foot. This mark was affixed to their tunics as a constant reminder that Cagots supposedly had webbed feet and needed to be shunned to avoid the spread of disease. This requirement would not be lifted across France until the French Revolution of the 18th century.
3. Japanese Parallel
Many have pointed out the resemblances between the Cagots and India's Dalits. Some have also observed that the Cagots share striking similarities with the Burakumin of Japan.
The Burakumin are considered 'untouchables' because they have traditionally been linked with unclean professions. They are specialized in jobs such as butchers, sanitation workers, undertakers, and gravediggers. These occupational limitations are believed to trace back to the medieval era, when Japanese laborers were segregated into their own communities within feudal villages.
In a similar vein, the Burakumin and the Eta, which translates to 'abundance of filth,' could be executed at will by any samurai. The justification for these severe restrictions was that the Burakumin and other 'untouchables' worked with death and deceased bodies, which in turn tainted them and their descendants.
Like the Cagots, it's possible that the prejudice faced by the Burakumin stems from their economic marginalization.
2. End Of Legal Persecution
By the 17th century, the increasingly centralized French government began enacting laws to counteract anti-Cagot prejudice. In 1681, the parliament of Rennes passed legislation making it illegal for citizens to discriminate against Cagots.
In 1723, after a fight between a Cagot and several local officials in the French town of Biarritz, the parliament of Bordeaux ruled in favor of the Cagot Miguel Legaret and imposed a fine on the councillors. This ruling also established corporal punishment for anyone who assaulted a Cagot based on anti-Cagot bias.
The final legal restrictions on the Cagots were lifted during the French Revolution of 1789. By this time, many Cagots had moved to French cities such as Brest in Brittany and Paris. However, even in these urban areas, deep-rooted anti-Cagot sentiment persisted.
As late as the 19th century, the city of Brest still maintained a distinct neighborhood inhabited by Cagots. In 1847, it was discovered that Cagots were still being interred in separate cemeteries in the communes of Dognen and Castetbon.
In 1964, a teacher in Salies-de-Bearn observed that many of her students and their families continued to mock individuals they believed to be Cagots. While official persecution may have ceased in the 18th century, social discrimination against the Cagots persisted.
1. Religious Restrictions
In medieval Europe, the Christian faith dominated every aspect of life. The Catholic Church in France not only guided spiritual practices but also shaped societal norms and legal systems. As such, Catholic-imposed restrictions on the Cagots suggested that they were viewed unfavorably by both the Church and God.
Cagots were required to enter churches through a separate entrance and were forbidden from using the main holy water fonts. Those who defied these rules faced severe punishments.
In the 18th century, a wealthy Cagot residing in the Pyrenees defied the rules by using the non-Cagot holy water font, resulting in the severe punishment of having his hand severed. This kind of prejudice was widespread in Christian France, affecting both Catholic and Huguenot (Protestant) communities.
