You are right. According to traditions, if a girl from Brahmin community marries a non-Brahmin she loses her Brahmin identity. Similarly, if a so called pariah girl, marries a Brahmin, she becomes Brahmin. While at this, I just remembered an anecdote quoted by a Mangalorean. Please read this in a lighter vein. An aged boy unwittingly joined another who invited him to a hotel which was serving 'hardware' stuff. This 'breach' somehow reached the boy's father. The boy was thrashed very badly. The father wondering himself asked the boy how could he go to the hotel in the first place when he had not given him any money. Wailing and weeping the boy feebly told him he had no money but another Brahmin boy was with him who paid the bill. The father castigated the boy for not telling this before. Had he known this, he would not have given him the thrashing but exonerated him as he was in the company of a Brahmin! That is the effect of the Company you keep! The value is correct and let us not under-value it.