Chapter 5

Society and Inequality in Eurasia/North Africa

Society and the State in China

• Was more shaped by state actions than other societies
• Power came with being a state official
• Elite of Officials
• Extremely hard written examinations to select officials
• Wealthy favored (educated sons)
• Commoners could rise via education
• Landlord Class
• Small scale peasant farmers replaced by large landowners and tenant farmers
• State tried to oppose creation of large estates (not much success) 
• Peasants
• Most population in Chinese history have been peasants
• Periodic peasant rebellions
• Often expressed in religious terms
• Merchants 
• Elite disliked merchants
• Stereotyped as greedy and profiting from work of others
• Merchants often prospered anyways
• Won way to being respected by purchasing estates and educating sons

Class and Caste in India

• Caste as Varna
• Grew from interactions of culturally diverse people and development of social and economic differences between them
• Varna Theory
• Four groups formed and untouchables 
• Caste as Jati
• Social distinction based on occupations
• Blended with varna
• Clearly defined social position
• Marriage and eating could only be done with people in your Jati
• Couldn't raise social status but whole Jatis could improve social standing
• Caste functions
• Provided social security
• Made it easier for wealthy and powerful to exploit poor

Slavery and Roman Empire

• Why slavery emerged in civilizations 
• Domestication of animals provided model for human slavery
• War, patriarchy
• Patriarchal "ownership" of women
• Slavery in civilization
• Slavery=social death
• Almost all civilization had some form of slavery that varied over time
• Less common in China (convicts)
• Roman Slavery
• SLave society
• 1/3 population 
• Modest means often owned 2-3 slaves
• How people became slaves
• War prisoners
• Piracy
• Long distance trade
• Natural reproduction
• Abandoned/exposed 
• Resistance and rebellion
• Mass suicide of war prisoners
• Flights
• Occasional murder of owners
• Comparing Patriarchies
• Patriarchy generally less restrictive in the early years 
• Women active agents in histories

My reflection for this chapter could go on and on, I simply could not believe what I was reading and the fact that such horrible inequalities were happening and people really did nothing to deserve the treatment they received.  As a latina woman with hearing loss, I have faced many inequalities myself, from struggling with people refusing to be accommodating, to people believing that I would never be successful because of my background.  I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to prove those people wrong and to make my own way, and I genuinely feel for the people in this time period who had little to no chance of ever being treated like an equal.

Chapter 4

China and the Search for Order

• Mandate of Heaven
• Legalist answer
• Principle of strict rules that were clearly defined and strictly enforced
• Pessimistic view of human nature 
• Confucian Answer
• Confucius's principles
• Ideas had huge impact on China
• Body of thought
• Humans have capacity for improvement 
• Emphasized importance of history 
• Nonreligious 
• Daoist Answer 
• Associated with Laozi
• Opposite of Confucianism in many ways
• Education and striving for improvement was artificial and useless
• Way of nature, connect with nature

Cultural Traditions of Classical India

• Indian cultural development was different 
• Elites enthusiastic about divine and spiritual matters
• Hinduism-no founding father
• Spread into Southeast Asia but remained mainly associated with Indians 
• South Asian Religion
• Widely recognized sacred texts provided some common ground with Indian culture 
• The Vedas
• Samsara reincarnation 
• Buddhist Challenge 
• Developed with Hinduism 
• Central Buddhist teaching-life is suffering 
• Large elements of Hinduism present in Buddhist teaching
• Challenged Hinduism
• Hinduism as a Religion of Duty and Devotion
• Development of more popular Hinduism

Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece: Search for a Rational Order

• Didn't create enduring religious tradition
• Polytheism
• Greek way of knowing
• Flourished
• Socrates and other philosophers
• Aristotle 
• Greek Legacy 
• Continued traditional beliefs and practices 
• Rationalism spread widely 

Birth of Christianity vs Buddhism

• Founders
• Royal vs lower-class
• Spiritual seekers
• Wisdom teachers
• Jesus Jewish tradition, active for about three years, executed as criminal
• Gautama was active for over 40 years, died of old age
• Spread of new religions
• Didn't intend to create new religion
• Both transformed into gods 

It is amazing that the religions in this chapter are still heavily practiced today, with much of the same values that were practiced during that time.  It is comforting that things have been passed down for such a long time and that the basic morals that people followed and still follow are consistent, making me see the good and potential that we have.

Chapter 3

Empires and Civilizations in Collision: The Persians and the Greeks

• Civilizations didn't contact each other directly
• Greece/Persia exception because they were neighbors
• Persia
• Largest most impressive empire
• Diverse empire, large population
• Effective admin system
• Underground irrigation
• Greeks
• Population around 2-3 million
• Mountains and valleys encouraged hundreds of city states 
• A lot of participation in political life
• Collision: Greco-Persian Wars
• Ionia, Ionian Greeks revolted against Persia
• Greece won on both land and sea
• Collision: Alexander and Hellenistic Era
• Conquest of Greece
• Alexander expedition of Persia 
• Defeated Persia
• Greek becomes language of power
• Roman rule replaces Greek rule

Comparing Empires: Roman and Chinese

• Roman and Chinese had little direct contact
• Flourished 
• Similar in size
• Controlled nearly half of worlds population
• Rome
• Grew after each conquest
• Rise of empire changed Roman society 
• Pax Romana (Roman peace)
• Still best known empire
• China
• Warring states to empires
• Creation of empire regarded as restoration
• Unification by Shihuangdi 
• Ruler of Qin 
• 1st emperor
• Formed much quicker than Rome
• Depended on military force among other security
• Great Wall
• Military
• Brutality
• Burning books, execution of scholars
• Similarities
• Defined themselves in universal terms
• Invested in public works
• Claimed supernatural sanctions
• Foreign religious tradition
• Effected the environment 
• Fall
• Too large
• Too expensive
• Tax evasion
• Fell heavily on the poor
• Diseases
• Threat from Nomadic people

I find it interesting that two of the world's largest empires are still known and visited countries today.  The backbone of China and Rome formed such a long time ago and they are still living off of some of those backbones today.  It is also hard to imagine how tough life must have been living in the early empires, where there was extreme brutality and there was a constant fear of being invaded and overthrown.  Often time, one person or group was in all the power and the poor and lower classes just had to fall into that based on what they were born into.  That must have been tough and its interesting that that is still the way things work today.  Today, I am grateful that there are much more opportunities to move up in society if one desires.

Chapter 3 Document

Germania by Tacitus

• Germans- not mixed with other races through immigration or intercourse (aboriginal)
• Appear as an unmixed raced, all look the same since its all pure German blood
• Asks why anyone would leave Asia, Africa or Italy for sullen Germany
• With exception of it being their home
• Ancient songs, only way of recording their past 
• Choose kings by birth, but they don't have unlimited power
• Generals lead by example more than they exert authority
• Priests have the real authority
• Believe women have certain sanctity and prescience
• Worship deity mercury, human sacrifices
• Strict marriage code
• Adultery, husbands power to dish out punishment
• No cities, live scattered 
• No laughs 
• Slaves look over the house

Question #2:

• Reliable Statements
• Kings coming from birth 
• Little to no intermarriages 
• Strict marriage code, expecting spouses to be faithful to each other
• Worshipping mercury 
• Not as reliable
• No laughter
• Saying the country is sullen
• Human sacrifices
• Punishment for cheating

The Dancing Girl

What features of this statue may have provoked such observations [scholars inferring and observing that this 'dancing girl' was confident, good at what she did and she knew it, a queen or high status woman]?

The first thing I notice when I see the Dancing Girl statue is the girl's head is held high.  The head is in such a position that it is clearly inclined, holding your head high is a symbol of confidence, an indication that you know you are doing something right, and a symbol of taking pride in yourself and actions.  The bangles up and down the girl's arm, and the exquisite necklace she wears are symbols that she was her own individual, as it has been observed that women with jewelry indication class, ethnic, and individual variation.

Chapter 2

• Seven major civilizations developed around the world
• Southern Mesopotamia - first written language
• Norte Chico differed from Mesopotamia and Egypt was mainly self-sufficient (only import was maize)
• Indus Valley planned cities standardized things, had architectural styles
• written script that remains undeciphered
• No palaces, kings, or warrior classes
• China - defined by the ideal of a centralized state 
• Ruler was 'son of heaven'
• Has remained cultural continuity into modern times
• 1st civilizations roots in agricultural revolution
• Developed from earlier, competing chiefdoms
• Creation of 1st civilizations quick 
• Urban
• Cities
• Political capitals
• Equality
• Craft specialization 
• Classes and hierarchies 
• Upper, commoners, slaves
• Gender
• Patriarchy gradually emerged in first civilizations
• Declining position of women product of growing social complexity 
• Restrict female sexual activities to ensure property stayed in family 
• Egypt vs Mesopotamia
• Both depended on rivers
• Nile (Egypt) was predictable with flooding, could be prepared
• Mesopotamia was unpredictable, with floods that were destructive
• States
• Central to civilization organization
• Served needs of upper class
• Used force
• Writing and accounting more common
• Defining elite status 
• Commoners join elite through literacy

It's interesting to see the similarities between social structure in in the first civilizations and the social structure in today's society.  Something that particularly stood out to me during this chapter was the fact patriarchy began developing and women's position began declining.  Today, we still are yet to have a female president in the United States and women are still having to fight for a spot in society, fighting to be heard.  When women do speak out for rights, we get shot down.  Its crazy and sad to think that this has been going on since such an early time and there is absolutely no reason for it.

Agriculture-End of Chapter 1

• Takes place in Neolithic, agriculture revolution
• Beginning about 12,000 years ago
• Cultivation of plants and domestication of animals
• Gradually replaced gathering and hunting in most parts of world
• Selective breeding of animals
• Mutual dependence of humans on plants and animals and vice versa
• More food led to more people getting much more from less land
• Agriculture revolution happened independently in several world regions, all around the same time
• Coincided with end of ice age
• Amazon people learned to cut back plants to grow ones they wanted 
• Women were likely agricultural innovators
• Population growth may have led to a food crisis
• Variation across regions depending on plants and animals that were available
• Including in the Americas
• Agricultural practices adapted based on very different climates
• Agriculture spread in 2 ways
• Diffusion: Gradual spread
• Colonization/migration 

• Agriculture spread led to the spread of language and culture
• Globalization of agriculture took about 10,000 years
• Was rested where land unsuitable for farming
• Led to greater population
• Effected environment 
• Did not necessarily improve life for average person
• Usually meant more hard work
• Health deteriorated in early agriculture societies 
• New risk of famine
• New technology advances 
• Brewing of alcohol because the correct plants could be grown 
• No pastoral societies emerged in Americas 

• I am so amazed at the way earlier people made so much with so little
• The equality of men and women in history is surprising to me, I was expecting to read more about male dominance.  To me this displays the strong values earlier people had
• I am grateful to our ancestors for the foundations they provided us with, agriculture is still such a huge part of our lives and I can't imagine how things would be if they didn't take the steps they did