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Basic features of early civilizations in different environments: culture, state, and social structure

Foundations: c. 8000 B.C.E.–600 C.E.

Major Developments

  1. Basic features of early civilizations in different environments: culture, state, and social structure
    1. Mesopotamia
      1. Culture
        1. Independent innovation that passed to Egypt/Indus
        2. 4000 BCE bronze, copper
        3. Wheel, irrigation canals
        4. 3500 Sumerians – cuneiform – first writing – stylus – objects > sounds
        5. Number system – 60 – movement of heavenly bodies
          1. navigation
          2. time
        6. Architecture – ziggurats – 1) glory of civilization, 2) many gods
          1. Clay primary building material
        7. First epic – Epic of Gilgamesh – 1) great flood story
          1. King’s quest to achieve immortality
        8. great traders
      2. State
        1. Unpredictable flooding – need for government – irrigation
        2. City-states – controlled city + surrounding area
        3. Geography – lack of natural barriers – invasion – defensive walls
        4. Conflicts over water/property rights
        5. Akkadians/Babylonians – spread Sumerian culture
          1. Code of Hammurabi – first written law code
            1. Different rules for gender/social classes
            2. Very harsh, favored upper class
            3. Systematic, consistent set of regulations, not arbitrary will of a ruler
        6. After 900 BCE –Assyrians and Persians ruled
        7. king-like figure – lugal “big man”
      3. Social structure
        1. Ruled by elite, rulers, priests
        2. Farmed by slaves – could purchase freedom
        3. Patriarchal – men could sell wives/children to pay debts
          1. 1600 BCE women wearing veils
          2. But…women could gain power courts, priestesses, scribes, small business
    2. Egypt
      1. Culture
        1. 3000 BCE – Nile River
        2. pharaoh – pyramids – tombs for self/families
          1. Decorated w/ colorful paintings
        3. polytheists – afterlife > mummification
          1. Egyptian Book of the Dead – what happened to soul, how to reach happy
          2. afterlife > mummification and tombs
        4. bronze tools weapons after Mesopotamia
        5. Kush – independent innovation iron – spread to Egypt
        6. some trade w/ Kush and Mesopotamia
        7. hieroglyphics – from trade contacts Mesopotamia
          1. papyrus – paper making
        8. geography – protected – could create unique civilization
        9. less urban than Mesopotamians
        10. 365 day calendar, medicine, math, astronomy
      2. State
        1. Nile overflowed annually – predictable
        2. irrigation led to organization/government
        3. agricultural villages engaged in trade
        4. pharaoh – king – power
          1. living incarnation of sun god
        5. geography – protected from invading people
        6. beginning 3100 when Menes unites Upper and Lower Egypt
        7. 2040-1640 BCE Middle Kingdom – culturally dynamic
        8. New Kingdom – 1500 – regained from foreign invaders Hyksos – focused on military
        9. by 900 in control of foreign invaders – internal disorder, invasions
      3. Social structure
        1. Social classes, but commoners could enter government service – rise in social status
        2. Patriarchal, but women had some privileges
          1. Women sometimes acted as regents for young rulers, priestesses, scribes
          2. managed household finances/education of children
          3. right to divorce husbands/alimony
          4. could own property
          5. Queen Hatshepsut
    3. Indus – 2500 BCE Indus River - Pakistan
      1. Culture
        1. Streets laid out in precise grid – houses had running water/sewage
        2. Harappan writing not deciphered – much unclear
        3. active trade w/ Indus valley and Sumer – ores from one place found in others
        4. blend of Aryans and Indus valley people affected future course of history
        5. quite large – size of France/urbanized
      2. State
        1. unpredictable flooding
        2. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
          1. Because of similarities of cities, tightly unified, centrally controlled
        3. Overtaken by Indo-Europeans – Aryans
          1. Already dying out – 1) river change or 2) earthquake, 3) erosion of soil 4) salt in wells
        4. whole societies – all over – Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro only tip, last
      3. Social Structure
        1. little known – Dravidians relatively egalitarian
        2. not as patriarchal
        3. Aryans – based it on color – Varnu
        4. Aryans eventually control politically, but Dravidians would win out culturally
    4. Shang – most isolated – Huange He valley – Yellow River – “China’s Sorrow”
      1. Culture
        1. Isolated by deserts, mountains, and seas – unpredictable flooding
          1. Still some trade w/ Southwest Asia and South Asia
        2. Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 left written records)
          1. Knowledge of bronze metallurgy – from Southwest Asia
          2. Strengthened Shang war machine
          3. 1000 BCE Ironworking
          4. Fortune telling and ancestor worship started here
        3. Palaces/tombs built for emperors
        4. Writing – oracle bones
          1. Oracle scratch person’s question on bone/shell – heat it
          2. Resulting cracks read to learn message from gods
            1. Shoulder
        5. myth of Xia dynasty
      2. State
        1. Dynasties
        2. Central rule to oversee irrigation/flood-control projects
        3. Walled cities – center of cultural, military, economic – set precedent in villages
        4. Zhou replaced Shang – “mandate of heaven” – if leader governed wisely and fairly, he could claim right to divine rule
          1. Warrior aristocracy
          2. fought northern/western neighbors – barbarians – expanded empire
        5. Tradition of central authority
        6. Began as small agricultural cities along Yellow River
      3. Social Structure
        1. Stratified – ruling elites, artisans, peasants, slaves
        2. Patriarchal – father needs to know children are his
          1. Subservient
          2. multiple marriages
          3. preference for sons - infanticide
        3. Ancestor worship
        4. Matrilineal society before Shang
    5. Mesoamerica and Andean South America
      1. Culture
        1. lacked knowledge of wheel
        2. Olmecs/Maya – pyramids/temples
        3. Polytheistic
        4. Cultural diffusion – maize, terraced pyramids
          1. Calendars
          2. Ball game on a court
          3. Quetzalcoatl – god who would return to rule world in peace
        5. Mayan reached height in 300 CE
          1. system of writing – pictographs
          2. value of zero
          3. astronomy – predicted eclipses
          4. length of year within a few seconds
      2. State
        1. small city-states – ruled by kings – fought against each other
          1. Prisoners of war – slaves/sacrifices to gods
        2. lack of pack animals/geography prevented communication
        3. Inhabitants cooperated for irrigation systems
        4. Rugged terrain of Andes prevented central gov’t from organizing
      3. Social structure
        1. Elite class of rulers/priests vs. commoners and slaves
      4. Geography – not in valleys of major rivers
        1. smaller rivers/streams near oceans
        2. no large animals/beasts of burden – llama biggest animal – human labor

(Students should be able to compare two of the early civilizations above.)

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