1 History FINAL

Upanishads

* composed by largely anonymous thinkers between 100 and 400 BC these were mystical and highly philosophical works that sought to some probe the inner meaning of the rituals described in the Vedas. * Brahman, the world soul the final and ultimate reality. * the individual human soul, atman, was a part of brahman. * the final goal of humankind was union with brahman an end to our illusionary perception of a separate existence this was called moksha or liberation. * achieving this state involved many lifetimes and the notion of samsara or rebirth. * human souls migrated from body to body over many lifetimes depending on the actions of individuals this was called the law of karma, pure actions appropriate to one station in life resulted in rebirth in a higher social position or caste. * the caste system of distinct and ranked groups became a register of spiritual progress, with their own duties.

Thervada

* differences and understanding emerged on how to achieved Nirvana. * new religion. * portrayed the Buddha as an immensely wise teacher and model, but not divine. * more psychological than religious, a set of practices rather than a set beliefs. *gods played little roles in achieving Nirvana.

Church of the east

* during the first six centuries of the Christian era most followers of Jesus lived in southwest Asia and Africa. The first Christian communities formed along the eastern Mediterranean coast mostly in the major towns of Syria and Anatolia. * the Church of the east spread from syria into Persia were it developed a unique liturgy with strong Jewish influence and a musical tradition of chants and hymns. * its missionaries spread their religion further to the east and by the 4th century Christianity had taken root in southern India which gained tax privileges and special rights from local leaders. * an early 7th century impression monk initiated a small Christian experiment in China. A Christian presence in Central Asia was also an outgrowth of this Church of the east. to the north in the caucus mountains the Kingdom of Armenia around 310 AD became the first place where rulers adopted Christianity as a state religion. in the South a number of Arabs became Christian by the time of mohammed's birth. * Africa a vibrant center of Christianity developed in Egypt where priests soon translated the Bible into Egyptian language known as Coptic by 480 hundreds of cells, monasteries, and caves dotted the desert. * the language, theology, and practice of Egyptian Christianity diverged from that of Rome and Constantinople giving expression to Egyptian resistance against Roman or Byzantine oppression. * in the West a Church of North Africa furnished a number of intellectuals of their early church including Saint Augustine and many other Christian martyrs under Roman persecution Christianity provoked not only hostility for moment political authorities but also tensions within families. * in Africa by 350 ad Christianity had become the state religion of axum a Kingdom in what is now Ethiopia. in Axum they had open air services, the use of drums and stringed instruments in worship and colorful umbrellas cover increase and musicians from the elements. linked theologically and organizationally to the Coptic Christianity in Egypt, the Ethiopian church used Ge'ez for its liturgy and literature. *adopted Nestorianism.

Greek rationalism

* emphasis on argument, logic, and the relentless questioning of received wisdom, their confidence of human reason, and their enthusiasm for puzzling out the world without much reference to the gods. * the earliest of the classical Greek thinkers applied this rational and questioning way of knowing to the world of nature. * What these thinkers had in common was a commitment to a rational and non religious explanation for the material world. * such thinking's also serve to explain the functioning of the human body and its diseases. * ethics and government also figured importantly in Greek thinking. * after the fall of the Roman Empire access to Greek texts with far more difficult in the West and for centuries Greek scholarship was neglected in favor of Christian writers many of that legacy was rediscovered after the 12th century AD as European scholars gained access to classical Greek texts. * played a role and updating Christian theology, and fostering Europe 17th century scientific revolution, and in providing a point of departure for much of European philosophy. * Greek legacy also entered the Islamic world. * Greek works of science and philosophy were translated into Arabic and stimulated Muslim thinkers and scientists, especially in the fields of medicine, astronomy, math, geography, and chemistry.

Bhagavad Gita

* famous Hindu text. * said that ordinary people not just brahmins could also find spiritual fulfillment by selflessly performing the ordinary duties of their lives. * withdrawal from the world and asceticism we're not the only way to moksha.

Buddhism

* had a historical founder. * if you followed the Buddhist path you could expect to achieve enlightenment or Nirvana a virtually indescribable state in which individual identity would be extinguished along with all greed, hatred, and delusion. * much of Buddhist teachings were similar to Hindu traditions such as the idea that ordinary life is an illusion, the concepts of karma and rebirth, the goal of overcoming the incessant the man's of the ego, the practice of meditation, the hope for final release from the cycle of rebirth. * Buddhism was almost like a simpler version of Hinduism. * rejected the religious authority of the brahmins, said their rituals and sacrifices were irrelevant to the hard work of dealing with ones suffering not interested about the creation of the world or the existence of a God. * challenged the inequalities of a Hindu based caste system * the possibility of awakening was available to all. * woman could become nuns separate from male monks. * still patriarchal. * gained state support from Ashoka.

Judiasm

* monotheistic religion that was born in a region with people called the Hebrews also known as Jews. * they lived in a region politically dominated by large empires of Assyria, Babylon and Persia when Assyria conquered Israel many of its inhabitants we're deported to distant regions where they were assimilated into local culture. in 586 BC Judah came under Babylonian control and its elite classes were shipped off to exile. * God was called Yahweh who demanded their exclusive loyalty. * it was a difficult requirement as many Hebrews turned from a pastoral life to agricultural many of them we're attracted by the fertility gods of neighboring people. * their neighbor's goddesses were also attractive offering a kind of spiritual support that the primarily masculine Yahweh could not. * Yahweh was seen as lofty, transcendent deity of utter holiness and purity.

Hinduism

* no historical founder, not a missionary religion, associated with a region. *Vedas. *Upanishads. *Women were increasingly seen as unclean below the navel, forbidden to learn the Vedas and excluded from public religious rituals. * laws of Manu advocated child marriage for girls to men far older than themselves. *Kamasutra empowered women Many Hindu deities were female. * Various ways to achieve moksha through knowledge or study, detached action in the world, doing one's ordinary work, passionate devotion to some deity or through extended meditation practice Were spelled out in Hindu teachings. * a new form of Hinduism. * more accessible than the elaborate sacrifices of the brahmins or the philosophical speculations of intellectuals. * expressed in epic poems called the Mahabharata and the Ramayana it revived Hinduism and indicated more clearly that action in the world and the detached performance of caste duties might also provide a path to liberation.

Vedas

* sacred collection of poems, hymns, prayers, and rituals. *compiled by priests called Brahmins. *Sanskrit. *clearly patriarchal society, but upper class women had more freedom. *Vedic women participated in ritual sacrifice, scholarships and religious debate, were allowed to wear the sacred thread that showed ritual purity in the higher castes, and marry a man of their choosing. * described the elaborate ritual sacrifices Brahmin priests preformed.

Confucianism

*Analects a book of Confucius thinking's. *moral example of superiors . *unequal relationships. *key to moral progress was education. *ritual and ceremonies. *serious personal reflection and a willingness to strive continuously to perfect his moral character were essential. *became the center of the educational system which prepared students for the civil service exam. *Filial piety, the honoring Of ones parents and ancestors. *patriarchal. *Ban Zhao . *superior men. *legitimized the inequalities of society . *established certain expectations for the superior parties *non religious . *teachings were distinctly this-worldly and practical, concerned with human relationships, effective government, and social harmony. *world of human relationships. *control over nature.

Buddha and Jesus

*Jesus was from a lower class family, whereas Buddha was born to royalty and luxury. * both became spiritual seekers who claimed to have personally experienced another and unseen level of reality. * both are wisdom teachers challenging the conventional values of their time urging renunciation of wealth, and emphasizing the supreme importance of love or compassion as the basis bring more life. * Buddha had instructed his followers in the practice of Metta.Jesus told his followers to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. * both called for the personal transformation of their followers through letting go of the grasping that causes suffering. * Jesus had intense devotion to a single God and he gained reputation as a miracle worker, while Buddha largely ignored the supernatural, involved no miracles, and taught a path of intense self effort aimed at ethical living and mindfulness as a means of entering suffering. * Jesus teachings had a sharper social political edge than those of buddhas and Jesus spoke more clearly on behalf of the poor and the oppressed, directly criticized the hypocrisies of the powerful and deliberately associated with lepers, adulterous woman, and tax collectors. * Jesus' public life was very brief while buddha's lasted more than 40 years. *both transformed into gods. * Jesus never claimed divine status, seeing himself as a teacher or prophet whose close relationship to God could not be replicated by anyone. The Buddha viewed himself as an enlightened but fully human person an example of what was possible for all who followed the path.

Daosim

*Laozi is the founder and wrote Daodejing a series of poems. * thought that education and earnest striving for moral improvement and good government was useless. *Withdrawal into the world of nature and encouraged behavior that was spontaneous, individualistic, and natural. *spotlight on the immense realm of nature and its mysterious unfolding patterns . *dao. *human harmony with nature, align with the way of nature. *withdraw from political life and social activism. *simple living, small self-sufficient communities, limited government and the abandonment of education and active efforts of self improvement. *family life central to chinese society, but balance between genders unlike con.

Spread of Christianity

*The inclusive message of early Christianity was one of the attractions of the new faith as it spread very gradually within the Roman Empire. * the early converts were usually low stratum people such as artisans, traders, and the considerable number of women mostly from towns and cities. * the spread of Christianity was often followed by the reports of miracles, healings, and the casting out of demons which impressed people who are accustomed to the events of ordinary life. *Christianity also gained converts by the way their members cared for another. * Christianity exclusively worshipped one God and was against all other supernatural powers particularly the cult of emperors. their denial to these gods cause them to be called atheists and was the main reason why they were persecuted during the first three centuries of the common era. * oppression ended with emperor Constantine's conversion in the early 4th century. * Roman leaders used Christianity as a glue to hold together they're very diverse population and their weakening imperial state. *Theodosius enforced the ban on all polytheistic ritual sacrifices and ordered the temples that practiced them closed while Christianity was promoted. * Christianity adopted some religious practices of the Roman world. * the spread of Buddhism is quite different as even though Ahsoka's support gave Buddhism a boost it was never promoted to the exclusion of other faiths. * Ashoka saw harmony with India's diverse population through religious tolerance. * Buddhism died out in India as it was reabsorb into Hinduism, no renewal of Roman polytheism occurred. * Christianity developed a hierarchical organization, with patriarchs, bishops, and priests which were all men. * a single focus for Christian belief in practice was difficult to achieve several councils sought to define an orthodox or correct position on these and other issues declaring those who disagreed as anathema and expelled them from the church. * Buddhism attempted to do the same thing but failed.

Yin and Yang

*belief in the unity of opposites. *people might study con by day but during the night or retirement they might study Daoism.

Legalism

*solution to problems lay in rules or laws clearly spelled out, and strictly enforced through a system of rewards and punishments. *pessimistic view of human nature. +believed people were stupid and shortsighted. *only the state could act in long term interests . *promoted farmers and soldiers . *suppressed merchants, aristocrats, scholars. *Brutal.

dao

*the central concept of Daoism *an elusive notion that refers to the way of nature , the underlying and unchanging principle that governs all the natural phenomena's

Sea Roads Southeast Asia

. Three regions trade Stimulated political change, as ambitious or aspiring rulers used the wealth derived from commerce to construct larger and more centrally governed states or cities. Both areas likewise experienced cultural changes as local people were attracted to foreign religious ideas from Confucian, Hindu, Buddhist, Or Islamic sources In Southeast Asia, many of these new societies We're stimulated and decisively shaped by their interactions with the sea based trade of Indian Ocean. The case of Srivijaya Illustrates the connection between commerce and State Building. When Malaya sailors, long active in the waters around Southeast Asia, opened an all sea route between India and China through the Straits of Malacca around 350AD, the many small ports of the Malay Peninsula and the coast of Sumatra began to compete intensely to track the growing number of traders and travelers making their way through the straits. From this competition emerged the Malay Kingdom of Srivijaya Which dominated this critical choke point of Indian Ocean trade from 670 to 10/25. A number of factors, such as its plentiful supply of gold, its access to the source of highly sought after spices, such as clothes. Nutmeg. And Mace. And the taxes levied on passing ships provided resources to attract supporters, To fund an embryonic bureaucracy, and to create the military and naval forces that brought some security to the sea. The state of Funan Which flourished during the first six centuries of the common era in what is now southern Vietnam and eastern Cambodia, hosted merchants from both India and China. Archaeologists have found Roman coins as well as trade goods from Persia, Central Asia. And Arabia in the ruins of its ancient cities.the khmer Kingdom of Angkor Exported exotic forced products, receiving and returned Chinese and Indian handicrafts, while welcoming A considerable community of Chinese merchants, traders from Champa in what is now central and southern Vietnam, operated in China, Java. And elsewhere. Practicing piracy when trade dried up. Indian alphabets such as Sanskrit and Pallava Used to write a number of Southeast Asian languages. Indian artistic forms provided models for Southern Asian sculptures and architectures. Politically, Southeast Asian rulers and elites found attractive the Indian belief that leaders were God kings, Perhaps reincarnations of a Buddha or the Hindu deity Shiva.Srivijayan Monarchs, for example, employed Indian as advisors, Clear., Or officials and assigned Sanskrit titles to their sub. Coordinates. The City of Palembang Was a cosmopolitan place. They also sponsored the creation of images of the Buddha and various bodhisattvas Whose faces resembled those of deceased kings and were inscribed with traditional curses against anyone who would destroy them. srivijaya Grew into a major center of Buddhist observance and teaching, attracting thousands of monks and students from throughout the Buddhist world. The sailendra Kingdom in Central Java. Mounted a massive building program between the 8th and 10th century Featuring Hindu temples and Buddhist monuments. The most famous known as Borobudur Is an enormous mountain shaped structure of 10 levels with a three mile walkway and elaborate carvings illustrating the spiritual journey from ignorance and delusion to full enlightenment. Hinduism , though not an explicitly missionary religion, found a place in Southeast Asia. It was well established in the Champa Kingdom, for example, where Shiva was worshipped, Cows were honored, and phallic imagery was prominent. But The most prosperous and powerful Angkor Kingdom of the 12th century AD Hosted The most stunning architectural expression of Hinduism and the temple complex known as Angkor Wat. The largest Religious structure in the pre modern world is sought to express a Hindu understanding of the cosmos centered on a mythical mountain, Meru, the home of the gods. To the West of Angkor, the state of Pagan likewise devoted enormous resources to shrines, temples and libraries inspired by both Hindu and Buddhist faiths. Southeast Asian women had fewer restrictions and a greater role in public life than women in the more patriarchal civilizations of China and India. They were generally able to own property together with their husbands and to initiate divorce. Woman in Angkor Also served as gladiators, Warriors, And members of the palace staff, and as poets. Artists, And religious teachers. Almost 1800 realistic carved images of women decorate the temple complex of Angkor Wat. And neighboring Pagan, a 13th century queen pwa saw Exercised extensive political and religious influence for some 40 years amid internal intrigue and external threats, while donating some of her land and property to a Buddhist temple.

sand roads

A major turning point in African commercial life occurred with the introduction of the Arabian camel to North Africa and the Sahara in the early centuries of the Common Era. This. Animal, which could go for 10 days without water, finally made possible the long trek across the Sahara. It was camel Owning dwellers of desert Oases who initiated trans-Saharan commerce by 300 to 480. What these Arab merchants saw above else was gold, which was found in some abundance in the border areas straddling the grasslands and the forests of West Africa. From its source, it was transported by donkey to transshipment points on the southern edge of the Sahara, and then transferred to camels for the long journey N across the desert. African ivory, kola NUTS, And slaves were likewise in considerable demand in the desert, the Mediterranean basin. And beyond. In return, the peoples of the Sudan received horses, Cloth, dates, Various manufactured goods. And especially salt from the rich deposits in the Sahara. The Sahara was a major international trade route that fostered new relationship among distant people. Between roughly 5oo and 1600 hundred, a new West African civilization took shape in the region stretching from the Atlantic Coast to Lake Chad. It included the states of Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem as well as numerous towns and cities such as Kumbi Saleh, Jenne, Timbuktu, Gao, Gobir, Kano and others. All of these states were monarchies, with elaborate court life and varying degrees of administrative complexity and the military force at their disposal. All drew on the wealth of the trans Saharan trade, taxing the merchants who conducted it. In the wider world, these states soon acquired A reputation for great riches. An Arab traveller in the 10th century AD described the ruler of Ghana as the wealthiest king on the face of the earth because of his treasures and the stocks of gold. At its high point in the 14th century, the rulers of Mali Monopolize the import of strategic goods such as horses and metals, Levied duties on salt, Copper and other merchandise, And reserved large Nuggets of gold for themselves, while permitting the free export of gold dust. Royal Families and elite classes, Mercantile and artisan groups, Military and religious officials, Free peasants and slaves. All of these were represented in this emerging West African civilization. So too were gender hierarchies, not, although without the rigidity Of more established Eurasian civilizations. Rulers, Merchants. And public officials were almost always male, And by 1200 earlier matrilineal descendant patterns had been largely replaced by those tracing descendants through the male line. Mail bards, The repositories for their communities. History often viewed powerful women as dangerous, Not to be trusted, And seductive distraction for men. But the ordinary woman were central to agricultural production and weaving. Royal women played important political roles in many places, And oral traditions and mythologies frequently portrayed a complementary, rather than hierarchical relationship between the sexes. In West Africa. Early on, most slaves had been women, working as domestic servants and concubines. As West African civilization crystallized, however, Male slaves were put to work as state officials, porters. Craftsman. Miners harvesting salt from desert deposits, and especially agricultural laborers producing for the rural granaries on large estate or plantations. Most of these slaves were used within this emerging West African civilization, but a trans Saharan slave trade also developed. Between roughly 1100 and 1400, perhaps 5500 slaves per year made the perilous trek across the desert, where most were put to work in the homes of the wealthy and Islamic North Africa. The states of this West African civilization developed subtantial Urban and commercial centers such as Kumbi Saleh, Jenne, Timbuktu, Gao, Gobir, and kano where traders congregated and goods were exchanged. Some of these cities also became centres of manufacturing, creating finally wrought Beads., Iron tools, Or iron textiles, some of which entered the circuits of commerce.

"secondary products revolution"

A term used to describe the series of technological changes that began ca. 4000 B.C.E., as people began to develop new uses for their domesticated animals, exploiting a revolutionary new source of power. these technological innovations involved new uses for domesticated animals, beyond their meat and hides. Agricultural people in parts of europe, Asia, and Africa learned to milk their animals, to harvest their wool, and to enrich the soil with their manure. They learned to ride horses and camels and to hitch various animals to plows and carts. humankind got the gift of wine, beer. as barley, wheat, rice, and grapes were domesticated, their potential for acholic drinks increased.

silk roads cultures

From its beginnings in India during the 6th century, Buddhism has appealed to merchants, its universal message to that of a Brahmin dominated Hinduism that privileged the higher castes. Indian traders and Buddhist monks, sometimes supported by rulers such as Asoka, brought the new religion to the trans Eurasian trade routes. To the West, Persian Zoroastrianism Largely blocked the spread of Buddhism, but in the Oasis cities of Central Asia such as Merv, samarkand, khotan, and Dunhuang. Buddhism quickly took hold. by the 1st bc Many of these inhabitants of these towns had converted to Buddhism, and foreign merchant communities soon introduced it into northern China as well. Particularly important in this process were the Sogdians a Central Asian people who merchants established an enduring network of exchange with China. Sogdians dominated Silk Road trade for much of the first Millennium AD And their language became a medium of communication all along that commercial network. Dependent on long distance trade, inhabitants and rulers of those sophisticated and prosperous cities found in Buddhism. A link to the larger, Wealthy and prestigious civilizations of India. well to do. Buddhist merchants could earn religious merit by building monasteries and supporting monks. Many of these cities became cosmopolitan centers of learning and commerce. Outside of the Oasis communities, Buddhism progressed only slowly among the pastoral peoples of Central Asia. As Buddhism spread across the Silk Roads from India to Central Asia. China, And beyond it also changed. The Original faith had shunned the material world, but Buddhist monasteries in the rich Oasis towns of the Silk Roads found themselves very much involved in secular affairs. Doctrines changed as well. It was more devotional Mahayana form of Buddhism featuring the Buddha as a deity, numerous bodhisattvas an emphasis on compassion , And the possibility of earning merit---- That flourished on the Silk Roads rather than the more austere Cytological teachings of the historical Buddha. Moreover, Buddhism picked up elements of other cultures while in transit on the Silk Roads. In the Sogdiana City of Samarkand the use of Zoroastrian fire rituals apparently became part of Buddhist practice.

Silk Roads- Diseases

An early example involved the Greek city state of Athens, which in 430 to 429 BC. Was suddenly afflicted by a new and still unidentified infectious disease that had entered Greece via seaborne trade from Egypt, killing perhaps 25 per cent of its army and permanently weakening the state. Even more widespread diseases affected the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty China, as the Silk Roads prompted contact all across Eurasia. Particularly from the 2nd century AD on. Smallpox. Measles. Various forms of plague, and perhaps malaria, devastated the populations of both empires, contributing to their political collapse. Paradoxically Such disasters may well have strengthened the appeal of Christianity in Europe and Buddhism in China, for both of them offered a compassion in the face of a man's suffering. Again in the period. Between 534 and 750AD Intermittent outbreaks of bubonic plague ravaged the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea. What followed was catastrophic. Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, lost thousands of people per day during a 48 day. In 534 ad The repeated reoccurrence of the disease over the next several centuries also weakened the ability of Christendom to resist Muslim armies from Arabia in the 7th century AD. The Black Death identified variously with the bubonic plague, anthrax, Or a package of epidemic diseases from China to Europe. Its consequences were enormous. Between 1346 and 1348, up to half the population of Europe perished from the plague. A similar death toll afflicted in China and parts of the Islamic world. The Central Asian steppes, Home to many nomadic people, Including the mongols also suffered terribly undermining political rule and permanently altering the balance between pastoral and agricultural peoples to the advantage of settled farmers.

Sea Roads (Indian Ocean)

Archaeologists find in both Mesopotamia and India have disclosed seaborne trade via the Persian Gulf between ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilization. The Ancient Egyptians, and later the Phoenicians, likewise traded down the Red Sea, exchanging their manufactured goods for gold, Ivory, Frankincense. And slaves from the coasts of Ethiopia, Somalia, And southern Arabia. These ventures mostly hugged the coast and took place over short distances.malay Sailors, however, jumped off the islands of present day Indonesia during the first Millennium BC and made their way in double Outrigger Canoes across thousands of miles of open ocean to the East African island of Madagascar. There they introduced the Austronesian language and their crop, such as bananas, coconuts, And Taro, which soon spread to the mainland, where they greatly enriched the diets of African people. Various technological innovations also facilitated Indian Ocean trade, such as improvements in sales, New kinds of ships such as Chinese junks and Indian or Arab dhows New means of calculating latitude, such as astrolabe, and evolving versions of the magnetic needle or compass. Merchants from the Roman world, Mostly Greeks, Syrians, and Jews established settlements in southern India and along the East African coast The fulcrum Of this growing commercial network lay in India itself. Its ports Bulged with goods from both East and West. Its merchants were in touch with Southeast Asia by the 1st century AD and settled communities of Indian traders appeared throughout the Indian Ocean basin and as far as way as Alexandria im eygpt. Indian cultural practices such as Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as South Asian political ideas began to take root in Southeast Asia. Two major processes changed the landscape of the Afro eur-Asian world and wove the web of Indian Ocean Exchange Even more densely than before. One was the economic and political revival of China some four centuries after the collapse of the Han dynasty. Especially during the Tang and Song Dynasties, China reestablished an effective and unified state which actively encourage maritime trade. China's population shifted southward, along with many of the most productive parts of the commercial economy, which grew impressively during this. Even as the thriving Chinese economy attracted goods from India and Southeast Asia. Chinese technological innovations such as larger ships and the magnetic compass likewise added to the monumentum of commercial growth. Transformation in the world of Indian Ocean commerce involved the sudden rise of Islam in the 7th century. Ad and its sub. Sequence spread across much of the Afro Eurasian world. Islam was friendly to commercial life. The Prophet Muhammad himself had been a Trader. The creation of an Arab empire stretching from the Atlantic Ocean through the Mediterranean basin and all the way to India, brought together in the single political system in immense range of economies and cultural traditions and provided a vast arena for energies of Muslim traders. Those energies greatly intensified commercial activity in the Indian Ocean basin. Middle Eastern gold and silver flowed into southern India to purchase pepper, Pearls, Textiles. And gemstones. Muslim merchants and sailors, as well as Jews and Christians living within the Islamic world, established communities of traders from East Africa to South China coast. Beyond these specific outcomes, the expansion of Islam gave rise to International Maritime culture by 1000, shared by individuals living in the widely separated port cities around the Indian Ocean. The immense prestige, power. And prosperity of the Islamic world stimulated widespread conversion, which in turn facilitated commercial transaction.

Varnas

By around 500 BC the idea that society was forever divided into 4 ranked classes, or varnas, was deeply embedded in Indian thinking. everyone was born into and remained within one of these classes for life according to varna theory these four classes were formed from the body of the God Purusha and were therefore eternal and changeless

Zoroastrianism

* Persian prophet Zarathustra. * received state support during the Achaemenid dynasty. * dualistic monothiestic * single god Ahura Mazda who ruled the world and was the source of all light truth and goodness. * was in a constant struggle with Angra Mainyu (evil). * those who had aligned with Ahura Mazda would be rewarded greatly and those who didn't would be punished. * placed great emphasis on the free will of humankind and the necessity for each individual to choose between good and evil. * never became an active missionary religion and did not spread widely beyond the region. * some elements of their belief system incorporated it into other religions such as Judaism.

Mahayana Buddhism

* a new form of Buddhism. * offered greater accessibility, a spiritual path available to much wider range of people beyond the monks and ascetics. * enlightenment was available to everyone it was possible within the context of ordinary life but they might happen within a single off time rather than over the course of multiple lives. * emphasized compassion. * transformed Buddhism into a popular religion of salvation. * religious merit leading to salvation might now be earned by acts of piety and devotion such as contributing to the support of a monastery, and that merit might be transferred to others.

Bhakti Movement

* another religious path. * the way of devotion to one or another of India's many gods and goddesses. * intense adoration of and identification with a particular deity through songs, prayers, and rituals. * sometimes pushed against the rigid caste and gender hierarchies of Indian society by inviting all to an adoration of the divine.

7 Innovative Civilizations

Mesopotamia Nile Notre chico olmec Oxus Indus river valley Chinese def of civilization : the stage of human and social development considered to be advandced that follows the primary charateristics of a civ.

Muhammads

Muhammad who was born in Mecca to a Quraysh family. as a young boy Muhammad lost his parents and came under the care of an uncle and worked as a shepherd to pay his keep. later he became a traitor and traveled as far north as Syria. at the age of 25 he married a wealthy widow herself a prosperous merchant with whom he fathered six children. the revelations began in 610 and continued. Radically over the next 22 years. those revelations recorded in the Quran became the sacred scripture of Islam which to this day most Muslims regard as the very words of God and the core of their faith. as the messenger of God Mohammed presented himself in the line of earlier prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus and many others. in 622 left from mecca to YATHRIB (year 0) when he arrived their the city was renamed to Medina or the city of the prophet this journey was called Hijrah. there he declared independence from judaism and declared Islam the arab religion in 630 peacfully reentered Mecca and purged the ka'ab of idols and rededicated it to allah (hajj) died in 632

Peasents

Nature, the state, and landlords combined to make their life of most peasants extremely vulnerable. Famines, floods, droughts, hail, and pests could wreak havoc without warning. state authorities required the payment of taxes, demanded about a month's labor every year on various public projects, and conscripted young men for military service Throughout the long course of China's civilization the vast majority of its population consisted of peasants, living in small households representing two or three generations Were respected as they were seen as the solid backbone of the country

silk road's goods

None of this networks numerous participants knew the full extent of its reach, for it was largely a relay trade, And which goods were passed down the line, changing hands many times before reaching their final destination. As a Geographic unit, Your Asia is often divided into inner and outer zones that represent quite different environments. Outer Eurasia consists of relatively warm, well watered areas suitable for agriculture, Which provided the setting for the great civilizations of China, India. The Middle East. And the Mediterranean. Inner Asia, such as the lands of eastern Russia and Central Asia, lies further north and has a harsher and drier climate, much of it not conducive to agriculture. Hurting their animals from horseback, the pastoral people of this region had for centuries traded with and rated their agricultural neighbours to the South. Products of the forest and of semi arid northern grasslands known as the steppes Such as hides, fur, Livestock, wool, and amber were exchanged for their agricultural products and manufactured goods of adjacent civilizations. The movement of pastoral peoples for a thousands of years also served to diffuse Indo European languages, bronze metallurgy and Horse based technologies. Silk Road trading networks prospered most when large and powerful states provided relative security for merchants and travelers across long distances. Such conditions prevailed during the Second Wave era, when the Roman and Chinese empires anchored long distance commerce at the western and eastern ends of Eurasia. Silk Road trade flourished again during the 7th and 8th centuries AD As the Byzantine Empire, The Muslim Abbasid Minus dynasty, and Tang Dynasty China Create an almost continuous belt of strong states across Eurasia. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mongol Empire briefly encompassed Almost the entire Root of the Silk Roads in a single state, Giving a renewed Vitality to long distance trade. Over many centuries, various technological innovations come. Such as yokes, Saddles, and stirrups made use of camels, horses, And oxen more effective means of transportation across the vast distances of the Silk Roads. Most of these goods were luxury products destined for an elite and wealthy market, rather than staple goods, For only readily moved commodities of great value could compensate for the high costs of transportation across such long and forbidding distances. It was silk that came to symbolize this Eurasian network of exchange from the time of silks origin in China. After 300 BC or so, the precious fabric increasingly found a growing market all across the linked commercial network of the Afro Eurasian world. For many centuries, Chinese women, mostly in rural areas, were responsible for every step in the ingenious and laborious enterprise of silk production. They tended to the Mulberry trees on whose leaves silkworms fed, and they unwound the cocoons in very hot water to extract the long silk fibers They also turned these fibers into thread and wove them into textiles. Thus, Chinese homes became the primary site of textile production, with rural women as its main labor force. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, women were making a large contribution to the household economy, To technological innovation in the silk industry, and to the state, which depended heavily on peasant taxes, often paid in cloth. Beyond China, women and many culture ardently sought Chinese silk for its comfort and its value as a fashion statement. The demand for silk, As well As for cotton textiles from India was so great in the Roman Empire that various Roman writers were appalled at the drain of resources that it represented. By the 6th century AD. The knowledge and technology for Producing raw silk had spread beyond China. However, it happened, Artist sins and Korea, Japan, India, Persia, And the Byzantine Empire likewise learned how to produce this precious fabric. As the supply of silk increased, Its many varieties circulated even more extensively across Afro Eurasian trade routes. in Central Asia, silk was used as currency and as a means of accumulating wealth. In. Both China and the Byzantine Empire, Silk became a symbol of high status. And governments passed laws that restricted so clothing to members of the elite. Furthermore, silk became associated with the sacred and expanding world religions of Buddhism and Christianity. Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who made their way to India seeking religious texts and relics took with them large quantities of silk as gifts to the monasteries they visited. Buddhist monks in China received purple silk robes from the Tang Dynasty emperors as a sign of high honor. In the world of Christiandom, Silk wall hangings, Alter covers, vestments became highly prestigious signs of devotion and piety. Peasants in the Yangzi River delta of southern China sometimes gave up the cultivation of food crops, choosing to focus instead on producing silk, paper, Porcelain, Lacquerware, Or iron tools, Many of which were destined for the markets of the Silk Roads

civil service system

Open to all men this system in practice favored those whose families were wealthy enough to provide the years of education required to pass even the lower level exams. proximity to the capital and family connections to the imperial court also helped in gaining a position in this highest of Chinese elites. nonetheless village communities or local landowner might sponsor the education of a bright young man from a commoner finally enabling him to enter the charmed circle of officialdom. Those who made it into the bureaucracy entered a realm of high privilege and great prestige. senior officials move about in carriages and were bedecked with robes, ribbons, seals, and had dresses appropriate to their rank. even lower officials who served in provinces rather than the capital were distinguished by their polished speech, cultural sophistication, and their urban manners as well as Their political authority.

patriarchies

Restrictions on women were far sharper in urban based civilizations than those of pastoral or agricultural societies that lay beyond the reach of cities and empires. elite woman both enjoyed privileges and suffered the restrictions of seclusion in the home to a much greater extent than their lower class counterparts whose economic circumstances required them to operate in the larger social arena.

Primary characteristics of civilization (MUST EXIST)

Settlement in cities Specialized labour surplus government social structure

sea roads

Since the days of the Phoenicians, the Greeks, And Romans, The Mediterranean Sea had been an avenue of maritime commerce throughout the region, a pattern that continued during the Third Wave era. The Italian city of Venice emerged by 1000 AD as a major center of that commercial network, with its ships and merchants active in the Mediterranean and Black Seas as well as on the Atlantic Coast. Much of its wealth derived from control of expansive and profitable imported goods from Asia, many of which came up the Red Sea through the Egyptian port of Alexandria. There Venetian Merchants picked up those goods and resold them throughout the Mediterranean basin. The Indian Ocean represented the world's largest sea based system of communication and exchange, stretching from southern China to eastern Africa. The sea roads grew out of vast environmental and cultural diversities of the region. The desire for various goods not available at home, such as porcelain from China, Spices from the islands of Southeast Asia. Cotton goods and pepper from India, ivory and gold from the East African coast, Incense from southern Arabia provided incentives for Indian Ocean commerce. Transportation costs were low. Or on the C roads than on the silk roads because ships could Accommodate larger and heavier cargoes than camels. Thus the sea roads could Eventually carry more bulk goods and products destined for mass markets such as textiles, pepper, Timber, Rice. Sugar, weat. Whereas the Silk Roads were largely limited largely to luxury goods for the few. What made Indian Ocean commerce possible? Were the monsoons Alternating wind currents that blew predictably northeast during the summer months and southwest during the winter. It operated rather across a network of towns and cities whose merchants often had more in common with one another than with the people of their own hinterland

Patriarchy in Sparta

Sparta's answer was a militaristic regime, constantly ready for work to keep the helots in their place. to maintain such a system all boys removed from their families at the age of 7 to be trained by the state and military camps, where they learned the ways of war. there they remained until the age of 30. had implications for women that offered them greater freedoms and fewer restrictions. as in many warrior societies their central task was reproduction bearing warrior sons for Sparta. to strengthen Their bodies for childbearing, girls were encouraged to take part in sporting events such as running, wrestling, throwing the discus and javelin, even driving Chariots what at times women and men alike competed in the nude before mixed audiences. their education like that of boys was prescribed by the state. Young women were not secluded or segregated as were their Athenian counterparts Spartan young woman unlike those of Athens usually married men of their own age, about 18 years old, thus putting the new couple on a more equal basis. marriage often began with a trial period to make sure the new couple could produce children, with divorce and remarriage readily available if they could not Spartan woman controlled some 40% of landed estates he joint efforts of men and women seem necessary to maintain a huge class of helots and permanent subjugation at least until 369 BC. death in childbirth was considered the equivalent of death in battle, for both contributed to the defense of Sparta, and both were honoured alike. women had harder retrictions when the helots took over.

shia

Supporters of Ali ali, the fourth caliph ruled from 656 until he was killed in 661

Sea Roads East Africa

Swahili civilization. Emerging in the 8th century AD, this civilization took shape as a set of commercial city states stretching all along the East African coast from present day Somalia to Mozambique. The early ancestors of the Swahili lived in small farming and fishing communities, Spoke banu languages, and traded with the Arabian, Greek, And Roman merchants who occasionally visited the coast during the Second Wave era. trade stimulated the growth of Swahili cities was the far more extensive commercial life of the western Indian Ocean following the rise of Islam. As in Southeast Asia, local people and aspiring rulers found opportunity for wealth and power in growing Demand for East African products associated with an expanding Indian Ocean commerce. Gold, Ivory, Quartz, Leopard skins. And sometimes slaves acquired from interior societies, As well as iron and processed timber manufactured along the coast, Found already market in Arabia, Persia., India. And beyond. In response to such commercial opportunities, an African merchant class developed, a village turned into sizable towns, and clan chiefs became kings. Between roughly 1000 and 1500, that civilization flourished along the coast, and it was a very different kind of society from the farming and pastoral cultures of the East African interior. It was thoroughly urban, centered in cities of 15,000 to 18,000 people auch as Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Sofala, and many others each swahili city was politically independent, Was generally governed by its own king, and was in sharp competition with other cities. No imperial system or larger territorial states unified the world of Swahili civilization. Nor did any of these city states control a critical choke point of trade, as Rivijaya did for the Straits of Malacca. Swahili cities were commercial centers that accumulated goods from the interior and exchanged them from the products of distant civilizations, such as Chinese porcelain and silk, Persian rugs, Indian cottons. While the transoceanic journeys occurred largely in Arab vessels, Swahili craft navigated the coastal waterways, concentrating goods for shipment abroad. Arab, Indian, And Persian merchants were welcome visitors, and some Settled permanently. Many ruling families of Swahili cities claimed Arab or Persian origins as a way of. During their prestige, Even while they dined from Chinese porcelain and dressed in Indian cottons. The Swahili language, widely spoken in East Africa today. Was grammatically an African tongue within the larger Bantu family of languages, but it was written in Arabic scriptand Contained a number of Arabic loan words furthermore swahili civilization rapidly became islamic Introduced by Arab traders, Islam was voluntarily and widely adopted within the Swahili world. And these East African cities were soon dotted with substantial mosques Islam sharply divided the Swahili cities from their African neighbours to the West, for neither the new religion nor Swahili culture penetrated much beyond the coast until the 19th century. economically however the coastal cities acted as intermediaries between the interior producers of valued goods and the Arab merchants who carried them to distant markets Hundreds of miles inland between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, ray rich sources of gold, much in demand on the Swahili coast. the emergence of a powerful state known as great Zimbabwe seems clear connected to the growing trade in gold to the coast as well as to the wealth embodied in its large herds of cattle. as it peaked between 1250 and 1350 great Zimbabwe had the resources and the labor power to construct huge stone enclosures entirely without mortar with wall 16 feet thick and 32 feet tall

Rise of Islam

The central region of the Arabian Peninsula had long been inhabited by nomadic Arabs known as bedouins who herded their sheep and camels in seasonal migrations. these peoples lived in fiercely independent clans and tribes that often engaged in bitter blood feuds with one another one of those cities Mecca came to occupy a distinctive role in Arabia. though some were of the major long distance trade routes, Mecca was the site of the kaaba the most prominent religious shrine in Arabia, which housed representations of some 360 deities and was the destination for many religious pilgrims. Mecca's dominant tribe the Qurash Controlled access to the Kaab, and its leading families had grown wealthy by taxing the local trade that accompanied the annual pilgrimage season those revelations recorded in the Quran became the sacred scripture of Islam which to this day most Muslims regard as the very words of God and the core of their faith. intended to be recited rather than simply read for information, the quran Muslims claim when heard in its original Arabic conveys nothing less than the very presence of the divine. it's unmatched poetic beauty miraculous to Arab speaking Muslims convinced many that it was indeed a revelation from God . he was the last the seal of the prophets bearing God's final revelation to humankind it was not so much a call to a new faith as an invitation to return to the old and pure religion of Abraham from which Jews, Christians, and Arabs alike had deviated The Quran Denounce the prevailing social practices of an increasingly prosperous Mecca such as the hoarding of wealth, the exploitation of the poor the charging of high rates of interest on loans, corrupt business deals, the beautiful woman, and the neglect of widows and orphans. like the Jewish prophets of the Old Testament the quaran demanded social justice and laid out a description for its implementations. it sought a return to the older values of Arab tribal life such as solidarity, equality concern for the poor which had been undermined particularly in Mecca by growing wealth and Commercialism the just and the moral Society of Islam was the umma the community of all believers, replacing tribal or racial identities the pillars of Islam the first pillar expressed the heart of the Islamic message. the second pillar was ritual prayer, performed five times a day which minded believers that they were living in the presence of God. the third pillar almsgiving reflected the Qurans repeated demands for social justice by requiring believers to give generously to support the poor and needy of the community. the fourth pillar established a month of fasting during Ramadan which meant abstaining from food, drink, and sexual relations from the first light of dawn to sundown. It provided an occasion for self purification and their Reminder of the needs of the hungry. the fifth pillar encouraged A pilgrimage to Mecca known as the Haji during which believers from all over the Islamic world assembled once a year and put on identical simple white clothing as they rehearsed key events in Islamic history A further requirement for believers sometimes called the sixth pillar was jihad. it's more general meaning which Mohammed referred to as the greater jihad was an interior personal effort of each believer against greed and selfishness, a spiritual striving towards living a God conscious life The quran authorized armed struggle against the forces of and evil as a means of establishing Muslim rule and of defending the umma from threats of infidel aggressives

Trade in the Americas

The llama and the potato domesticated and the Andes never reached mesoamerica nor did the writing system of the Maya diffuse to Andean civilizations that Aztecs and the incas, contemporary civilizations in the 15th century had little if any direct contact with each other. the limits of these interactions owed something to the absence of horses, donkeys, camels, wheeled vehicles, and large ocean going vessels all of which facilitated long distance trade and travel and Afro Eurasia. geographic or environmental differences added further obstacles. the narrow bottleneck of Panama largely covered by dense rainforest surely inhibited contact between South and North America. furthermore the north-south orientation of the Americas which required agricultural practices to move through, and adapt to quite distinct climatic and vegetation zones slowed the spread of agricultural products. by contrast the east West axis of Eurasia meant that agricultural innovations could diffuse more rapidly because they were entering roughly similar environments. nonetheless scholars have discerned A loosely interactive web stretching from the North American Great Lakes and upper Mississippi S to the Andes. Partly it was a matter of slowly spreading cultural elements such as the gradual diffusion of maize from its mesoamerican place of origin to the southwestern United States and then on to eastern North America as well as to much of South America in the other direction. a game played with rubber balls on an outdoor court has left traces in the Caribbean, Mexico, and northern South America. the spread of a particular pottery styles and architectural conventions likewise suggest at least indirect contact over wide distances Commerce two played an important role in the making of this American web. a major North American chiefdom at cahokia near present day St. Louis lay at the centre of a widespread trading network. those linkages up to cahokia shells from the Atlantic post, copper from the lakes carrier region Buffalo hides from the Great Plains, Obsidian from the Rocky Mountains, and Micah from the southern Appalachian Mountains sturdy dugout canoes close and the rivers of the eastern Woodlands, loosely connecting their diverse societies Caribbean peoples using large ocean going canoes had long conducted an inter island trade, and the chincha people of southern coastal crew undertook A privately organized ocean based exchange and copper, beads, and shells along the Pacific Coast of Peru and Ecuador in large seagoing rafts. another regional commerce network centered in mesoamerica extended N to what is now southwestern United States and South to Ecuador and Colombia. many items from meso America such as copper bells, macaw feathers, tonnes of shells have been found in the chaco region of New Mexico residents of chaco also drink liquid chocolate, using jars of Maya origin and cacao beans imported from mesoamerica. turquoise mind and worked by the people of chaco flowed in the other direction both the Maya cities in the yucatan area of Mexico and Guatemala and a huge city state of Teotihuacan in central Mexico maintain commercial relationships with one another and throughout the region. In addition to this land based trade, the Maya conducted A seaborne commerce, using large dugout canoes holding 40 to 50 people along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts although most of this trade was in luxury goods rather than basic necessities, it was critical to upholding the position and privileges of royal and noble families. items such as cotton clothing, precious jewelries, and feathers from particular birds marked the status of elite groups and served to attract followers among the Aztecs of the 15th century professional merchants known as pochteca undertook large scale trading expeditions both within and well beyond the borders of their empire, sometimes as agents for the state or for members of the nobility, but more often acting on their own as private businessmen unlike in the Aztec empire in which private traders largely handled the distribution of goods, economic exchange in the Andean Inca empire during the 15th century was a state-run operation, and no merchant group similar to the Aztec pochteca emerged there. instead great state storehouses bulged with immense quantities of food, clothing, military supplies, blanket, construction materials and more, all carefully recorded on quipus by a highly trained class of accountants. from these state centres, goods were transported as needed by caravans of human porters and lamas across the numerous roads and bridges of the empire. totaling some 20,000 miles anchor roads traversed in the coastal plain and the high Andes in a north-south direction while lateral roads linked these diverse environments and extended into the eastern rainforest

Neolithic Revolution

The switch from nomadic lifestyles to a settled agricultural lifestyle is this revolution. the "new stone age" referring to the introduction of agriculture in societies that had long survived with a gathering and hunting economy miniaturization of stone tools. Known as micro-blades thses smaller and more refined spear points, arrowheads, knives, and scrapers were carefully struck from larger cores and often mounted in antler, bone, or wooden handles. Another important change involved the collection of wild grains . Originated in NE Africa represented a major addition to the food supply beyond the use of roots, berries, and nuts. with the end of the ice age plants that struggled now flourished increased their range, providing a much richer and more diverse environments for many human societies. Under these improved conditions, human population grew, and some previously nomadic hunting and gathering communities but not all of them found it possible to settle down and live in more permanent settlements or villages. these societies were becoming both larger and more complex, and it was less possible to simply move away if trouble struck. Settlement also meant that households could store and accumulate goods to a greater degree than before.

Brahmins

Top of the system Tribal medicine men or sorcerers found a place as Brahmins Priests

After muhammad

Within a few years of muhammad's death in 632 Arab armies engaged the Byzantine and Persian sassanid empire the great powers of the region and within a century an Arab empire stretched from India to Spain. weakened by periodic bouts of plague and their endemic rivalries the Persian Empire had been defeated by air forces in 644 while Byzantine the many eastern regions of the of Roman Empire soon what's the southern half of its territories. beyond these victories, Muslim forces operating on both land and sea swept westward across North Africa 642- 698 conquered Spain in the early seven hundreds and attacked southern France. to the east Arab armies reached the Indus river and seized some of the major Oasis towns of Central Asia. in 751 they inflicted A crushing defeat on Chinese forces in the battle of talas river which checked the further expansion of China to the West and made possible the conversion to Islam of central asia's turkic speaking people The merchant leaders of the new Islamic community wanted to capture profitable trade routes and wealthy agricultural regions. and the visual Arabs found in military expansion a route to wealth and social promotion the fragile unity of the umma threatened to come apart after Mohammed 's death and external expansion provided a common task for the community the new rulers were remarkably tolerant of established Jewish and Christian faiths. the first governor of Arab ruled Jerusalem was a Jew. many old Christian churches continued to operate and new ones were constructed formal agreements or treaties recognized Jews, Christians, and zoroastrians as people of the book giving them the status of dhimmis protected but second class subjects. such people were permitted to freely practice their own religion so long as they paid a special tax known as the jizya in other ways too the Arab rulers of an expanding empire sought to limit the destructive impact of conquest. to prevent indiscriminate destruction and exploitation of conquered peoples, occupying Arab armies were restricted to Garrison towns, segregated from the native population. local elites and bureaucratic structures were incorporated into the new Arab empire. nonetheless the empire worked many changes on its subject the most enduring of which was the mass conversion of Middle Eastern peoples to what became by the 8th century the new and separate religion of Islam For some people no doubt converting to Islam was or sub sequently became a matter of profound spiritual or psychological transformation, but far more often at least initially it was social conversion motivated more by convenience than conviction in some ways perhaps the change was not so dramatic, as major elements of Islam such as monotheism, ritual prayer and sing ceremonies fasting, divine revelation, the ideas of heaven, hell, and final judgment were quite familiar to Christians Jews and zoroastrians. Islam from the beginning associated with the sponsorship of a powerful state quite unlike the experience of early Buddhism or Christianity Although deliberately forced conversion was rare and explicitly forbidden in the Quran, living in Islamic governed state provided A variety of incentives for claiming Muslim identity. slaves and prisoners of war were among the early converts particularly in Persia. converts could also avoid the Jizya the tax imposed on non-Muslims. people aspiring to official positions found conversion to Islam and aid to social mobility. and Islam merchants found a religion friendly to commerce conversion was not an automatic or easy process. vigorous resistance delayed conversion for centuries among the berbers of North Africa, and a small group of zealous Spanish Christians in the 9th century provoked their own martyrdom by publicly insulting the prophet and some persians zoroastrians fled to avoid Muslim rule in Persia between 7:50 and 900 about 80% of the population made the transition to a Muslim religious identity. but they did so in a manner quite distinct from the people of Iraq, Syria Egypt and North Africa. in these regions converts to Islam gradually abandoned their native languages, adopted Arabic, and came to see themselves as Arabs. in Iran or Persia by contrast Arab conquest did not involve cultural arabization despite some initial efforts to impose the Arabic language. by The 10th century the vast majority of persians had become Muslim but the Persian language flourished enriched now by a number of Arabic and words and written in Arabic script in some places where large scale Arab migration had occurred such as Egypt, North Africa and Iraq, Arabic culture and language, as well as the religion of Islam, took hold. such areas are today both Muslim and Arab while the peoples of Iran, Turkey Pakistan, Indonesia, and West Africa for example have islamized without arabizing Islam was accompanied by pervasive Persian influences. Persian administrative and bureaucratic techniques such as Persian court practices with their palaces, guardians, and splendid garments Persian architecture, poetry music, and painting all of this decisively shaped the high culture of these eastern Islamic lands

Untouchables

a whole new category ranking lower than even the Sudras men and women who did the work considered most unclean and polluting, such as cremating corpses, dealing with the skin of dead animals, and serving as executioners

Umayyad Dynasty

at that time a network of merchants from mecca aided by capable generals and strong armies assumed power. they founded the Umayyad dynasty . this sunni dynasty moved its capital to Damascus . ruled for 90 years

Abbasids

by the end of the 90 years the umayyad rulers grew weak and corrupt. in 750 their capital fell to a group know as the Abbasids. The new rulers founded a new city for their capital Baghdad. situated in an ideal spot for trans-Eurasian trade baghdad soon rivaled Constantinople in both wealth and population, baghdad's influence in addtion to serving as a capital city, it became a center of learning

paleolithic era

called the old stone age (from 10,000 to 2.5 million years ago); they were concerned with food supply; they used stone as well as bone tools; they were nomadic hunters and gatherers paleolithic societies consisted of bands of 25-50 people. Lacked the many inequalities of of wealth and power. relationships between men and women usaully were far more equal. As the primary food gatherers women provided the bulk of the food about 70% while men provided 30% of the food. the use of deliberately set fires in the landscape to encourage the growth of particular plants changed the environment. In many ecosystems especially small islands in the pacific the arrival of humans led to the rapid extinction of some native plants and animals. evidence of spiritual life such as a ceremonial space in caves original affluent society

Islam vs. Christianity

christians= minority in roman empire,persecuted. separate church hierarchy and 2 coexisting authorityies( political and religious) Islam=state muhammad=religious figure+military and political leader no professional clergy had imams=community leaders no distinction between religious and civil law (sharia)

innovative civilization

civilization created with out the influence of others

Helots

early on Sparta solve the problem of feeding a growing population not by creating overseas colonies as did many Greek city states but by conquering it's immediate neighbors and reducing them to status of permanent servitude, not far removed from slavery. far outnumbered the free citizens of Sparta and represented a permanent threat of rebellion

the "three obediences"

emphasized a woman's subordination first to her father, then to her husband, and finally to her son

Sudras

far below these twice born in the hierarchy of varna groups. regarded as servants of their social betters, they were not allowed to hear or repeat the Vedas. so little were they valued that a brahmin killed a Sudra was penalized as if he had killed A cat or a dog

slavery in China

in China slavery was not as popular slaves only amounted to 1% of the population. among the earliest slaves in the Han dynasty China were convicted criminals and their families, confiscated by the government and sometimes to wealthy private individuals. in desperate circumstances impoverished or indebted peasants might sell their children into slavery. Southern China teenage boys of poor families could be purchased by the wealthy for whom they serve as status symbols. Chinese labor however was not very widespread and did not become a major source of Labor for agriculture for manufacturing

bantu migration

it's not a conquest or invasion such as that of Alexander the Great nor was it a massive and self-conscious migration like that of Europeans to the Americas rather it was a slow movement of peoples. sometimes bantu expansion was less a movement of people than the diffusion of new patterns of living involving language, root crops, grains, sheep and cattle, pottery styles, and ironworking technology that process had begun many centuries earlier probably around 3000 BC from their homeland and what is now southeastern Nigeria and the cameroons. over the long run some 400 distinct but closely related languages emerged known collectively as bantu Among those encounters none was more significant than that between the agricultural Bantu and they're gathering and hunting peoples. In these encounters bantu speaking farmers had various advantages. one was numerical, as agriculture generated a more productive economy and larger population. a second advantage was a greater immunity to animal borne diseases, acquired by prolonged exposure to both parasitic and infectious illnesses common to farming and herding societies. forging people's lack that immunity and many quickly succumbed when they encountered the agricultural newcomers. a third advantage was iron, so useful for tools and weapons when interacting with people's still operating with stone age technology thus gathering and hunting peoples were displaced, absorbed, or largely eliminated in the rainforest region of central Africa the foraging Batwa people became forest specialists who produced honey, wild game, elephant products, animal skins, and medicinal parks and plants, all of which entered regional trading networks in exchange for the agricultural products of their Bantu neighbors. some also adopted bantu languages thus becoming bantu linguistically while maintaining a gathering and hunting lifestyle and a separate identity they also enriched their agriculture by acquiring a variety a food crops from Southeast Asia such as coconuts, sugar cane and especially bananas which were bought to East Africa by Indonesian Malay saliors some newly Bantuized areas incorporated musical traditions, linguistic patterns, kinship systems derived from the earlier inhabitants societies in the bantu speaking world developed gender systems that were marked less patriarchal than those of established urban based civilizations. male ironworkers in the Congo river basin sought to appropriate the power and prestige of female reproductive capacity by decorating their furnaces with clay breasts and Speaking of their blows as impregnating the furnaces. among the luba people of central Africa, male rulers operated in alliance with powerful women, particularly spirit mediums who were thought to contain the spirit of the king. only a woman's body was considered sufficiently strong to acquire this potent and dangerous presence across a wide area of South Central Africa a system of gender parallelism associated female roles with village life while masculine identity revolved around hunting and forest life. it was complementary or separate but equal definition of gender roles bantu's practice in general placed less emphasis on a high or creator God who was viewed as remote and largely uninvolved in ordinary life and focused instead on ancestral or nature spirits. the power of dead ancestors might be accessed through rituals of sacrifice especially of cattle

The Landlord class

landlords of such large estates were often able to avoid paying taxes, thus decreasing state revenues and increasing the tax burden for the remaining peasants. in some cases they could also raise their own military forces that might challenge the authority of the emperor.Most officials came from wealthy families and in China wealth meant land. Large landowning families were a central feature of Chinese society as a class they benefited both from the wealth of their estates generated and from the power and prestige that accompanied their education and their membership in the official elite. Scholar-Gentry class

Merchants

merchants were viewed widely as unproductive, making a shameful profit from selling the work of others. stereotype is greedy, luxury loving, and materialistic, merchants stood in contrast to the presumed frugality, altruism, and cultured tastes of the scholar Gentry. Bottom of the social class. frequently became early in the Han dynasty, merchants were forbidden to wear silk clothing, ride horses, or carry arms. nor were they permitted to sit for civil service exams or hold public office. state monopolies on profitable industries such as salt, iron, and alcohol limited merchants opportunities. some tried to achieve a more respectable at least status by purchasing landed estates or educating their sons for the civil service examination

Jati system of subcastes

occupational based groups that blended with the varna system to create India's unique caste based society The many thousands of jatis became the primary cells of India's social life beyond the family or household, but each of them was associated with one of the great classes. thus brahmins were divided into many separate jatis or sub-castes as we're each of the other varnas as well as untouchables marriage and eating together were permitted only within an individual's own jati. Each jati was associated with a particular set of duties, rules, and obligations that defined its members unique and separate place in the larger society. brahmins for example we're forbidden to eat meat, while the Kshatriyas were permitted to do so brahmins or other high caste people who came in contact with members of lower castes, especially those who cleaned latrines, handled corpses, or butchered and skinned dead animals, we're in great danger of being polluted or made ritually unclean. thus untouchables were forbidden to use the same wells or to enter the same temples designed for higher caste people. sometimes they were required to wear a wooden Clapper to warn others of their approach being born into a particular caste was generally regarded as reflecting the good or bad deeds of a previous lifeany hope for rebirth and a higher caste rested on the faithful and selfless performance of one's present caste duties (dharma)

Vaisya

originally commoners who cultivated the land evolved into a business class with a prominent place for merchants these three classes seem to be regarded as possessing a distinctive nobility and purity which was conveyed by the term Aryan

secondary characteristics of civilization (DONT HAVE TO EXIST)

public works long-distance trade monumental artwork writing math/science/academic advancements

Functions of castes

rooted in particular regions or villages, it focused the loyalties of most people on a quite restricted territory and weakened the appeal or authority of larger all Indian states they offered a distinct and socially recognized place for almost everyone. in looking after widows, orphans, and the destitute, Jatis also provided a modest measure of Social Security and support. even the lowest ranking jatis had the right to certain payments from the social superiors whom they serve represented a means of accommodating the many migrating or invading peoples who entered the subcontinent.where it meant becoming Chinese ethnically, linguistically, and culturally india's caste system facilitated the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy and powerful. the multitude of separate groups into which it divided the impoverished and oppressed majority of the population made class consciousness and organized resistance across the caste lines much more difficult to achieve

Slavery

slave systems throughout history have varied considerably. and sometimes and places, such as ancient greece and Rome, a fair number of slaves might be emancipated in their own lifetimes, through their owners generosity or religious convictions or the desire to avoid caring for them in old age and sometimes slaves were allowed to purchase their freedom with their own funds. in some societies the children of slaves inherited their status of their parents, while in others, such as the Aztec empire, they were considered free people. trains likewise varied considerably in the labour that they were required to do with some working for the state in high positions, others performing domestic duties and their owners household, and still others toiling in the fields or mines in large work gangs in India as well people could fall into slavery as criminals, debtors, or prisoners of war and serve they're masters largely in domestic settings, but religious writings and secular law offered some protection for slaves. owners were required to provide adequately for their slaves and were forbidden to abandon them in old age. slaves in India could inherit and own property and earn money in their spare time. law encouraged owners to free their slaves and allowed slaves to buy their freedom

Roman slavery (Greco-Roman)

slavery was far more central to social life. estimate classical Athens alone was home to perhaps 60,000 slaves or about 1/3 of the total population. in Athens ironically the growth of democracy and citizenship was accompanied by the simultaneous growth of slavery on a mass scale.Even poor households what are two female slaves, who provided domestic work and sexual services for their owners Even poor households had one or two female slaves, who provided domestic work and sexual services for their owners. although substantial numbers of Greek slaves were granted freedom by their owners, they did not usually become citizens or gain political rights. nor could they own land or marry citizens, and particularly in Athens they had to pay a special tax the Italian heartland of the Roman Empire had some 2 to 3 million slaves representing 33 to 40% of the population. ealthy Romans could own many hundreds or even of slaves. even people of modest means frequently owned two or three slaves the vast majority of roman slaves were prisoners captured in the many wars and accompanied the creation of the empire.roman merchants purchased still other slaves through networks of long distance commerce extending to the Black Sea, the East African coast, and northwestern Europe. slaves were also supplied with their natural reproduction as children of slave others were regarded as slaves. Such home born slaves and prestige were thought to be less troublesome than those who had known freedom earlier in their lives slave owners saw their slaves as Barbarians, unreliable, immoral, prone to thieving and came to think of certain peoples such as Asiatic Greeks, Syrians, and Jews as slaves by nature. . no occupation was off limits to slaves except military serve, and no distinction existed between jobs for slaves and those for free people. frequently they labored side-by-side. in rural areas slaves provided much of the labor force on huge estate that produced rain, olive oil, and wine, mostly for export they often work chained together. in the cities slaves worked in their owners households, but also as skilled artisans, teachers, doctor, business agents, entertainers, and actors. and the empires many minds and quarries slaves and criminals labored under brutal conditions lave owners in the Roman Empire were supposed to provide the necessities of life to their slave. when this occurred slaves may have had a more secure life than was available to impoverished free people, who had to fend for themselves, but the price of this security was absolute subjugation to the will of their masters. beatings, sexual abuse, and sale to other owners were constant possibilities. lacking all rights in the law, slaves cannot legally marry, although many contracted unofficial union slaves often accumulated money or possession, but such property legally belong to their masters and could be seized at any time. if a slave murdered his master Roman law demanded the lives of all of the victims slaves for an individual slave the quality of life depended almost entirely on the character of their master. brutal owners made life a living hell. nicer owners made life tolerable and might even grant favored slaves their freedom or permit them to buy that freedom. as in Greece Manu of slaves were widespread practice, but in the Roman Empire unlike Greece freedom was accompanied by citizenship

sunni

supporter of of ABU BAKR abu bakr won and took over as caliph today 85-90% muslims are sunni

Kshatriya

the second of the four classes of the caste system, traditionally made up of warriors and administrators Under Brahmins

patriarchy in china

the superior principle of Yang was viewed as masculine and related to heaven, rulers, strength rationality, and light. yin the lower feminine principle was associated with earth, subjects, weakness, emotion, and darkness the ancients had practiced 3 customs when a baby girl was born. she was placed below the bed to show that she was lowly and weak, required always to humble herself before others. then she was given a piece of broken pottery to play with signifying that her primary duty was to be industrious. finally her birth was announced to the ancestors with an offering to indicate that she was responsible for the continuation of ancestor worship in the home. as a mother of sons, she was accorded a considerable honor for her role in producing the next generation of male heirs to carry on her husband's lineage. when her sons married she was able to exercise the significant authority of a mother-in-law. furthermore a woman at least in the upper class often brought with her considerable dowry which was regarded as her own property and gave her some leverage within her marriage. women's roles in the production of textiles often used to pay taxes or to sell commercially made a woman sleeper quite valuable to the family economy. and a man's wife was sharply distinguished from his concubines for she was legally mother to all her husband's children. furthermore peasant women could hardly follow the confucian idea of seclusion in the home as their labor was required on the fields. Nomadic people lessened restrictions Daoism provided new images of the roles for women. Daoist texts referred to the Doa as mother And urged the traditionally feminine virtues of yielding and passive acceptance rather than the male oriented striving of Confucianism

Patriarchy in Athens

they had no role whatsoever in that assembly, the councils, or the juries of Athens, which were increasingly the focus of life for free men. In legal matters women had to be represented by a guardian, and court proceedings did not even refer to them by name but only as someone's wife or mother Greek thinkers especially Aristotle provided a set of ideas that justified a woman's exclusion from public life and their general subordination to men. compared often to children with domesticated animals women were associated with instinct and passion and lacked the rationality to take part in public life Elite Athenian woman we're expected to remain inside the home except perhaps for religious festivals or funerals even within the home woman's space was quite separate from that of men. although poor women, courtesans, and prostitutes had to leave their homes during money, collect water, or shop, ideal behavior for upper class women meant assigning these tasks to slaves or to men and Involved the radical segregation of male and female space Athenian women were generally married in their mid teens to men 10 to 15 years older than themselves. their main function was the management of domestic affairs and the production of sons who could become active citizens. these Sons were expected to acquire a literate education While their sisters were normally limited to learning spinning, weaving, and other household tasks Woman did not have much economic power. although they could own personal property obtained through dowry, gifts, or inheritance, land was usually passed through male heirs. by law women were forbidden to buy or sell land and couldn't negotiate contracts only if the sum involved was valued at less than a bushel or barley growing freedom and democracy was associated with the strengthening of the male dominated property owning household, and within that household, the cornerstone of athenian society, men were expected to exercise authority. doing so required increasingly severe limitations and restrictions on the lives of women

wen and wu

wen: refined qualities of rationality, scholarship, and literacy wu: physical and martial achievements men are superior

China's scholar-gentry class

with homes in both urban and rural areas members of the scholar Gentry class live luxurious. multistoried houses, the finest of silk clothing, gleaming carriages, private orchestras, high stakes gambling