Transcript Chapter-5

Chapter 5
The Classical Period:
Directions, Diversities,
and Declines by 500
CE
In Depth: Nomads
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Key agents of contact
Silk routes
Important channels of contact:
Inventions
 Weapons, technology
 New foods
 Disease
 CULTURE (language, religion, art, etc)
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Nomads (cont.)
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Indo-Europeans and Huns
Animals influence culture
Courage cultures:
Kin-related bands – family ties important
 Excellent warriors – time to practice
 Valued honor, courage, loyalty, hospitality
 Male-centered w/ some exceptions
 Polytheistic and animistic w/ shamans
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Nomads (cont.)
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Contacts w/others
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Regular and peaceful
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Trade
Hostile and destructive
Invasions
 Mercenaries
 Empire builders
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Basic themes of classical civilizations
Expansion and integration
 Those stop which leads to decline and collapse
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Response of major world religions to decline
Developments outside the classical “orbit”
become more prominent as decline occurs
China – greater centralization
India – localized, diverse, key religious values
help unify
Med. – culture spreads but involves less of pop.
so makes vulnerable to division
Territorial integration
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China – settled northerners in south
India – spread of caste system and Hinduism
Rome – common laws, expanded citizenship
guidelines, commercial network
Social: all three subordinated women to men
Other civilizations
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Bordering areas had some relations to class. civ.
SE Asia, NE Africa and Sub-Saharan, Japan, and
N. Europe
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Americas – independent evolution of civ.
Polynesia
Japan
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Agricultural
Regional political organization→sophisticated
regional states
Ironworking (skipped copper/bronze)
Role of women 
Shintoism
Imperial system becomes stronger
Influence from Chinese produces a blend of
Japanese and Chinese culture (women )
Buddhism
Northern Europe
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Culturally “behind others”
Lack of cities
Much fighting
Loose political organization (tribes, etc)
No written language
Primitive agriculture
Paganism/animism
Role of women  / matrilineal
Americas
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Cultural hearths: Mesoamerica and Peru
Contact with others???????????
Olmecs – “mother civilization”
Corn and potatoes
Little pastoralism (no animals)
Art (jade)
Calendar system
Monumental architecture
Americas cont.
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Maya
Hopewell
Desert
Chavin/Moche
Inca
Africa
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Kush/Axum
Ethiopia
Ghana
Bantu migrations
Decline of empires
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Han
Outside invaders (Huns)
 Confucianism decreases
 Government corruption
 Local landlords want more power
 Peasants 
 Social unrest
 Daoists (Yellow Turbans)
 Epidemics
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Gupta
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Less drastic decline
Nomadic invasions (related to Huns)
Regional princes (rajput) take more power
Buddhism ↓ Hinduism ↑
Islam threatens culture and economy
Roman Empire
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Political confusion
Weak rulers and unclear line of succession
Plagues → population ↓ → economy 
Moral decay and decline of culture
Decentralization of political authority
Army 
Diocletian and Constantine
Rise of new religions (Christianity)
Rome cont.
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Fall splits unity of Mediterranean
3 zones
East – Byzantine and Sassanids
 N. Africa
 Western Europe – “civilization” ↓
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Religions
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Comparison of Buddhism to Christianity
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Both:
Move from original centers
 Unimportance of this world – stress spiritual world
 Monastic movement
 Possibility of afterlife and role of holy leaders
 Emphasize salvation and rituals
 Religious images and “saints”/bodhisattvas
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Buddhism
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Changes as it spreads
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Buddha seen as “god” (Mahayana)
Role of women
Believed women could achieve salvation
 Chinese change some Buddhist ideas (syncretism)
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Possible threat to emperor
Exists along with Daoism
Christianity
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More emphasis - church structure/organization
Missionary activity/widespread conversions
Stressed exclusive nature of truth/single belief
Intolerant of competing beliefs??
Started as Jewish reform movement
Idea of Trinity
Formal theology/philosophy (Augustine)
Accommodates earlier polytheistic beliefs (syncretism)
Christianity cont.
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Successful because:
Blind devotion to all-powerful God
 Complex intellectual system (Benedict of Nursia)
 Appeals to all social classes
 Appeals to women
 Modified classical beliefs (role of state)
 Classical values: discipline, work, art, architecture
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Conclusion
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Last major world religion-Islam
Response to collapse of classical forms
Need to react to new religions
Other parts of world prepare for new
developments