Transcript People and Ideas on the Move

People and Ideas on the
Move
Chapter 3
Indo-European Migrations
Chapter 3 Section 1
Indo-European
Migrations
• The Indo-Europeans were a group of semi nomadic
people who came from the steppes.
• The steppes are dry grasslands that stretched
north of the Caucasus.
• The Caucasus are mountains between the Black and Caspian
seas. These people herded cattle, goats, and sheep.
• They also
tamed horses
and rode into
battle on two
wheeled
chariots.
The IndoEuropean
Language
Family
• The languages of the Indo Europeans were the ancestors of
many of the modern languages of Europe, Southwest Asia,
South Asia, English, Spanish, Persian, and Hindi. All these
languages originated with the Indo-Europeans.
• Historians know where the different European tribes
settled by the languages that they spoke. Slavic speakers
moved North and West. Celtic, Germanic, and Italic
languages moved west through Europe. Greek and Persian
speakers went south. The Aryans, who spoke an early
version of Sanskrit, moved into India.
English
mother
Father
Daughter
New
six
Sanskrit
Matar
Puhdar
Duhita
Navas
Sat
Persian
Mudhahr
Puhdahr
Dukhtahr
Now
Shahsh
Spanish
Madre
Padre
Hija
Nuevo
seis
German
Mutter
Vater
Tochter
neusechs
sechs
• Notice the similarities of the language.
• It is unclear why these people left the land in the steppes. The
land may have dried up. The population may have grown to large
to feed itself. Maybe they had to escape from invaders. They
may have escaped disease.
migration
• Whatever happened, they left the region between 1700 and
1200 B.C. These migrations, movements of people from one
region to another, did not happen all at once.
• By 2000 B.C. one group of Indo-European speakers, the
Hittites, occupied Anatolia. Anatolia is also known as Asia
Minor. It is a huge peninsula in modern day Turkey.
• The terrain is high, rocky plateau, rich in timber
and agriculture. There are also mineral deposits in
near by mountains.
• Around 1650 B.C., several Hittite city-states joined
together and formed an empire.
• The city of Hattusas became the Hittite capital. This
empire would dominate Southwest Asia for 450 years.
The Hittites occupied Babylon in the Mesopotamia, and they
battled with Egypt over control of northern Syria. The most
famous conflict is known as The Battle of Qadesh.
• Neither one was able to win, so they ended up signing a
peace treaty.
In this treaty they pledged to help each other
fight off future invaders.
Hittites adopt
and Adapt
• The Hittites spoke
there own language
with one another,
but when speaking
on an international
level they used
Akkadian, the
language of the
Babylonians that
they had conquered.
• The reason was that
Akkadian was widely
used throughout
Mesopotamia.
• The Hittites
blended their
ideas with those
of the
Babylonians and
spread them
throughout
Southwest Asia.
• Their legal code was
similar to that of
Hammurabi’s Code, but
it was more forgiving.
• Murder was not
automatically punished
by death.
• A convicted murderer
could make up for a
crime by giving his
child or a slave to the
victim’s family.
Chariots and Iron
Bring Victory
The Hittites were
great warriors.
• They had superior
chariots and iron
weapons.
• The chariot was light
and easy to maneuver
at high speeds. It
had:
1. Two wheels
2. Wooden frame
covered with leather
3. Pulled by two to four
horses
• It would help make
the Hittites
conquerors.
•
• Iron was used in the
chariots
• In 1500 B.C., the
Hittites were the first
people in Southwest
Asia to smelt iron and
harden it into weapons.
• They got iron and wood
from the mountains of
Anatolia.
• In 1190 B.C. the empire
fell apart due to the
invasion of northern
tribes.
Aryan
Invaders
Transform
India
• At the same time the Hittites were establishing
themselves in Anatolia, another Indo-European
people, the Aryans, crossed over the northwest
mountain passes into the Indus River Valley of
India.
• They did not leave
much in the way of
archeological record.
• One thing the did
leave were the
Vedas, which left a
reliable depiction of
Aryan life.
• The Vedas are four
collections of
prayers, magical
spells, and
instructions for
performing rituals.
• The most important
Veda is the Rig Veda.
• The Rig Veda contains
1028 hymns, all devoted
to Aryan gods.
• For many years the
Vedas were passed
down from generation
to generation by oral
story telling.
• If a prayer was uttered
incorrectly, they
believed terrible
consequences might
result, so accuracy was
crucial.
• The Aryans (nobles) called
people they found in India
dasas (dark).
• The Aryans were:
• Tall
• Had light skin
• Spoke a different language
• Counted their wealth in
cows
• Sacrificed to heroic nature
gods
• Indra (thunder god)
Agni (fire god)
A Caste System
Develops
The dasas
dark skinned
Short
Lived in communities
protected with walls
• Worshipped life giving gods
• Shiva (great god)
• Mother goddesses
•
•
•
•
Divided into three
social classes
1. Brahmins
2. Warriors
3. peasants or traders
•
The class you were
born in determined
your role in society.
Classes
• The three classes
mixed freely at first.
• Later on, non-Aryan
laborers or craftsman
(shudras) formed the
fourth group.
• As the Aryans settled
in India they
developed closer
contacts with the
non-Aryans
Classes
• The Aryans began to
make class restrictions
more rigid.
• Shudras did work that
Aryans did not want to
do.
• Varna, or skin color,
was a distinguishing
feature of this system.
• Because of this, the
four major groups came
to be known as the
varnas.
• In the 1400’s A.D.,
the Portuguese
encountered this
social system and
called these groups
castes.
• With time, the
four castes grew
more complex.
• Whatever caste
the people were
born in, that was
there caste for
life.
Caste
System
•
1.
2.
3.
Their caste membership would determine:
The work they did
The men or women they could marry
The people they could eat with.
Ritual Purity
• Ritual purity – the
habits of eating and
washing that made a
person physically and
spiritually clean,
became all
important.
Untouchables
• Some people (butchers,
trash collectors,
gravediggers) were
considered impure and
lived outside the caste
structure.
• These people were
known as untouchables,
because their touch
endangered the ritual
purity of others.
Aryan Kingdoms
Arise
• The Aryans would
extend their
territories along the
Ganges and Yamuna
river valleys.
• Progress was slow
until iron came in
use in India around
1000 B.C. and helped
them clear jungle
for farming.
• When the Aryans first arrived in India, chiefs were elected
by their tribes. Around 1000 B.C., there was an emergence
of minor kings who wanted to set up territorial kingdoms.
• These kings began to struggle with one another for land and
power. They claimed that the gods had given them the
rights to rule.
• A major kingdom
named Magadha
emerged from this
strife. By the 6th
century B.C. Magadha
had taken over the
surrounding kingdoms.
• By the 2nd century B.C.
it expanded south to
occupy almost all of
the Indian continent.
Mahabharata
• In one of the great
epics of India, the
Mahabharata, tells of
the struggles that
took place as the
Aryans moved south.
• The poem tells the
story of a great war
between two sets of
cousins, the Pandavas
and Kauravas.
• the Mahabharata’s
106,000 verses make
it the longest poem in
the world.
Mahabharata
• The Mahabharata
indicates that a
blending of cultures
was taking place
between Aryan and
non-Aryan peoples.
• The Krishna, a semi
divine hero in the
Mahabharata, is
described as dark
faced.
• This suggests he is
non Aryan.
Mahabharata
• One of the most famous
incidents in all Indian
literature occurs when
Krishna instructs one of
the Pandavas, Arjuna, on
the proper ways to live
one’s life.
• Arjuna loses the will to
fight when he sees his
cousins lined up among
the enemies he faces.
• He asks Krishna how he
can find joy in killing his
own kinsman.
• Krishna answers that
the eternal spirit (or
Self) of every human
being cannot kill or be
killed.
• However, Arjuna must
still do his duty and
wage war.
• The violence and
confusion of the time
led many, including
Krishna himself, to
speculate about the
place of gods and
human beings in the
world.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPZ-VRD6IMs