Transcript Period 1 - Key concept 1.3 Erosion of Society

The erosion of equality
Strayer
pps.71 to 75
Hierarchies of class
First Societies exhibit vast inequalities in wealth, status and
power.
Quickly considered to be normal and natural
Upper Class occupied top positions, fine clothes, avoided
physical labor and had great wealth.
Many signs of wealth present. China/ Mesopotamia.
Free Commoners next.
Ranks include farmers, artisans, soldiers and police among
others.
They create surplus and allow the Upper Class to be so.
Slaves were on the bottom of the Social Scale
Common in all civilizations, slave density differed by society.
1. Hierarchies of Class
• - first civilizations – inequalities in wealth, status,
and power
• - technology created more productive economies,
greater wealth piled up versus being spread out
• - Urban based civilizations magnified these
inequalities and egalitarian values were displaced
• **this transition is a major turning point in the
social history of humankind
1. Hierarchies of Class
• Upper classes enjoyed wealth in land or
salaries and avoided physical labor – they had the
finest of everything, occupied the top positions in political, military,
and religious life. Distinguished by their clothing,
houses, manner of burial
• In Mesopotamia, life was dictated by the Code
of Hammurabi – several laws related to social status – certain
classes had consequences
• Free commoners represented the majority – most
numerous of these commoners were farmers – it was their
surplus (taxes, rent, labor, tribute payments) that support the upper
class
1. Hierarchies of class slavery
• Bottom of social hierarchies was slavery –
slavery and civilization emerged together
• Female slaves captured during wars were used to make textiles
• Men used as labor – irrigation canals and ziggurats
• “people owning people” has existed since the emergence and
development of societies
• Practice of slavery varied from place to place – Egypt
and Indus river valley had far fewer slaves VS Mesopotamia was
highly militarized – used slave labor
• Athens and the Romans used slaves more than the Chinese or
Indians
• Ancient slavery different from slavery practiced in
the Americas - slaves were not a primary source of labor, and
children of slaves were free people, and slavery was not associated
with a specific group of people
Hierarchies of Gender
Important division of society.
Sex vs. Gender with women subordinate to men
Women were defined in their relation to their men who provide
protection and control.
Gender roles were more strictly followed in the upper classes, due
to the need for working women to be involved
Origins of this distinction are
Plow based agriculture coupled with an increase birth rate.
Women are associated with the home and nature, man dominates
nature
Military becoming more important. Not a place for women.
2. Hierarchies of Gender:
• Civilizations = patriarchal
• Sexual differences – what is masculine vs what is
feminine
• First civilizations were patriarchal = women were
subordinate to men. Inequalities of gender shaped
the character of the first civilizations
• Sons preferable to daughters
• Men had legal property rights = public was
associated with masculinity – so man were rulers,
warriors, scholars, heads of the households
• Role of women = productive and reproductive,
defined by their relationship to man – daughter,
wife, widow
2. Hierarchies of gender:
• Men could marry multiple women and control the
sexual lives of women (daughters, wives, sisters) –
why? Wanted to protect their property, keep possessions within family,
control lineage
• Men in practice only had power over the women and children in their own
family – not the whole society
• Role of women in different classes:
– wealthy = manage home, ran servants, didn’t leave home often.
– Lower class = vast majority, always in public, working fields, buying and
selling in the streets, serving the homes of their superiors
• Why did patriarchy develop?
– Intensive form of agriculture = animaldrawn plows – plow-based meant heavier
work, led to men, farther from home. Men took over the farming work,
status of women declined
• Women then identified with the home and reproduction
• As war increased, the value of men increased
Patriarchy in Practice
In effect in the First Civilizations
Male control of female’s sexuality but not vice
versa.
Women divided into two positions:
Respectable: must wear a veil
Non-respectable: no veil allowed
Female Goddesses were relegated to the home and
hearth, replaced by men.
3. Patriarchy in Practice:
– various laws governed the rules for
a patriarchal society
• - Mesopotamia
• - Divorce easier for the husband than wife, Rape was a serious offense in
which the male was the victim (father, husband, not the woman)
• - In
Mesopotamia, two sharply divided classes
– respectable women always wore veils in public,
– non-respectable (slaves, prostitutes) forbidden to
wear a veil
• - Demotion of goddesses – male dominance of
creation and fertility.
– In Mesopotamia, Inanna or Istar – goddess of love
and sexuality
• - In Egypt, women were recognized as equals to men – could own slaves
and property. Married women in Egypt were not veiled.
• Egypt VS Mesopotamia
Code of hammurabi
• Hammurabi – the 6th Babylonian King
– 1800 BCE
• 282 laws that governed society in Mesopotamia
• Punishments depended on social status
– slave VS. free man
• ½ of the codes = matters of contract
– ex) wages paid to ox driver, surgeons, etc
• Terms of transaction
– liability of a builder if a house collapses
• Original found in the Louvre
Code of hammurabi
The EPIC OF GILGAMESH
• Earliest surviving works of literature
• 5 independent stories about Gilgamesh – King
of Uruk – Mesopotamia’s largest city