Transcript Religion Believed gods controlled every aspect of life

Soc- Ch. 19- Start of Religion
THE DAWN OF HISTORY
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*Old Stone Age or Paleolithic age,
until about 10,000 BC
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The people were know as hunter
gatherers or nomads
People made tools, digging sticks,
spears and axes from natural materials
Learned to build fires and wear
clothing
Developed spoken languages
Before writing systems are developed
Religions began- How do we know?
Sungir, Russia, buried
some 25,000 years ago
*NEW STONE AGE OR
NEOLITHIC AGE….11,000
YEARS AGO
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*Humans learned to farm, a
development that transformed
the way people lived
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Planting seeds and domesticating
animals
* By about 5,000 years ago, the
advances made by early farming
communities led to the rise of
civilizations.
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Social hierarchy
Accumulation of personal property
New technologies
BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATIONS
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*Cities, first rose in
river valleys
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Water
Farming
Renewable soil
Animals
Transportation
Mesopotamia
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Climate:
• Unpredictable
flooding
-Why a blessing?
-Why a curse?
Topography:
• No geographical
barriers
-Why is that a
problem?
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SUMERIAN RELIGION
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* Polytheistic
The Bull-man is a demon.
He is a man above the
waist and a bull below the
waist. He also has the
horns and the ears of a
bull. He helps people fight
evil and chaos. He holds
the gates of dawn open
for the sun god Shamash
and supports the sun disc.
 Gods
controlled
every aspect of
life
 More pessimistic
than Egyptians
Ishtar is the morning and
evening star (the planet we
call Venus), and the
goddess of love and war.
She is shown as a woman
standing on a lion,
generally holding several
weapons.
RELIGION
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Believed gods controlled every aspect of
life.
Anthropomorphic - gods possess same
characteristics as man
Man at the mercy of the gods
- Why?
Natural disasters
Natural blessing
The Code of Hammurabi
– first written set of laws
– 282+ laws
– “Eye for an eye, life for life”
What does that mean?
Hammurabi
Babylonian Leader
1792-1750 B.C.E
Egypt: “The Gift of the Nile”
• 4,160 miles longest
river in the world
• Predictable
flooding
• carried rich
deposits of silt
along with it.
• primary means of
communication
and transportation.
EXPLAIN HOW THE FIRST EGYPTIAN
CIVILIZATION WAS SHAPED BY ITS
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Imposing natural
barriers of desert and
harborless seacoast
provided what?
 protection from
outside influences and
threats and allowed
Egypt to develop a
unique culture in
isolation and security
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DISCUSS THE IMAGE OF THE PHARAOH AND THE
REASON FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE PYRAMIDS.
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Pharaoh
 god
on earth
 maintain ma’at, the divine order of the universe
 He was the link between the people and the gods,
therefore ensuring the welfare and prosperity of the
country.
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The death of the pharaoh was critical
 because
the well-being of the state
depended on him.
 every effort was made to ensure that he
had a safe journey back to the gods in his afterlife.
Religion in the Lives
of Ancient Egyptians
• Egyptians, like all
ancient peoples
believed that the Gods
controlled nature,
especially the weather
and illness
Egyptian Priest
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Most Honored
Egyptian Gods
Major Gods:
-Amon-Re (ra) was the
sun god – Most Powerful
God!
-Osiris was the god of the
underworld and of the
Nile.
-Isis was the most
powerful mother goddess
worshiped all over Egypt
Mummification
– Mummify to
preserve a sound
body for the Ka to
return to
– 70 day process
– Improper
embalming leads to
second true death
Mummification
• Ka
– Spirit created
when all men
are born
– This spirit of
life returns once
the body has
passed the
test…
A FATEFUL TEST…
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Egyptians had to pass test after they died.
It was believed that dead souls were ferried
across a lake of fire to the hall of Osiris
The heart of the dead was weighed against a
feather if the heart weighted less he was allowed
to go on
Those who were viewed as sinners were fed to the
crocodile-shaped eater of the dead/ those who
were viewed as worthy entered the happy field of
food.
WHERE ARE THE RELIGIONS?