Week Five Blog Post

First-wave and second-wave civilizations shared some similarities, even though they existed during different time periods. The first similarity was that empires still rose and fell. The second similarity was that monarchs still ruled and there were still aristocracies. The third similarity was that women were still considered second-class citizens. The fourth similarity was that the elite ruled over the rest of the social classes. The fifth similarity was that there were no significant technological or economic breakthroughs.

But there were also differences between the first-wave and second-wave civilizations. In terms of second-wave civilizations, populations rose and fell a lot, causing interrupted periods in population growth. Secondly, certain empires were gaining strength and size, like the Romans or the Chinese. Thirdly, important "wisdom traditions" were created in different places during this new time period (Christianity, Confucianism, Islam, etc). Next, there were no major inventions. Instead, there were key, important smaller ones. For instance, in China, several things like the crossbow, a compass, and gunpowder were invented. Also, communication and exchange grew more than ever before between different kinds of civilizations around the known world.

Empires were key to second-wave civilizations. An empire is "a large, aggressive state that conquers, rules, and extracts resources from other states and people, encompasses many peoples and cultures in one political system, causing political or social oppression."

The first empire I'm going to talk about is the Persian Empire. It was very diverse as it encompassed different lands. Since there were so many different people, the Persian Empire was pretty tolerant of foreign customs. They did this so they could win the favor of the people they have conquered. Monarchs were extremely important in the Persian Empire. The Persians also had very elaborate infrastructure and impressive imperial centers.

As for the Greeks, they had a significantly smaller population than the Persian Empire. The geography of Greece and that general area caused it to be split up into city-states. Naturally, conflict between city-states was common. Greece had a unique political system as any man could participate in the government.

The Greeks and Persians fought in the Greco-Persian Wars because Persia wanted to conquer Greece. The Greeks surprisingly won, against all odds. Because of these wars, the notion of East vs. West was born (Greece is the West, Persia is the East). After their victory against the Persians, the glory days of Greece begun.

However, this didn't last for very long. Alexander the Great from Macedonia conquered Greece, then moved onto Persia. He conquered much of the known world at the time, even though he was only in his 20's. With Alexander's rule, the Greek culture spread throughout his empire. This is referred to as the Hellenistic Era.

The next major empire I'm going to talk about is Rome. Rome started out as a weak city-state. They were the first to start the idea of a republican political system. After a civil war, this republic became an empire with an actual emperor. The Roman Empire encompassed the whole Mediterranean and beyond. This wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for Rome's powerful military.

Then there is China. After years of conflict, China needed to be united. A ruler named Qin successfully unified China. He used a political philosophy called "Legalism", which included clear rules and harsh punishments so he could keep his people in line and obeying the law. He defeated all of the other states that would've been in conflict with his using his powerful military. Qin was a very harsh ruler.

The Roman and Chinese empires had similarities and differences. Both thought of themselves as universal powers and that they were meant to rule the world. Both had impressive public works, like aqueducts, bridges, and roads. Both of these empires borrowed religions from different places, like Christianity and Buddhism. But Rome had many different types of people, culturally, in its empire. China was culturally similar. Rome used the language of Latin, which spread into different languages like English, Spanish, French, etc. China used Chinese, which were symbols that are still used today. China developed a great bureaucracy, whereas Rome developed an elaborate system of law.

All great empires eventually fall. Why? It was mostly because of rivalry between the people in the empire, the threat from outsiders, the population got too big, or things got too expensive.

Week Four Blog Post

Writing was an important technological advancement that was made in the Ancient Era. Without writing, we wouldn't have literature, astronomy, philosophy, and so much more important additions to human life. Writing is a helpful way for historians to see how ancient people lived, too. Ancient people often used writing to help preserve oral traditions and stories. Though they were usually only written by upper-class men, these ancient writings could tell historians and people nowadays how ancient peoples lived, viewed their societies, and thought about their place in their known world. 

The introductory question that I chose to answer was related to The Law Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1800 B.C.). It asked: "If you knew nothing else about ancient Mesopotamia, what could you conclude from the Code of Hammurabi about the economy and society of this civilization in the eighteenth century B.C.E.? What kind of economy prevailed in the region? What distinct social groups are mentioned in the code? What rights did women enjoy and to what restrictions were they subject?"

Well, I don't really know much about ancient Mesopotamia aside from what I've read in the text. So reading actual writing from the time was very interesting and eye-opening to what life must have really been like. In terms of the economy, people paid others to transport their goods from place to place. Transactions like these included the process of giving receipts, which I thought was pretty cool. Also, they had some form of banking, or so it seemed. "122. If any one give another silver, gold, or anything else to keep, he shall show everything to some witness, draw up a contract, and then hand it over for safe keeping..." This sounds to me like another person has to be present during the transaction to do record keeping.

Ancient Mesopotamian society seemed pretty restrictive to women and extremely strict with their rules and laws. "An eye for an eye" was a big theme that I picked up on when reading through the laws. Slavery was also allowed and probably encouraged in ancient society.

The social groups mentioned in the code were slaves, criminals, women, and the poor.

Women didn't enjoy many rights and were subject to tons of restrictions. The rights that I did notice included: 
1. When a man runs away from his wife, she doesn't have to go back with him.
2. Wives with children get some of the husband's property if he chooses to divorce her.
3. Sick wives will be taken care of by their husbands, even though the husband can remarry if he chooses.

The restrictions included:
1. If a woman's husband brings home another woman and she doesn't have sex with her, she's not a wife to him.
2. Women cannot have sex with another man (they can't even be accused).
3. "Women of God" can't open taverns.

Week Three Blog Post

Around 3500 B.C. to 3000 B.C., the world's earliest civilizations started emerging. The three most notable early civilizations included Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Norte Chico. They were all important, but Notre Chico was especially distinctive and usually doesn't get much recognition in history books. Notre Chico was located near the central coast of Peru. Unlike Mesopotamia and Egypt, Notre Chico possessed smaller cities with less economic specialization. Fishing was the main industry, since everyone was so close to the coast. Also, archaeologists found no evidence of a writing system they might have used, but they did uncover quipu, which were knotted chords. These could have been used for accounting, writing, or symbols. Notre Chico did not have any defensive walls to protect them against outsiders, which meant there must have been little to no warfare. This unique, early civilization was mostly self-contained, with barely any imports, except for maize.

Some other early civilizations around the world at the time included the Indus Valley in South Asia, the Xia dynasty in China, the Oxus in Central Asia, and the Olmec, located near the Gulf of Mexico.

The Neolithic Era/Agricultural Revolution caused people to settle down in communities. But the new technology that came with this new era caused people to produce surplus food that could support large populations. With an increased population and limited agricultural land in some places, there was a need for new technology and innovation. This problem was solved through irrigation, plows, and more.

Cities were important to early civilizations. They were considered to be the center of politics, culture, manufacturing, and they also acted as marketplaces for trade. The rise of cities also made people realize that this new urban society was impersonal, unlike Paleolithic life, where everyone knew everyone in their group. Inequalities were abound in these cities, whether it had to do with wealth, status, or power. There was no more egalitarianism, since job specialization became important.

Hierarchies also came into play. The upper class usually consisted of the rich, who had to do little to no physical labor, unlike the majority of the people. Those in the upper class occupied the top positions in politics, the military, and religion. Most of the population were placed in the rank of "free commoners". This included artisans, lower level officials, soldiers, police, servants, and most important of all, farmers. At the bottom of the social hierarchy were slaves. Prisoners of war, debtors, and criminals were likely to become slaves.

There was also a patriarchal hierarchy. How did this sort of hierarchy become a social norm? Why did it just arise in human history then? Historians think it was because as agriculture became a way of life, men were the only ones capable of performing the best with heavy tools. Also, with the bigger, settled population, more women were becoming pregnant and had to take care of the children and home. Patriarchal laws could be seen in early civilizations. For instance, a woman was not allowed to sleep with any other man but her husband or else she would be severely punished. Yet, a married man could have as many affairs with whomever he chooses, as long as they aren't married too.

Religion and the "gods" usually served to justify unequal power and privilege in early civilizations. No one probably thought to question it, which makes me feel grateful to live now, in a society where questioning things is encouraged.

Week Two Blog Post

The end of the Paleolithic era led to the Neolithic era, or the New Stone Age. As one could infer, this era is referred to as the New Stone Age because humankind began using tools made out of new material, like metal, instead of stone. The Neolithic era is also known as the Agricultural Revolution. As the Ice Age came to an end, natural warming of the globe promoted the Agricultural Revolution. More plants and animals thrived and people started settling down in bigger populations because of a more comfortable climate. The Agricultural Revolution was a time when humans began to cultivate different types of plants and domesticate animals to benefit their societies. This simple transformation was the foundation for stable human life on Earth. This revolution took place during the same general time, around 12,000 to 4,000 years ago. However, it was slower to reach some places than others.

Since women were the gatherers in the gatherer-hunter way of life, it could be assumed that they actually paved the way to farming during the Agricultural Revolution. During this new era, men were only in charge of domesticating animals whereas women dealt with everything else. 

The area known as the Fertile Crescent (Iraq, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and southwest Turkey) experienced a full Agricultural Revolution, because the humans there could domesticate all sorts of plants and animals in a small area. This wasn't the case for a lot of other places around the world at the time. For instance, African domestication was widely scattered, but eventually spread to the Eurasians. American domestication was also scattered, as they didn't have as many types of animals as the people in the Eastern hemisphere. This meant that they didn't have manure or fertilizer, much protein in their diets, and no source of power or transportation. The Americas only had the llama and alpaca as a source for these things. Humans in the Americas relied heavily on hunting and fishing. In addition to these "disadvantages", they didn't have many types of grains, only maize or corn.

The extension of farming happened in two ways: diffusion and migration. Diffusion was the spreading of agricultural techniques without movement of a people, as known as communication between peoples. Migration happened when agricultural people were pushed outwards by growing population, causing them to farm in places that have never been farmed before. There are places that didn't turn to agricultural, though. These places include: New Guinea, Australia, the western part of North America, the arctic, and southwestern Africa. There are a couple of reasons that humans in these locations might not have wanted to turn to farming. The first being that the environment they lived in was too harsh for farming or so good and plentiful that they didn't even think about farming. The second reason could be that they enjoyed a free life as they had in the Paleolithic era. The Agricultural Revolution didn't bring only positive aspects, but also some negatives. Farming meant more work for humans, brought tooth decay, malnutrition, anemia, stunted growth, shorter life expectancy, new diseases because they lived in such close proximity to the animals, and living in large communities meant there was a higher chance of epidemics.

There were 3 types of societies that arose from the Agricultural Revolution. The first was pastoral societies. Most pastoral societies were in Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sahara, and east and south Africa. These territories were not fit for farming. Therefore, domesticating animals was more important than farming. Humans in these pastoral societies migrated seasonally with the animals since they relied on them for survival. Pastoral societies often conflicted with agrarian societies because the latter was more well-established. However, both societies exchanged ideas with each other. Pastoral people also had a sense of equality between the genders since there was only one duty: domesticating and caring for animals.

The second type of society were agricultural village societies. These societies had social and gender equality, with no leaders. The people used a lineage system to organize themselves. This system performed the functions of a government, like making and enforcing rules, maintaining order, and settling disputes. As one could imagine, this lineage system did cause some inequalities and problems.

The third type of society were chiefdoms. Chiefdoms were agricultural village societies that were politically organized. As politics were introduced to humans, so were inequalities. Chiefs were not like kings. Unlike kings, the chiefs couldn't use force to get obedience from the people. Chiefs used gift giving, ritual status, and personal charisma to gain and persuade followers. They were in charge of leading rituals, organizing the community for warfare, dealing with the economy, and resolving conflicts within the society. They collected tributes from the people, such as food, material goods, and raw materials.

As I read Nissa's story in the Documents section, my eyes were opened to how life must have been in the Paleolithic era. Reading the perspective of a person who actually lived the gatherer-hunter lifestyle was enlightening. From what I read, I could tell that sharing was very important in that time period. Marriage was not for love and women and men learned to love each other throughout their marriage. Even though people were married, they would openly have affairs and different lovers. When people were sick, n/um would heal them. N/um was a trance medicine that wasn't always reliable. I'm guessing Nissa was talking about some sort of psychoactive drug when she was referring to n/um.

I hope to read more documents like Nissa's so I can gain a better perspective about the eras we're learning about!