Week Six Blog Post

Some key ideologies originated in Eurasia. These include Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, the Greek way of knowing, and Christianity.

Social arrangements differed among places in Eurasia. For instance, in China, the highest social rank was an elite of officials. These elite of officials were trained as scholars in Confucian teachings. They were mostly wealthy men, but a man from a lower class could prove themselves bright enough to be sponsored to train and enter this higher class. The next social rank belonged to the landlord class. These people were very wealthy because of their land. They were also powerful and prestigious because of their quality education and membership to the elite class. The next social rank were the peasants. Peasants made up most of the population. They lived extremely vulnerable lives. Yet, peasants in China were viewed as the backbone of the country by higher classes. Peasants were honored, but still oppressed by society. Merchants weren't as respected as the peasant class. They were considered to be "greedy" and "materialistic". Their activity was controlled by the state authority, as they could grow to be significantly wealthy.

In India, there was a caste system. Birth determined peoples' social status. There was little possibility for social mobility. Inequalities caused by the caste system were considered to be ordained by the gods and natural. Origins of the caste system is still unknown and debated by historians. The caste system went from priests, to warriors and rulers, to commoners, to servants, then to untouchables.

Slavery was a large-scale social arrangement in the Roman Empire. Even non-wealthy people, former slaves, and even slaves themselves could own slaves. Most of the slaves in the Roman Empire were prisoners that were captured while creating the empire, which meant that the slaves were not all from a particular ethnic group. The growth of Christianity during this time didn't stop the system of slavery, which was sad. This was probably because slaves were crucial to the economy, as slaves worked a variety of jobs. Slaves could occupy some of the highest occupations or some of the lowest. Some slaves rebelled against their masters, but most went along with their slave duties.

There was strong patriarchy in China, mostly due to Confucian ideology. As Daoism became more popular than Confucianism, women were starting to become less restricted. But throughout the rise and fall of certain rulers, patriarchy became popular again.

Patriarchy in Athens and Sparta differed. Although Athens was the center of democracy and forward thinking, they were way more restrictive towards their woman than Sparta.