CH 2: CITIES, STATES, AND UNEQUAL SOCIETIES Flashcards
What is a true statement about ancient Egypt?
The state was ruled by pharaohs who were believed to be gods in human form.
The territory of ancient Mesopotamia is presently occupied by which country?
Iraq
What is a statement that describes gender relations in the First Civilizations?
Women were defined by their relationship to a man.
What is an example of a way patriarchy was expressed in the First Civilizations?
Laws that regulated female sexuality
What was one purpose that writing served in the First Civilizations?
To keep track of who paid their taxes to the state
What could scholars have advanced as a possible explanation for the emergence of patriarchy in the First Civilizations?
Emergence of large-scale warfare with professionally led armies
Kingship in the First Civilizations often
linked the position of the ruler to the divine.
What was a reason for instability in ancient Mesopotamia?
The rivalries between independent city-states that led to warfare
As a descriptive term, “civilization” refers to
a particular and distinctive type of human society organized into cities and states.
The rulers of which First Civilization based their authority on the Mandate of Heaven?
China
What is a feature found in some cities in the First Civilizations?
Sewage systems
What represents a way class distinctions were displayed in the First Civilizations?
Manner of a person’s burial
What was an example of the way that rulers in the First Civilizations displayed their power?
Constructing temples, lavish clothing and jewelry, large houses
What contributed to the declining power of the Egyptian pharaohs by 2400 B.C.E.?
Local officials and nobles assumed greater authority.
What is usually considered a feature of a “civilization”?
States that use force to compel obedience from subjects
Which of the First Civilizations is sometimes referred to as the “mother civilization” of Mesoamerica?
Olmec
What First Civilization did not rely on grain-based agriculture?
Norte Chico
What was the primary economic foundation for civilization?
Agriculture
What was a reason for instability in ancient Mesopotamia?
The rivalries between independent city-states that led to warfare
What human accomplishment emerged with the First Civilizations?
Writing
What was advanced as a possible explanation for the origins of the First Civilizations?
The need to organize large-scale irrigation projects
What was a feature of Egyptian rather than Mesopotamian civilization?
A more cheerful and hopeful outlook on the world, as expressed in part through religious beliefs
The rulers of First Civilizations often drew their power from their roles as
high priests
What describes gender relations in the First Civilizations?
Women were defined by their relationship to men.
In the First Civilizations. slaves were drawn from which pool of people?
Prisoners of war
Name at least three elements that a civilization must have in order to produce monumental works on the scale of the Mesopotamian ziggurats or Egyptian pyramids.
- A large labor force
- A leader with the power and authority to compel labor
- An assured food supply for the workers, who cannot produce their own food while working
- Building materials
- An ideology that makes monumental architecture desirable, with an emphasis on grandeur and the belief that gods are entitled to or may demand such structures.
What new products and technology did Egypt’s interaction with the outside world bring?
- Mesopotamia (wheat, barley, its system of writing)
- Sudan (gourds, watermelon, domesticated donkeys, the practice of divine kingship)
- Hittites (horse drawn chariots, new armor and weapons, new techniques for textile production, new musical instruments, olive and pomegranate trees)
Name at least three features typical of a king in one of the First Civilizations.
- Gave authority to the state
- Monumental architecture
- Elaborate clothing
- Magnificent burials
- Claim of divinity or divine approval
Identify the different social classes in the First Civilizations, and give specific examples of people within each class.
- Upper classes: rulers and the royal family, nobles, high-ranking officials
- Free commoners: artisans, lower-level officials, soldiers, police, servants, farmers
- Slaves: prisoners of war, criminals, debtors
Norte Chico
- 3000 B.C.E. -1800 B.C.E.
- desert region
- largest city: Caral
- fishing economy and squash, beans and guava
- only import from outside maize
- lacked defensive walls
- did not develop pottery and writing
Indus Valley
- no palaces, temples, elaborate graves, kings or warrior classes which meant there was little evidence of hierarchy or centralized state
- common patterns: standardized weights, measures, architectural styles.
- a serious of small republics, ruled by priests, an early form of the caste system
- environmental impact: repeated irrigation increased the amount of salt in the soil and lowered crop yields
Xia, Shang, and Zhou
- —-Xia
- 2070 - 1600 B.C.E.
- —-Shang
- 1600 - 1046 B.C.E.
- —-Zhou
- 1046 - 771 B.C.E
-rulers known as the Son of Heaven
Central Asian/ Oxus
- after 2200 B.C.E.
- based on irrigation culture and stock raising
- culture expressed in its architecture, ceramics, burial techniques, seals and more but did not develop a literature culture
- Central Asian civilization was known as a focal point of “Eurasian-wide system of intellectual and commercial exchange”
Olmec
- around 1200 B.C.E.
- along the coast of Gulf of Mexico
- economy based on agriculture of maize, beans, squash
- arose from a series of competing chiefdoms
Mohenjo Daro and Harappa
- sister city Harappa
- 2000 B.C.E.
- streets had a grid like pattern
- sewage system
- indoor plumbing
- large houses with two or three stories
