Midterm Flashcards
civilization
Ways of life especially connected with life in urban societies.
hierarchy
The system of ranking people in society according to their status and authority.
hunter-gatherers
Human beings who roam to hunt and gather food in the wild and do not live in permanent, settled communities.
city-state.
An urban center exercising political and economic control over the surrounding countryside.
Patriarchy
Dominance by men in society and politics.
redistributive economy.
A system in which state officials control the production and distribution of goods.
polytheism,
The belief in and worship of multiple gods.
cuneiform
The earliest form of writing, invented in Mesopotamia and done with wedge-shaped characters.
Empire
A political state in which one or more formerly independent territories or peoples are ruled by a single sovereign power.
Hammurabi
King of Babylonia in the eighteenth century b.c.e., famous for his law code.
hieroglyphic
The ancient Egyptian pictographic writing system for official texts.
Maat
The Egyptian goddess embodying truth, justice, and cosmic order. (The word maat means “what is right.”)
wisdom literature
Texts giving instructions for appropriate behavior.
palace society
Minoan and Mycenaean social and political organization centered on multichambered buildings housing the rulers and the administration of the state.
Mediterranean polyculture
The cultivation of olives, grapes, and grains in a single, interrelated agricultural system.
Linear B
The Mycenaeans’ pictographic script for writing Greek.
Sea Peoples
The diverse groups of raiders who devastated the eastern Mediterranean region in the period of violence 1200–1000 b.c.e.
Cyrus
Founder of the Persian Empire in 557 b.c.e.
moral dualism
The belief that the world is the arena for an ongoing battle for control between the divine forces of good and evil.
Torah
The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, also referred to as the Pentateuch. It contains early Jewish law.
Diaspora
The dispersal of the Jewish population from their homeland.
Spangler
Wrote about the world in 1911, establishing the Faustian cycle and the decline of the west.
Herodotus
The “Father of History” that wrote down and documented events, and gave credit to opposing factions.
Thucydides
Continued the works of Herodotus, and wrote extensively about the Peloponnesian War. Used systematic observation for history much like Hippocrates
Anaximander
Greek philosopher who suggested that humans evolved from fish that had moved onto land. Speculated on the earth, and astronomy.
Pythagoras
Greek philosopher and mathematician who believed that numbers dictated the universe.
Socrates
Athenian philosopher that contemplated the ideal vs material world. Taught people critical thinking and challenged the fundamentals of society.
Mesopotamia
Early human civilization that formed between the Tigris and Euphrates, housing the first urban centres.
Plato
Student of Socrates that did not reject the material world, but separated the terrestrial from the celestial. Wrote of a utopia to criticize the world, and founded The Academy.
Aristotle
Rejected ideas of the ideal world, focusing on the material. Divided the world into four elements, and sought to explain the world without divine intervention. Heavy influenced later Western philosophers.
Epicures
Greek philosopher that believed in the theory of atoms; that when you died, your atoms were simply scattered.
Latium
A plain on the west coast of Italy on which the city of Rome was built. Conquered by Rome because of its rich fertile land.
Punic Wars
A series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, resulting in the sacking and destruction of Carthage.
Latifundia
Large estates brought up by wealthy Romans.
Gaius Marius
Roman consul, he was a popular general who encouraged the unemployed poor to join the Roman army. Introduced sweeping reforms to the Roman military.
Hasidim
Members of a mystical Jewish movement that emerged in eastern Europe in the eighteenth century which focuses on the love of and a personal relationship with God.
Zealots
People who banded together during the time of Christ to violently resist Roman occupation.
Jesus
A Jew from Galilee in northern Israel who sought to reform Jewish beliefs and practices. He was executed as a revolutionary by the Romans. He is the basis of the world’s largest religion.
Paul the Apostle
A Roman who had been sent to persecute the Christians, but had a revelation and was converted. He then helped spread Christianity through writing epistles, and wrote down Jesus’ teachings.
The Eucharist
A Christian sacrament commemorating the Last Supper by consecrating bread and wine.
Bishops
Local church leaders within the Roman Catholic Church.
Christian Canon
list of books considered holy and authoritative in the life of the church.
Gnostics
Denied Jesus’ humanity because they believed that the body is evil.
Donatists
Heretical group who claimed that only “saints” can belong to the Church.
Mecca
City in western Arabia. Birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, and ritual center of the Islamic religion.
Medina
City in western Arabia to which the Prophet Muhammad and his followers emigrated in 622 to escape persecution in Mecca.