Questions 200-300 Flashcards
What reason did the anthropologist, Marvin Harris, suggests as a reason for cannibalism in Aztec society, i.e., “cannibal kingdoms”?
Lack of protein; Aztecs lacked domesticated animals to substitute for human sacrifices.
Where was the capital of the Inca empire?
Cuzco
What is the term used to describe the system that required Inca communities to work on state projects?
Mita system
What economic occupation common to most civilizations was virtually absent in Inca society?
Merchants
The Incas did not have a writing system as we know it, but they did have a system of communicating information. Describe and name this system.
Quipu- knotted strings
Approximately how many Indians inhabited the Americans before the Spanish conquest?
72 million
Much like the Qin and Han dynasties, the reunification of China in the late 6th century began with a dynasty that reunited China, but was quickly replaced by a more long-standing dynasty that ruled for another 300 years. Name these two dynasties.
Sui and Tang
What were the capitals of the Sui and Tang dynasties?
Loyang and Changan
What great construction project was undertaken by the Tang?
Grand Canal
Name two regions conquered by the Tang that had never before been ruled by China.
Central Asia, Korea, Vietnam
What was the relationship between the Tang imperial family and the Turkic tribes on China’s frontier?
Li Yuan, Duke of Tang was of Chinese-nomadic origins.
China conquered many nomadic groups who had previously threatened the empire.
Frontier forces were recruited from Turkic nomads.
What title did the Tang emperors take?
Heavenly khan
Whose reign marked the height of Tang power and was characterized by the famously tragic love affair?
Xuanzong
Who founded the Song dynasty?
Zhao Kuangyin/ Emperor Taizu
What was the one rival in Northern China that the Song dynasty failed to conquer, and what group of people did represent?
Liao dynasty/ Khitan
What is the term used to describe peoples who are not Chinese, but adopt Chinese culture?
Sinified/sinification
Name two reforms introduced by Wang Anshi?
Loans Government irrigation projects Agricultural expansion Tax landlords and scholars Established mercenary military forces rather than peasants Reorganized university education
What group overthrew the Liao dynasty of the Khitan and established the Qin kingdom and forced the Song to flee to southern China?
Jurchens
What was the capital of the Southern Song dynasty?
Hangzhou
What financial innovations were developed during the Song dynasty?
Deposit shops (banks)
Paper money
Flying money
What school of thought is Zhu Xi most closely associated with?
Neo-Confucian
What practice best exemplifies the reduced status of women in the Song era?
Foot binding
What art forms are the Tang and Song eras famous for respectively?
Tang- poetry and short stories
Song- landscape painting
Name two innovations of the Tang and Song that are considered typical of Chinese civilization today.
Tea drinking
Upturned roofs
Rice terraces
Name inventions of world historical importance that developed during the Song era.
Compass for navigation
Abacus
Printing with movable type
Name two points Stearns made in his analysis of Chinese art of the Tang and Song eras.
Produced by amateurs rather than specialists.
Produced by people who were political leaders- scholars have more status than warriors (preference of civilian leaders rather than military leaders).
Individual art produced for pleasure and edification of the elite, not for moral instruction or religious message for the masses.
Chinese art was not employed to bridge the gap between the elites and the masses and legitimize the power of the elites; it accentuated the difference between the elites and the masses.
What group resisted the Taika reforms which sought to emulate Chinese institutions and customs to China and later became the major powers in Heian Japan?
Buddhists and aristocrats
What was the capital of Heian Japan?
Kyoto
Many claim that Lady Murasaki wrote the first novel in history. What was the title?
The Tale of Genji
What were the terms given to warrior leaders and their mounted troops in Heian Japan?
Bushi and samurai
What region of the world had political and social institutions most similar to those found in Japan?
Europe
What was the term given to Minamoto military government which translated literally means “tent government” and what were the leaders of this government called?
Bakufu; shoguns
What features does Peter Stearns consider essential to the definition of feudalism?
Aristocratic lords who controlled peasants.
Mutual ties and obligations.
Rituals and obligations that went beyond casual local deeds and compromises.
Highly militaristic nature.
What differences between feudalism in Western Europe and Japan does Stearns identify and what institution in Western Europe does he suggest resulted from this difference?
Western Europe stresses contractual ideas between individuals more strongly than the Japanese.
Parliamentary institutions
What similarities in the development of Japan and the West in the 20th century does Stearns suggest might be attributed to a common history of feudalism?
Industrial development
What was the term given to the local warlord that ruled in Japan during the civil war that followed the end of the Minamoto period?
Daimyo
What form of Buddhism came most closely identified with the Japanese military elite?
Zen Buddhism
What or who provided the key links between China and its surrounding states like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam?
Buddhists
With which Korean kingdom did the Tang form an alliance with and later make a vassal kingdom of the Chinese empire?
Silla