Society and Inequality in Afro-Eurasia (500 B.C.E. -> 500 C.E.) Flashcards
What is Religious Toleration?
The allowing of anyone to believe in anything they want.
What are Landlords?
People who owned large areas of land who made peasants pay him to live on the secure land.
What was the difference between the housing of the Landlord and the Serfs?
Serfs had crappy small houses but the Landlords had luxurious mansions.
What (social) class conflicts disrupted Chinese society?
Many peasants grouped up and rebelled due to horrible living conditions.
What was life like for Peasants in Feudal China?
It was bad, houses were small and they only had very small farming plots. They were also vulnerable to pests that they couldn’t get rid of.
How did higher class Chinese people see the farming Peasants?
They saw them as the backbone of the country, they were producing everything.
How were merchants viewed by higher class Chinese people?
They were hated, they thought that the selling of someone else’s things was disgraceful.
What is Caste (India)?
Organization based on race.
What are the Varnas (India)?
Four different social classes in Caste-based India.
What are the four Varna classes?
Brahmin (highest), Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Suda (lowest).
What are Jatis?
Occupationally based groups.
How did Karma come into play in these society groups?
They believed that if you were good in a previous life than good karma would all you to be born into a good group.
Why were most people’s lives “set” when they were born in low groups?
It was virtually impossible to move up in group.
What do some believe led to the invention of Slavery?
The domestication of animals, people believed that men were modeled after it later.
What was one of the new slave systems incorporated during the times of the Second-Wave Civilizations (Freedom)?
In some places, slaves could work and eventually buy out their freedom.
What was different in slavery in Rome compared to other civilizations of its time?
Slavery was hugely popular in Rome, unlike in other places.
What caused slavery to become less popular in Rome?
The spread of Christianity. The amount of slaves in Rome diminished and such numbers were never seen again until the time of the United States.
What was different in the slavery of the United States and Rome?
In the United States only black people were enslaved but pretty much all non-Romans were enslaved in Rome.
Why didn’t slavery in Rome disappear completely?
Slaves were very convenient, so they never stopped to question the morality of what they were doing.
What were common resistances that slaves made around the world?
Many slaves faked being sick, rebelled, and committed suicide.
How was patriarchy different in different parts of the world?
Patriarchy wasn’t as intense everywhere, partly because of the presence of religion and its values.
What did many Chinese women do in response to the patriarchy?
Some banded people together and led small rebellions against the inequalities.
What changed in the religions of China in the later times of the Second-Wave Civilizations?
Confucianism became much less popular and Buddhism and Daoism became much more popular.
What was different in the patriarchies of Athens and Sparta?
The patriarchy was much stronger in Athens than in Sparta, even though Athens is seen as much more rational and less militaristic.
Who was Aspasia (Athens)?
Aspasia was a woman born in Greece and educated who then moved to Athens. In Athens she met with Pericles and acted as an equal to him.
What was very different about the freedom of women now compared to Roman times?
Women now can do whatever they want, pretty much, but in Athens they were restricted to the home and couldn’t even be educated.
What was one of the only ways to get better jobs and to move up in the Caste?
Being literate.
