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Early Societies in Southeast Asia and the Indo-European Migrations: CHAPTER 2 LECTURE NOTES - TRADITIONS AND ENCOUNTERS 6TH EDITION - AP World History

Early Societies in Southeast Asia and the Indo-European Migrations: CHAPTER 2 LECTURE NOTES - TRADITIONS AND ENCOUNTERS 6TH EDITION - AP World History

Civilization Defined

  • Urban
  • Political/military system
  • Social Stratification
  • Economic specialization
  • Religion
  • Communications
  • "Higher Culture"

The Wealth of the Rivers

  • Nutrient-rich silt
  • Key: irrigation
    • Necessity of coordinated efforts
    • Promoted development of local governments
    • City-states
  • Sumer begins small=scale irrigation 6000 BCE
  • By 5000 BCE, complex irrigation networks
    • Population reaches 100,000 by 3000 BCE
  • Attracts Semitic migrants, increases culture

Legal System

  • Code of Hammurabi (18th cent. BCE)
    • 282 items
    • "lex talionis" (item 196: "an eye for an eye")
    • Social status/punishment
    • Women as property, but some rights

Technological Development in Mesopotamia

  • Bronze (copper/tin) c. 4000 BCE
    • Military, agricultural applications
  • Iron: c. 1000 BCE
    • cheaper than bronze
  • Wheel, boats: c. 35000 BCE
  • Shipbuilding increases trade networks 

Social Classes

  • Ruling classes based often on military prowess
    • Originally elected, later hereditary
    • Perceived as offspring of gods
  • Religious classes
    • Role: intervention with gods to ensure fertility, safety
    • Considerable landholdings, other economic activities
  • Free commoners
    • Peasant cultivators
    • Some urban professionals 
  • Slaves
    • POW, convicted criminals, debtors 

Patriarchal Society

  • Men as landowners, relationship to status
  • Patriarchy: "rule of the father"
    • Right to sell wives, children
  • Double standard of sexual morality
    • Women drowned for adultery
    • Relaxed sexual mores for men 
  • Yet some possibilities of social mobility for women
    • Court advisers, temple priestesses, economic activity
  • Introduction of the veil at least c. 1500 BCE

Development of Writing

  • Sumerian writing systems form 3500 BCE
  • Pictographs
  • Cuneiform: "Wedge-shaped"
    • Preservation of documents on clay
    • Declines from 400 BCE w/ spread of Greek alphabetic script

Uses for Writing

  • Trade
  • Astronomy
  • Mathematics
    • Agricultural
  • Calculation of time
    • 12 month year
    • 24 hour day, 60 minute hour 

The Phoenicians

  • City-states along Mediterranean coast after 3000 BCE
  • Extensive maritime trade
    • Dominated Mediterranean trade, 1200-800 BCE
  • Development of alphabet symbols
    • Simpler alternative to cuneiform 
    • Spread of literacy 

Indo-Euro Migrations

  • Common roots of many languages of Europe, Southwest Asia, India
  • Implies influence of a single Indo-European people
    • Probable original homeland: contemporary Ukraine/Russia, 4500-2500 BCE
  • Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian weaponry allowed them to spread widely 

Implications of Indo-Euro Migrations

  • Hittites migrate to Central Anatolia, c. 1900 BCE, later dominate Babylonia
  • Influence on trade
    • Horses, chariots with spoked wheels, use of iron
    • Migrations to Western China, Greece, Italy also significant 
  • Influence on language/culture
    • Aryo - "noble, lord"
      • Aryan, Iranian, Irish
      • Caste system in India

Early Societies in Southeast Asia and the Indo-European Migrations: CHAPTER 2 LECTURE NOTES - TRADITIONS AND ENCOUNTERS 6TH EDITION - AP World History

Civilization Defined

  • Urban
  • Political/military system
  • Social Stratification
  • Economic specialization
  • Religion
  • Communications
  • "Higher Culture"

The Wealth of the Rivers

  • Nutrient-rich silt
  • Key: irrigation
    • Necessity of coordinated efforts
    • Promoted development of local governments
    • City-states
  • Sumer begins small=scale irrigation 6000 BCE
  • By 5000 BCE, complex irrigation networks
    • Population reaches 100,000 by 3000 BCE
  • Attracts Semitic migrants, increases culture

Legal System

  • Code of Hammurabi (18th cent. BCE)
    • 282 items
    • "lex talionis" (item 196: "an eye for an eye")
    • Social status/punishment
    • Women as property, but some rights

Technological Development in Mesopotamia

  • Bronze (copper/tin) c. 4000 BCE
    • Military, agricultural applications
  • Iron: c. 1000 BCE
    • cheaper than bronze
  • Wheel, boats: c. 35000 BCE
  • Shipbuilding increases trade networks 

Social Classes

  • Ruling classes based often on military prowess
    • Originally elected, later hereditary
    • Perceived as offspring of gods
  • Religious classes
    • Role: intervention with gods to ensure fertility, safety
    • Considerable landholdings, other economic activities
  • Free commoners
    • Peasant cultivators
    • Some urban professionals 
  • Slaves
    • POW, convicted criminals, debtors 

Patriarchal Society

  • Men as landowners, relationship to status
  • Patriarchy: "rule of the father"
    • Right to sell wives, children
  • Double standard of sexual morality
    • Women drowned for adultery
    • Relaxed sexual mores for men 
  • Yet some possibilities of social mobility for women
    • Court advisers, temple priestesses, economic activity
  • Introduction of the veil at least c. 1500 BCE

Development of Writing

  • Sumerian writing systems form 3500 BCE
  • Pictographs
  • Cuneiform: "Wedge-shaped"
    • Preservation of documents on clay
    • Declines from 400 BCE w/ spread of Greek alphabetic script

Uses for Writing

  • Trade
  • Astronomy
  • Mathematics
    • Agricultural
  • Calculation of time
    • 12 month year
    • 24 hour day, 60 minute hour 

The Phoenicians

  • City-states along Mediterranean coast after 3000 BCE
  • Extensive maritime trade
    • Dominated Mediterranean trade, 1200-800 BCE
  • Development of alphabet symbols
    • Simpler alternative to cuneiform 
    • Spread of literacy 

Indo-Euro Migrations

  • Common roots of many languages of Europe, Southwest Asia, India
  • Implies influence of a single Indo-European people
    • Probable original homeland: contemporary Ukraine/Russia, 4500-2500 BCE
  • Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian weaponry allowed them to spread widely 

Implications of Indo-Euro Migrations

  • Hittites migrate to Central Anatolia, c. 1900 BCE, later dominate Babylonia
  • Influence on trade
    • Horses, chariots with spoked wheels, use of iron
    • Migrations to Western China, Greece, Italy also significant 
  • Influence on language/culture
    • Aryo - "noble, lord"
      • Aryan, Iranian, Irish
      • Caste system in India