BLOG 2: Chapter 2 - Ways of the World
Chapter 2
First Civilizations
"As historians commonly use the term, "civilization" represents a new and particular type of human society, made the possible by the immense productivity of the of the Agricultural Revolution." pg. 60
SOMETHING NEW: The Emergence of Civilization
"In the long run of human history, these civilizations - small breakthroughs to a new way of life - gradually absorbed, overran, or displaced people practicing other ways of living" pg. 60
"The earliest of these civilizations emerged around 3500 B.C.E. to 3000 B.C.E. in three places. One was the "cradle" of Middle Eastern civilization, expressed in the many and competing city-states of Sumer in southern Mesopotamia." pg. 60
"Recently investigated by scholars was a third early civilization that was developing along the central coast of Peru from roughly 3000 B.C.E to 1800 B.C.E." pg. 61
"Archeologists have, however, found a 5000-year-old quipu, which some scholars have suggested may have been an alternative from of writing or symbolic communication." pg. 64
"Like Egypt, China has experienced an impressive continuity of identity as a distinct civilization from its earliest expression into modern times." pg. 67
"Visitors to this civilization would have found occasional goods from China, India, and Mesopotamia, as well as products from pastoral nomads of steppe land and the forest dwellers of Siberia." pg. 67
"A final First Civilization, known as the Olmec, took shape around 1200 B.C.E along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico near present-day Veracruz in southern Mexico." pg. 67
"A a new form of human society, civilization was beginning its long march towards encompassing almost all of humankind by the twentieth century." pg. 68
THE QUESTION OF ORIGINS
"The first question that historians ask about almost everything is "How did it get started?" Scholars of all kinds - archeologist, anthropologist, sociologists, and historians - have been arguing about the origins of civilization for a very long time, with no end in sight." pg. 68
"Some historians have emphasized the need to organized large-scale irrigation projects as a stimulus for the earliest civilizations, but archeologist have found that the more complex water control systems appeared long after states and civilizations had already been established." pg. 68
"Geography surely played a role as well, for civilizations often took shape in biologically rich and productive environments such as wetlands, estuaries, and river basins." pg. 68
AN URBAN REVOLUTION
"It was the resources from agriculture that made possible one of the most distinctive features of the First Civilizations - cities." pg. 69
HIERARCHIES
"First Civilizations lay their vast inequalities - in wheat, status, and power." pg. 71
"In all of the First Civilizations, free commoners represented the vast majority of the population and included artisans of all kinds, lower-level officials, soldiers and police, servants, and, most numerous of all, farmers." pg. 71
"Evidence for slavery states to well before the emergence of civilization and was clearly present in some gathering and hunting societies and early agricultural communities." pg. 72
"First Civilizations, slaves - derived from prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors - were available for sale; for work in the fields, mines, homes, and shops of their owners; or on occasion for sacrifice." pg. 72
"From the days of the earliest civilization until the nineteenth century, slavery was everywhere an enduring feature of these more complex societies." pg. 72
HIERARCHIES OF GENDER
"Gender systems have been patriarchal, meaning that women have been subordinate to men in the family and in society generally. The inequalities of gender, like those of class, decisively shaped the character of the First Civilization and those that followed." pg. 73
"For millennia beyond measure, gathering and hunting societies had developed genre systems without the shape restrictions and vast inequalities that characterized civilizations." pg. 73
"Furthermore, the growing population of civilization meant that women were more often pregnant and thus more deeply involved in child care than before." pg. 73
PATRIARCHY OF PRACTICE
"Private property and commerce, central elements of the First Civilizations, may also have helped to shape early patriarchies." pg. 74
"women's subordination permeated the First Civilizations, marking a gradual change from the more equal relationships of men and women within agricultural villages or Paleolithic bands." pg. 74
"Egypt, while clearly patriarchal, afforded it women greater opportunities than did most other First Civilizations. In Egypt, women were greater opportunities than did most other First Civilizations. In Egypt, women recognized as legal equals to men, able to own property and slaves, to administer and sell the land, to make their own wills, to sign their own marriage contracts, and to initiate divorce." pg. 75
THE RISE OF THE STATE
"But the power of central states in the First Civilizations was limited and certainly not "totalitarian" in the modern sense of that term." pg. 76
WRITING AND ACCOUNTING
"Distinctive forms of writing emerged in most of the First Civilizations, sustaining them and their successors in many ways." pg. 77
COMPARING MESAPOTAMIA AND EGYPT
"A productive agricultural technology, city living, distinct class and gender inequalities, the emerging power of states - all of these were common features of First Civilizations across the world and also of those that followed." pg. 80
ENVIRORNMENT AND CULTURE
"Egypt enjoyed a kind of "free security" from external attack that Mesopotamians clearly lacked." pg. 80
"By contrast, elite literate culture in Egypt, developing in a more stable, predictable, and beneficent environment, produced a rather more cheerful and hopeful outlook world." pg. 81
"Thus Egyptian civilization not only affirmed the possibility of eternal life but also expanded access to it. If the different environment of Mesopotamia and Egypt shaped their societies and cultures, those civilizations, with their mounting populations and growing demand for resources, likewise had an impact on the environment." pg. 82
CITIES AND SITES
"Mesopotamian civilization, located in the southern Tigris - Euphrates region known as Sumer, was organized in a dozen or more separate and independent city-states." pg. 83
"Mesopotamia the most throughly urbanized society of ancient times." pg. 83
INTERACTON AND EXCHANGE
"Although Mesopotamia and Egypt represented separate and distinct civilizations, they interacted frequently with each other and with both near and more distant neighbors."pg. 84-85
"Even in these ancient times, the First Civilizations were embedded in larger network of commerce, culture, and power." pg. 85
"The Egyptians created something distinct and unique, but that civilization had roots in both Africa and Southwest Africa." pg. 85
"Mesopotamia and Egypt carried on long-distance trade, mostly in luxury goods destined for the elite." pg. 85
"Along with trade goods went cultural influence from the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt." pg. 86
"Nubia remained a distinct civilization, developing its own alphabetic script, retaining many of its own gods, developing a major ironworking industry by 500 B.C.E." pg. 87
SUMMARY/PERSONAL OPINION
Chapter 2 talks about civilization. Specifically in Egypt and Mesopotamian. What made a civilization was the different of social class, equality between male and female, trading/exchanging and also different laws that were placed in different cities. It takes a lot of time to build a civilization because there are couple features that needed to be done and placed. They also talk about that women were the ones to specifically change and improving the First Civilization for example by giving them more opportunities. Long story short, I found that chapter as interesting as the last Chapter that was about Agriculture. There were plenty of things I didn't know about civilization and what makes a civilization.
"Some historians have emphasized the need to organized large-scale irrigation projects as a stimulus for the earliest civilizations, but archeologist have found that the more complex water control systems appeared long after states and civilizations had already been established." pg. 68
"Geography surely played a role as well, for civilizations often took shape in biologically rich and productive environments such as wetlands, estuaries, and river basins." pg. 68
AN URBAN REVOLUTION
"It was the resources from agriculture that made possible one of the most distinctive features of the First Civilizations - cities." pg. 69
HIERARCHIES
"First Civilizations lay their vast inequalities - in wheat, status, and power." pg. 71
"In all of the First Civilizations, free commoners represented the vast majority of the population and included artisans of all kinds, lower-level officials, soldiers and police, servants, and, most numerous of all, farmers." pg. 71
"Evidence for slavery states to well before the emergence of civilization and was clearly present in some gathering and hunting societies and early agricultural communities." pg. 72
"First Civilizations, slaves - derived from prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors - were available for sale; for work in the fields, mines, homes, and shops of their owners; or on occasion for sacrifice." pg. 72
"From the days of the earliest civilization until the nineteenth century, slavery was everywhere an enduring feature of these more complex societies." pg. 72
HIERARCHIES OF GENDER
"Gender systems have been patriarchal, meaning that women have been subordinate to men in the family and in society generally. The inequalities of gender, like those of class, decisively shaped the character of the First Civilization and those that followed." pg. 73
"For millennia beyond measure, gathering and hunting societies had developed genre systems without the shape restrictions and vast inequalities that characterized civilizations." pg. 73
"Furthermore, the growing population of civilization meant that women were more often pregnant and thus more deeply involved in child care than before." pg. 73
PATRIARCHY OF PRACTICE
"Private property and commerce, central elements of the First Civilizations, may also have helped to shape early patriarchies." pg. 74
"women's subordination permeated the First Civilizations, marking a gradual change from the more equal relationships of men and women within agricultural villages or Paleolithic bands." pg. 74
"Egypt, while clearly patriarchal, afforded it women greater opportunities than did most other First Civilizations. In Egypt, women were greater opportunities than did most other First Civilizations. In Egypt, women recognized as legal equals to men, able to own property and slaves, to administer and sell the land, to make their own wills, to sign their own marriage contracts, and to initiate divorce." pg. 75
THE RISE OF THE STATE
"But the power of central states in the First Civilizations was limited and certainly not "totalitarian" in the modern sense of that term." pg. 76
WRITING AND ACCOUNTING
"Distinctive forms of writing emerged in most of the First Civilizations, sustaining them and their successors in many ways." pg. 77
COMPARING MESAPOTAMIA AND EGYPT
"A productive agricultural technology, city living, distinct class and gender inequalities, the emerging power of states - all of these were common features of First Civilizations across the world and also of those that followed." pg. 80
ENVIRORNMENT AND CULTURE
"Egypt enjoyed a kind of "free security" from external attack that Mesopotamians clearly lacked." pg. 80
"By contrast, elite literate culture in Egypt, developing in a more stable, predictable, and beneficent environment, produced a rather more cheerful and hopeful outlook world." pg. 81
"Thus Egyptian civilization not only affirmed the possibility of eternal life but also expanded access to it. If the different environment of Mesopotamia and Egypt shaped their societies and cultures, those civilizations, with their mounting populations and growing demand for resources, likewise had an impact on the environment." pg. 82
CITIES AND SITES
"Mesopotamian civilization, located in the southern Tigris - Euphrates region known as Sumer, was organized in a dozen or more separate and independent city-states." pg. 83
"Mesopotamia the most throughly urbanized society of ancient times." pg. 83
INTERACTON AND EXCHANGE
"Although Mesopotamia and Egypt represented separate and distinct civilizations, they interacted frequently with each other and with both near and more distant neighbors."pg. 84-85
"Even in these ancient times, the First Civilizations were embedded in larger network of commerce, culture, and power." pg. 85
"The Egyptians created something distinct and unique, but that civilization had roots in both Africa and Southwest Africa." pg. 85
"Mesopotamia and Egypt carried on long-distance trade, mostly in luxury goods destined for the elite." pg. 85
"Along with trade goods went cultural influence from the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt." pg. 86
"Nubia remained a distinct civilization, developing its own alphabetic script, retaining many of its own gods, developing a major ironworking industry by 500 B.C.E." pg. 87
SUMMARY/PERSONAL OPINION
Chapter 2 talks about civilization. Specifically in Egypt and Mesopotamian. What made a civilization was the different of social class, equality between male and female, trading/exchanging and also different laws that were placed in different cities. It takes a lot of time to build a civilization because there are couple features that needed to be done and placed. They also talk about that women were the ones to specifically change and improving the First Civilization for example by giving them more opportunities. Long story short, I found that chapter as interesting as the last Chapter that was about Agriculture. There were plenty of things I didn't know about civilization and what makes a civilization.
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