Download Euroasian Social Hierarchies 500 BCE

 Early on, Chinese rulers searched to find
administrators loyal to the central state rather than to
certain regions. Chosen based on merit.
 The Han Dynasty (est. 200 BCE) required each
province to send men of promise to be chosen for
official positions.
 This system evolved into the world’s first professional
service = bureaucracy
 124 BCE, Wu Di established the first imperial
academy where candidates were trained as
scholars.
 By the end of Han, it enrolled over 30,000 students
who were subjected to a series of written
examinations = civil service examinations
 Continued into the 20th century…
 How did wealth play a part in their selection?
 When the Qin dynasty unified China (210 BCE)
most land was held by small scale peasants and
farmers.
 Wang Mang, official of the Han, attempted to
launch major reforms to re-create the Golden Age
in which peasant farmers could once again be the
backbone of Chinese society.
 Proved impossible!
 The privileged class – lived a lavish lifestyle. Benefited
from the wealth of their estates, expensive education
and their membership in the official elite.
 Multistoried houses, finest silk, carriages, etc…
 In the eyes of the SG, peasants were the backbone of
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the country.
Most vulnerable class
Subject to nature’s wrath
State officials required payment of taxes, conscription
of young men.
Tenant farmers
Conditions provoked periodic rebellions throughout
the past 2000 years.
 Massive peasant uprising-360,000!
 Wandering bands of peasants joined together as
floods along the Yellow river caused havoc.
 Unifying ideology of Daoism
 Looked forward to the Great Peace – an age of equality,
harmony, and common ownership.
 Did not enjoy the same esteem of the SG.
 Viewed as unproductive and making shameful profits
off the backs of others.
 Han movements to suppress merchants – no silk, ride
horses, carry arms
 Could not sit for the civil service exams.
 Despite discrimination they continued to be quite
wealthy
 Differences with China
 Separate, distinct and hierarchically ranked social
groups
 Similarities with China
 Birth determined status
 Little social mobility
 Religious traditions defined inequalities as
natural/eternal
 Casta – “race” or “purity of blood”
 Brought by the Aryans from the north.
 By 500 BCE society was divided into 4 ranked classes
known as varna.
 You were born into your cast – for life.
 Top 3 classes = pure Aryan/
 Sudras = native peoples in subordinate positions. Not
allowed to hear or repeat the Vedas or take part in
Aryan rituals.
 New category emerged - untouchables
 Over time, the different social distinctions regarding
occupation arose and blended with the varna system
to create India’s classical caste based society– this was
known as jati.
 Basically this created “sub-castes”.
 China
 Elevated political officials to elite positions
 Categories of society – SG, landlords, peasants, and
merchants
 India
 Gave priority to religious status and ritual purity
 Caste system – far more rigid
 Class inequalities of early civilizations made possible
the idea of people owning people.
 Slavery defined:
 Ownership by master
 Possibility of being sold
 Work without pay
 Status of outsider
 Bottom of hierarchy
 Slavery in China
 Minor
 1% of population
 Convicted criminals (Han)
 Sell children
 Never widespread and not significant to history
 Slavery in India
 Criminals
 Debtors
 Prisoners of war
 Religious laws protected slaves – couldn’t be abandoned
in old age
 Could own property in spare time
 Rome
 Larger scale than Greece
 2-3 million slaves (33-40% pop)
 Greece
 Slave society
 Athens = 60,000 slaves (1/3 pop)
 Never became citizens or own land
 Taxed
 Greatest division in human society is that of men and
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women.
Used to determine roles and positions in society.
Since first civilizations, patriarchal systems developed.
Men regarded as superior to women and sons
preferred over daughters.
Men = property rights
Frequently men could marry more than one wife.
However, different in urban (classical) settings rather
than in rural (agricultural) settings.
 During the Han Dynasty, views became more
explicitly patriarchal, more clearly defined.
 Yang = masculine, heavenly, strength
 Yin = feminine, earth, weakness, emotion
 Women
 “3 obediences”
 Subordination to father
 Subordination to husband
 Subordination to son
 Much changed in China after the fall of the Han in 200
CE.
 Centralized gov’t vanished amid political fragmentation
and conflict.
 Nomadic people from the north invaded China and
ruled a number of the small states.
 Confucianism was discredited, while Daoism and
Buddhism flourished.
 THESE NEW CONDITIONS RESULTED IN
LOOSENING THE PATRIARCHY SYSTEM FOR A
WHILE.
 Patriarchy was weakened in a variety of ways:
 In the Tang dynasty 618-907 CE writers and artists
depicted women as more powerful.
 Empress Wu – only woman to ever wuled China with the
title of Emperor. Some actions seemed designed to
deliberately elevate the position of women.
 Popularity of Daoism
 Patriarchy did not end however…
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWb7Rvvtblc&safet
y_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
 Please pay close attention to pages 255-259