Download Social Classes and Gender Relations in the Classical World

Class Structures

 Grew more complex
during this time period
 Low social mobility
 Social status generally
inherited
Political Elites (rulers and their
advisors)
Aristocracies (families of high birth who
helped run government and whose
wealth was based on land ownership)
Religious Elites
Merchants, Traders
Artisans, Craftspeople
Unskilled labor, Servants,
Cultivators
China

 Agricultural society with typical features of huge
gap between landed gentry and the peasants, esp. in
terms of access to culture and language
 In general, social status was inherited
 Tight family organization helped economic and
social views of political life
 Scholar-Gentry
China

 Status based on control of land and
bureaucratic positions in the gov.
 Often inherited
 Ordinary Citizens
 Peasants, some had land and some
worked for landlords
 All peasants had to work a designated
number of days per year on public
projects
ScholarGentry
Ordinary, but
free, citizens
 Underclass
 Merchants, traders
 Non-Han Chinese on borderlands
 Slaves (although not as many as
Rome)
- Artisans
Underclass
India
 Caste system
 Varna- Sanskrit word for color

and used by Aryans to
distinguish classes
 By 1000 BCE 4 major classes
(see right)
 600 BCE – 600 CE caste system
becomes more complex and
each caste divided into jati
(birth groups) and there is no
movement between classes
 Family life also emphasized the
them of hierarchy and tight
organization
Brahmins – priests and
scholars
Kshatriya – Warriors
and Gov. officials
Vaishya – Landowners,
Merchants, Artisans
Shudra – peasants,
laborers
Greece
Athens

 Also distinguished between
Sparta
citizens and non-citizens
 Citizens vs. non However, Athenians okay with
citizens
luxury so clear urban-based
 Beyond that everyone
aristocracy developed
was pretty equal (wore  Farmers lived outside the city
simple clothing to show
 Reforms led to spread of
this)
democracy to all free male
 Distinctions based on
citizens but deepened division
military prowess and
between free men and slaves
athleticism
 30% of population enslaved
Rome

 Aristocrats controlled land that was worked on by
tenant farmers
 Elite = Patricians and Commoners= Plebians
 Patron-Client relationship
 Patrons were wealthy people
 Clients served them in return for protection
Gender Relations

 Patriarchial systems dominated all classical
civilizations where men were seen as protectors of
women
 These systems were accepted and legitimized by
religious and cultural thought
 You need to look at the legal rights of women to
determine how much freedom they actually had
Gender in China

 Families run by older men and male children
favored
 All women legally subordinate to men
 Supported by Confucian values
 Political positions for men
 Marriages arranged according to family ties
 Some women in elite families were educated in the
arts, writing, and music
 Peasant women were cooks and house cleaners for
men
Gender in India

 Dominance of husbands and fathers
 Arranged marriages
 Lawbook of Manu – 1st Century BCE
 “women must never be independent”
 “When women are honored the gods are pleased”
 Women, however, were celebrated in stories and
theory was much harsher than practice
Women in the
Mediterranean

 Spartan women free and equal with men and
encouraged to be physically fit. Women also didn’t
live with their husbands and often ran the city.
 Athenian women had much less equality
 Elite women confined to the home
 Peasant women had more freedom because of farm
chores
 Women did have citizenship (which could be passed
on to sons)
 No political rights, or rights to own property or
business