MIDTERM

By: Taylor Holguin

EURASIA• Because of the coldness during theIce Age, most people continued ontheir journey southward becausethey were looking for a warmerclimate. When they reached Eurasia,the people focused on huntingreindeer and horses. They achievedkilling their target by using spearthrowers, stone tools, and bow andarrows. These people actually leftbehind a record of their lifestyle.They left behind cave paintings,which in the book is shown by apicture and I found the artwork verybeautiful and interesting! They usedthe colors red, brown, black, andyellow to paint their remarkablepictures. These people were notlimited to one area, mostly becauseof the climate, but they were foundin many regions. The book says thatthis “Suggests a network of humancommunication and cultural diffusionover a wide area” (Strayer, pg. 17).

The FirstHuman Societies

• Early on, within the egalitariansocieties, no formal “rulers”were present. It is believedthat the people were free oftyranny and oppression.Because everyone wasbasically equal, everyonepossessed around the sametypes of skills. What I foundmost interesting is that thewomen were considered thesource of income becausethey were the primary foodgatherers. This can also bedisplayed by a percentage factfrom a study claiming that70% of their diet consisted ofplants while only 30%consisted of the mean thatthe men hunted.

Religion• It is said that the religious beliefsand practices have been hard toconfirm because there is notenough evidence. The one thingthat there is evidence for is thefact that there was a richceremonial life. This has beenproven by the rock art that wasfound deep inside caves andwere also far from the livingarea. This also suggests thatthere was a “ceremonial space”because it was completelyseparate from normal livingareas. The discovery of theVenus figurines push people tobelieve that that Paleolithicculture felt strongly aboutwomen because of this GreatGoddess figure. Their belief offemale fertility goes as follows…birth, menstruation, pregnancy,new birth, and death.

• The legalist answer to end thechaos was simply to make lawsand rules that the people wereforced to abide by. Basically if therules were followed, the peoplewould be rewarded. If the ruleswere broken, punishment wouldbe enforced. Han Feizi stated that,“If rewards are high, then whatthe ruler wants will be quicklyeffected; if punishments areheavy, what he does not want willbe swiftly prevented” (Strayer, pg.128). The legalist people wereextremely pessimistic and viewedpeople as “stupid andshortsighted.” They felt that onlythe state could make any type ofdecision. Although this methodprovided inspiration, it was quicklydiscredited.

Confucius• Confucius, who was born to anaristocratic family in northern China,believed that he knew what thesolution was for China’s problem ofchaos and disorder. Instead ofcreating laws and rules like thelegalists suggested, the idea of moralexample of superiors was the newlyannounced answer. Under theConfucius belief, human society is inno way equal. “ The father wassuperior to the son; the husband tothe wife; the older brother to theyounger brother; and, of course, theruler to the subject” (Strayer, pg.129). Confucius believed the onlyway this method would work is if thesuperior person or party behavedwith sincerity and kindness becausein return the inferior person or partywould be more driven to respond inthe same way.

A NewReligion…

• A new religion came aboutduring the time that thePersian Empire had greatpower. The Persian prophetis named Zarathustra, orZoroaster to the Greeks. Histeaching placed muchenergy towards the idea offree will of humankind andhow an individual needs tobe able to choose betweengood and evil. The greatestdownfall for this religion wasnot only Alexander theGreat’s invasion, but thearrival of the Islam’s. Sadly,for these people, their faithdisappeared from its place oforigin and did not spread orcontinue to any other place.

EmperorWu Di

• When the Han dynasty came toauthority, they chose their officialsbased on performance. Thissystem of performance shortlyturned into what became theworld’s first professional civilservice. To help this process,Emperor Wu Di created anacademy where people whowanted to become officials were“trained as scholars and immersedin Chinese classical texts dealingwith history, literature, art, andmathematics, with an emphasison Confucian teachings” (Strayer,pg. 156). Around 30,000 studentsenrolled! Those who were wealthywere greatly favored, to say theleast. Another aid in receiving thejob was to have someone familyrelated in the imperial court. Thisjob became ideal because thosewho received the honor becameextremely privileged.

Peasants• It is recognized that China’s humanpopulation has mainly consisted of thosewho were on the poorer side, also knownas peasants. There are a wide variety oftypes of peasants. Some are able toprovide for their family with just enoughto get by, while others were in a deepstruggle just to survive. Life was hard forthis class of people because they wererequired to provide one month of laborevery year to the state, which theyreceived no pay for. Also, young menwere to give two years of service to themilitary. The result of this brutal workand treatment ended in peasantrebellions. The most famous one beingthe Yellow Turban Rebellion where thepeasants wore yellow scarves aroundtheir head. Although this rebellion wassuppressed, it made an impact in thelong run. The Yellow Turban Rebellioncontributed to the weakening of the stateand a devastated economy, which in turnhelped over throw the dynasty sometime later.