Early Classical Era

After reading chapter 3 a few key elements discussed really captured my attention.  To begin with it is interesting to see the impact warfare had on Roman society and the influence on the appropriate roles of men and women in society.  With Rome becoming a "warrior society" it is interesting to see men defined as a soldier and property owner and having absolute control over women children and slaves in private life.  I also find it slightly frustrating that a woman's participation in warrior culture was included only if she was bearing "brave sons" and instilling the warrior culture in their values.  Another detail that is interesting is the differing viewpoints of the Romans and the Chinese regarding the development of their empires.  The Romans wanted to build something new, the Chinese wanted to "restore something old."  One of the states in China "Qin" also adopted a political philosophy called "legalism" which advocated clear rules and harsh punishment as a means of enforcing the authority of the state.

In continued reading in chapter 4, Legalism is once again visited. Legalist thinkers felt that "the solution to China's problems lay in the rules and laws, clearly spelled out and strictly enforced..."only the state and its rulers could act in their long-term interest.  In contrast, the Confucian answer to the problem of China's disorder was very different. In the Confucian view moral example of superiors was the key to restored social harmony, not laws and punishments.  Family life is also central to the Chinese culture drawing special attention to ancestors.  In Confucian thinking, family be was also came a model for political life, "miniature state."  Family was also "rigidly patriarchal."  Gendered concepts that Heaven is associated with things male, and things associated with Earth female.  Confucian ideas were reformist, but were "consistently presented as an effort to restore a past golden age. In comparison to Legalist and confuscian ways is Dao or "The way" a notion referring to "the way of nature, the underlying and unchanging principle that governs all natural phenomena."

 

Chapter 5 presented some interesting information about the Caste system and its origins and how in both China and India such a system determined social status and religious or cultural traditions defined these inequalities as natural, eternal, and ordained by the gods. In comparison to Caste system is the issue of slavery and its roots.  I found it fascinating that "early domesticating of animals provided the model for enslaving people in the Roman Empire.  Also interesting, the Greek attitude toward slavery.  "it was a terrible thing to become a slave but a good thing to own a slave."

I also found the discussion of "Meroe" very interesting. In particular the comparison of how Hatshepsut was portrayed as a women in male clothing but how Meroe queens appeared in sculptures as women with a prominence and power equivalent to their male counterparts.  Along the Niger river  the Caste system is again mentioned in villages that specialized in cotton weaving, potters, leather workers and griots.  These castes were developed  and members passed their jobs and skills to their children and could marry only within their own group.

Overall, these chapters gave me some new found insight.