Early Civilizations At A Glance 2

Early Civilizations at a Glance: Part 2 – South & East Asia  The Indus Valley Society  The Indo-European Migration  Dark-skinned Harappan society overrun  Dravidians people  Unidentified writing system  Aryan (light-skinned) invasion  Pastoral economy  No writing system, oral works (Vedas)  The Vedic Age: 1500-500 B.C.E.  trading contacts with Mesopotamia  Society in South Asia  The Caste System (hereditary, unchangeable )  brahmins (priests),  kshatriyas (warriors and aristocrats),  vaishyas (cultivators, artisans, and merchants),  shudras (landless peasants and serfs)  Jati, or subcastes, were determined by occupations  social mobility difficult but still possible  Religion in the Vedic Age  Indra, the Aryans' war god and military hero  Gods of the sun, the sky, the moon, fire, health, disease  God Varuna: ethical concern, cosmic order  The Upanishads (religious teachings )  Brahman: the universal soul  Highest goal: to escape reincarnation and join with Brahman  Samsara: an individual soul was born many times  Karma: specific incarnations that a soul experienced  Moksha: permanent liberation from physical incarnation

 Life Along the Yellow River  The Shang Dynasty  1766-1122 B.C.E.  developed in considerable isolation  Managed construction of tombs and palaces  Strong central gov.  Writing: from pictograph to ideograph

 Social Order  Elites  Manual for etiquette  Free artisans and craftsmen (mostly worked for elites )  Merchants and trade  Peasants (majority of population )  Slaves (mostly war prisoners)  Veneration of ancestors  Patriarchal society evolved out of matrilineal one  Focus on men/ women devalued  Zhou Dynasty  1122-256 B.C.E.  Mandate of heaven, the right to rule  decentralized administration  Used princes and relatives to rule regions  weak central government and rise of regional powers  The Warring States period(403-221 B.C.E.)  100’s of small states fighting for power  China during the Period of the Warring States, 403-221 B.C.E.  What Early Civilizations Tell Us  What We Know  After humans around the world  had relatively little contact with each other,  separate languages and cultures developed  By 1000 B.C.E  Trade began to link the world  Four civilizations developed  Each had trade, writing, and cities  in many ways different from the others