Early civilizations' social structures are characterized by hierarchies and a concentration of power among a small number of elites. The wealthy social classes tended to be patriarchal and polygamous. Social structures frequently had to change as civilizations grew and spread.

Egypt

• Pharaoh: It served as the link between the world of the gods and that of humans, making him the apex of Egyptian society.

  • The pharaoh's primary responsibility was to maintain maat, an apotheosized state of cosmic equilibrium or justice for his entire realm.

  • Pharaoh's position was hereditary and dynastic, and he owned enormous amounts of land. He occasionally fought with priests for power and status.

  • Hatshepsut, who presided as monarch for more than 20 years until the previous pharaoh's son could take over.

• The ruling dynasty lost legitimacy when the Nile failed, upsetting Egyptian life, and local officials, members of the priestly class, or outsiders intervened, leading to the establishment of a new dynasty.

• Around 1600 BCE, the Semitic people known as the Hyksos were one outsider group that took control.

  • By 1300 BCE, a native dynasty had regained control, and the foreigners had been driven out.

India

• The Indus River civilization left behind numerous artifacts and architectural remnants, but the writing has not yet been deciphered.

• Around 1500 BCE, the Indo-Europeans arrived in northern India and brought with them social and class changes.

  • Vedas: The Sanskrit scripture where the Indo-European hierarchic and warlike society was narrated.

  • The Dravidian people were the ones they influenced and adopted their caste system.

• Around 500 BCE, Aryan religion was modified, and introduced by the Upanishads. Buddhism and Jainism was also introduced.

  • Buddhism largely vanished from Indian society after reaching its peak of influence during the Gupta dynasty (c. 350 CE) and Emperor Ashoka's reign (c. 280 BCE), but it did spread to China and Southeast Asia.

China

• The Zhou dynasty, which succeeded the Shang dynasty, also established itself as the sole bridge between the material world and the spiritual realm.

• The Zhou emperors built up the Chinese empire by relying on a system of feudal ties and claiming the "mandate of heaven" as their justification for ruling.

  • This was a double-edged sword since heaven rewarded fair rulers by removing them from power and punished unjust ones by allowing the populace to revolt.

• The Qin dynasty unified China following the decline of Zhou power and centuries of civil wars.

  • Legalism: The imposition of absolute government power.

  • Legalism turned Han Dynasty into Confucianism.

• The four nonheritable social classes in Confucian society were the scholar-officials, farmers, artisans, and merchants.

  • Confucians taught that the family was the foundation of society.

• Along its northern border, preliterate nomads challenged the sedentary Chinese civilization.

  • Xiongnu: The most formidable from the late Zhou to the post Han era.

  • This resulted in the creation of the Silk Road that would link China with India, Central Asia, Persia, and Rome.

  • This commercial route was the gateway for Buddhism and some Western ideas into China.

Classical Greece

• For all the democratic reforms that the ancient Greeks are credited with, only Athens and its allies accepted this type of "equality under the law," and even then, the rights were transient and only applied to male citizens.

• Greeks co-operated in matters of the athletic competition despite their disdain for kings, value for regional identities, and frequent disputes among themselves.

• They also agreed that Greek culture, including its language, religion, and trade, was superior to that of other peoples. They rarely socialized with "barbarians" who weren't Greek.

• Marriage and family were highly valued because they ensured that there would be enough offspring to maintain an army to defend the city and care for the elderly population.

Rome

• The Etruscan kings of early Rome were overthrown, and the city-state was transformed into a republic run by a group of men who decided on behalf of all the people.

  • Senators: Group of men who transferred the city-state into Republic and they belonged to a patrician aristocratic class.

  • Plebeians: They were legal citizens of the early republic, owned small plots of land, and had little influence over politics other than the ability to veto plebiscites and choose their own spokespeople.

  • Civil wars and the breakdown of republican institutions were caused by class conflicts.

• Rome's expansion outside the Italian peninsula brought about two changes that had an impact on Roman society:

  • First, successful battles strengthened the authority and riches of the patrician class.

  • Second, the previous system of governing Roman politics was inadequate to handle the needs of the growing empire.

• To take advantage of the city's economic potential, the plebeians left their tiny farms behind.

• To keep the unemployed population satisfied, Rome's government were increasingly driven to offer "food and circuses."

• The leaders like Julius Caesar and Mark Antony experimented with new types of government due to public discontent with the new arrangements and their propensity to incite civil war.

  • Despite the fact that the office of Caesar was well-liked, there was still a general unrest among many social levels, including newly acquired slaves who made up up to one-third of the city's population and the original patricians from the days of the Republic.

• In 73 BCE, Spartacus led a multitude of enraged slaves, and it took eight legions to put an end to the uprising.

• On the Ides of March in 44 BCE, old-guard Republicans assassinated Julius Caesar, the protagonist of the new imperial era, in the Senate.

• The Caesars adjusted by increasing citizenship opportunities and providing slaves and freedmen with chances to prosper and rise in society.

  • On the other hand, there is no proof that wealth disparities decreased throughout the entire imperial period.

  • The spread of Christianity among all classes of Roman society was caused by the gradual deterioration of the Roman religion.

The Americas

• As urbanization grew, Mesoamerican and Andean peoples became more hierarchical and stratified. One's position in these civilizations depended on their birth, lineage, and profession.

• The hierarchy of classes was pyramidal, with the ruler and aristocracy at the top, followed by the priestly class, the warrior class, the merchants and traders, the artisans and craftspeople, the agriculturalists, and finally the servants and slaves.

• The entire system was supported by a mythology resembling that of Shang China or pharaonic Egypt: The gods approved of the elites as keepers of the secret knowledge regarding things like astronomy, calendrical calculations, and ritual, which allowed them to maintain their position of power.

• The majority of the evidence suggests that wars, invasions, and ecological bottlenecks—rather than internal class conflicts—were primarily responsible for the decline of classic Mesoamerican civilizations, even though there is some evidence of lowerclass discontent.

Literary Classics and Monasteries

• In the ancient world, both potentates and peasants thought that reading and writing were almost magical.

• This fascination with the written word helps to explain why those ancient religions that have persisted are based on scriptures.

• As towns and civilizations needed more complicated administration and organization, reading and writing became very helpful.

• The thousands of symbols used in each written language were initially difficult and ungainly, and only a select few could master them.

• As a result, some societies gave special recognition to the educated class or required that administrators pass literacy exams.

• Only the Maya developed a written language in the New World, using an 800-glyph system.

• Some early writing systems evolved into syllabic or picture-sound mashups, which reduced the number of symbols from thousands to just a few hundred.

• Cuneiform became the default script for laws and literature in the Near East after Ugarit reduced its symbols to just 30.

• The alphabet's perfected letter-sound correspondence made the Phoenicians significant.

• Vowels were soon added by the Greeks, and the alphabet as we know it was created.

  • The alphabet was easy enough for anyone to learn, giving them power and access to literature and history.

• Israel granted the prophet a position of institutional authority as a critic of the ruling king and priest, and the prophet's critique—once it was recorded—became a potent warning to succeeding generations about the limits of power.

• Greece's flourishing in the arts and sciences during the fifth century BCE was due to its encouragement of literacy among its populace.

• Monastic societies were often regarded as distinct from secular societies in ancient civilizations.

  • The "Desert Fathers and Mothers" of Egypt (300–500 CE) and Anthony of the Desert (late 300s CE) laid the foundations for Western monasticism, demonstrating the influence of Eastern Christianity on the Latin Church.

• Benedict (c. 500 CE): The father of the monastic movement in the West.

  • His reign occurred at a crucial juncture in the history of Western culture, when a number of barbarian tribes had breached the frontiers and were obliterating towns and institutions while the empire had done little to protect its rich cultural heritage.

  • The monasteries founded by Benedict and his disciples offered a counterculture with its own meritocracy and set of values.

• By the time the period was over, it was the monasteries that had most effectively preserved culture and promoted development: they provided shelter for displaced refugees, developed and retaught agricultural methods, recopied priceless manuscripts, and eventually went back to re-civilize the people who had once been proud Roman citizens.

• Benedict's library at Vivarium was the only Western library of the sixth century CE to remain operational following the fall of Rome.

  • In a similar way, Buddhists and Hindus revere both ascetics as individuals and monastic institutions.