Hierarchies of Power in Eurasia, 500 BCE – 500 CE

WHAP/Napp

“Among all the classical civilizations, India suffered the fewest lower-class revolts, for the caste system created a social stability unmatched even in Confucian China. This system evolved after the Aryan invasions prior to the classical period, in the Vedic and Epic ages, when Indian civilization reconstituted itself on the basis of Hinduism. Indeed, the social system that the castes defined was based largely on job classifications. As Indian civilization slowly reemerged from the devastation of the invaders and people adopted farming more widely, agricultural categories became important. In contrast to China, however, agriculture did not rank high in cultural prestige and was normally reserved for the lower castes. While different castes might practice agriculture in fact, and the importance of food production remained fundamental, there was a cultural distaste for it. A Hindu law code, the Laws of Manu, listed ‘farming the land’ as ‘for a commoner,’ specifically criticizing plows for ‘injuring the earth and the creatures that live in the earth,’ Classical Indian society esteemed trade and merchant activity to a much greater extent than did either China or the Mediterranean. By the classical period, the following castes had appeared: The Brahmans were the priests, the Kshatriyas the warriors, the Vaisyas farmers and traders, and the Sudras, the common laborers. The untouchables, originating in the conquered pre-Aryan population, handed ritually impure tasks such as working with leather or hauling of dead bodies. The ritual impurity of animal products was a relatively late addition, for it is clear that the Aryans had no such taboos in their pastoral society. Needless to say, the latter three castes were by far numerically the most important, with the warrior and Brahman castes forming what might be considered the Indian aristocracy.

To say that these categories were mere job descriptions is grossly to oversimplify the caste system. While the denomination of these castes had some real basis in what type of work Indians did, the castes splintered into hundreds of subcastes, with carefully prescribed roles. Most important, the caste system was based on religious notions that by the classical period manifested themselves through taboos and distinctive ritual actions. Members of different castes and even subcastes were prohibited from intermarriage.” ~ Experiencing World History

1-Discuss the origins of the caste system in the Indian subcontinent. ______

2-Compare Chinese and Indian views on agriculture. ______

3-Identify the castes. ______

4-Discuss the role of untouchables. ______

5-Why is it incorrect to state that castes were mere job descriptions? ______

6-What was prohibited between the castes? ______

7-Why was the caste system a fixed social class system? ______

Notes:
  1. The Examination System in Dynastic China
  1. World’s first professional civil service
  2. Emperor Wu Di, in 124 BCE, established imperial academypotential officials were trained as scholars (studied classical texts, Confucianism)
  3. End of Han dynasty, some 30,000 students subjected to written examinations
  4. In Theory
  1. Open to all men but favored wealthy families, families who could afford years of education required to pass even the low-level exams
  2. But sometimes villagers supported education of a bright commoner
  1. Provided a modest measure of social mobility
  1. Importance of Land in China
  1. In China, wealth meant land
  2. Qin dynasty unified China by 210 BCE, most land held by peasant farmers
  3. But by the first century BCE, population pressure, taxation, and indebtedness generated a class of large landowners as impoverished peasants found it necessary to sell their lands to more prosperous neighbors
  4. Vast majority of China’s populationpeasants
  1. Life for the Chinese Peasant
  1. State required taxes, demanded a month’s labor every year, conscripted men for two years of military service, and landlords could be harsh
  2. Yellow Turban Rebellion
  1. About 360,000 armed followers by 184 CE
  2. Floods along the Yellow River and epidemics compounded misery
  1. Status of Merchants
  1. Did not enjoy a favorable reputation in China
  2. Viewed as unproductive, making a shameful profit from selling the work of others though wealthier than peasants, their status was lower
  1. Caste in India
  1. Grew out of the interaction of many culturally different peoples on the South Asian peninsula together with inequalities of “civilization”
  2. Society became divided into four great classes known as varna
  3. Brahmins or priests were followed by Ksatriya or warriors then Vaisya or commoners then Sudras or native peoples
  4. First three castes regarded as pure Aryans and called “twice-born”experienced physical birth and formal initiation and Aryan descent
  5. Vaisya varna, originally cultivators, evolved into a business class with a place for merchants, while Sudra became the domain of peasant farmers
  6. Finally, new category, ranking lower than Sudras, emerged in the so-called untouchables, people who did the work considered unclean and polluting
  1. As urban-based civilization gave rise to specialized occupations, many organized in guilds that regulated their own affairs
  1. Over time, occupationally based groups, known as jatis, blended with varna system to create classical India’s unique caste-based society
  2. Hindu notions of karma, dharma, and rebirth became basis for viewing a person born to a particular caste as reflecting the deeds of a previous life
  1. Caste (jati) was a local phenomenonas such, India seldom experienced an empire that encompassed the entire subcontinent
  1. Caste provided a substitute for the state as an integrative mechanism
  2. Caste facilitated the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy and powerful
  1. Slavery in the Roman Empire
  1. Slavery played an immense role in the Mediterranean world
  1. Athens was home to 60,000 slaves or about one-third of the population
  2. In China, it was a minor element, amounting to perhaps 1 percent
  1. Vast majority of Roman slaves had been prisoners captured in war
  1. Roman slavery was not identified with a particular racial/ethnic group
  2. Most famous uprising occurred in 73 BCE, when a slave gladiator named Spartacus led seventy other slaves in a desperate bid for freedom
  1. Patriarchy in the Classical World
  1. Favored dominance of men over women
  2. Men regarded as superior to women - sons were preferred over daughters
  3. China  “three obediences” – a woman was subordinate first to her father, then to her husband, and finally to her son
  1. With the collapse of the Han dynasty, pastoral and nomadic people invaded
  1. In general, nomadic cultures allowed women more freedoms
  2. Reign of Empress Wu (reigned 690-705 CE) caused distress
  3. In Athens, women were excluded from public life and subordinate to men

Complete the Graphic Organizer Below:

Hierarchy – India Hierarchy - China

Hierarchy – Mediterranean

Strayer Questions:

  • How would you describe the social hierarchy of classical China?
  • What class conflicts disrupted Chinese society?
  • What set of ideas underlies India's caste-based society?
  • What's the difference between Varna and jati?

  1. Which of the following was NOT a state concern in Han China?
(A)Expanding educational opportunity for elite women
(B)Sponsorship of scientific inquiry
(C)Maintenance of the Great Wall
(D)Grain requisition from the peasantry
(E)Suppression of banditry
  1. Which is the closest similarity between the Roman Empire and the Han dynasty of ancient China?
(A)Both aimed for and experienced long periods of isolationism in world affairs.
(B)Both created a government run by elected officials known as Senators.
(C)Both achieved long periods of centralized government and expanding economies.
(D)Both rejected social hierarchy.
(E)Both afforded women equal opportunities to wield political power as men.
  1. Which of the following was NOT an important basis for the higher socioeconomic status of the Chinese gentry?
(A)Control of ownership of extensive farmland
(B)Ability to afford preparation of gentry youth for civil service exams
(C)Durable positions as local tax collectors and intermediaries for the imperial center
(D)Commonplace advancement of women of the gentry class in the imperial bureaucracy
(E)Ability to call in military resources of the imperial state to put down local peasant rebellions
/ 4.In Greek civilization, women
(A)Held slave status in every household
(B)Enjoyed political equality with men
(C)Were afforded the same rights no matter the city-state in which they happened to reside
(D)Dominated trade
(E)Were considered inferior to men in both the private and public spheres
5.Which choice best describes the position of women in classical Athens in terms of divorce and property rights as compared to women in classical Roman society? Greek women had
(A)Far greater rights
(B)Somewhat greater rights
(C)About the same level of rights
(D)Somewhat fewer rights
(E)Far fewer rights
6.What was a common feature of classical civilizations in India, China, and the Mediterranean?
(A)Agricultural systems dependent on monsoon rains
(B)Social hierarchy
(C)Absence of coerced labor
(D)Elimination of patriarchy over time
(E)Maintenance of highly centralized governments throughout the entire classical period 1000 BCE to 600 CE

Thesis: Compare hierarchies in the classical world. ______