Robert W. Strayer
Ways of the World: A Brief Global
History with Sources
Second Edition
Chapter 5
Society and Inequality in Eurasia/North Africa,
500 B.C.E.–500 C.E.
Copyright © 2013 by Bedford/St. Martin’s
I. Society and the State in China
A. An Elite of Officials
1. Emperor Wu Di’s imperial academy, 124 B.C.E.
2. Exam system
3. Privilege and prestige
Chinese society
state officials all male –social elite of society
Confucianism- select males - sent to capital
Evolved into a professional civil service
124 BCE Emperor Wu Di - royal academy
– trained in history, literature, art, and
mathematics
Men tested – opened to all men – who could pay
Commoners - if sponsored– rags to riches
Land owner -educated – Scholar-gentry – lived in luxury
I. Society and the State in China
B. The Landlord Class
1. Land as wealth
2. Rise of large estates
3. Wang Mang (r. 8–23 C.E.)
4. Scholar-Gentry
Officials became the required to dress a certain way
Qin Dynasty small scale famers disappeared as a large
land holding class developed
Wang Mang 8 CE – Emperor
Tried to take lands away from the rich and divided
it among the poor, loans to poor, end slavery
Opposition from land owners and invasion, poor
harvests, floods and famine led to collapse
Land holders secured their place in Chinese society
Land owner and educated – Scholar-gentry – lived in
luxury
I. Society and the State in China
C. Peasants
1. Pressures on peasants
2. Yellow Turban Rebellion
D. Merchants
1. Shameful profits and dubious morality
2. Restrictions and exclusion from state service
Peasants - Vast majority of population
Required to provide taxes, provide a month’s labor to the
state, and serve in military
Led to peasant rebellions
Yellow Turban Rebellion – 184 CE – yellow scarves of
peasants – movement spread – 360,000 people
Crushed by Han government but hurt economy,
weakened state and contributed to fall of dynasty
Merchants
Peasants oppressed but honored by state - Merchants
were not
They made a profit from the work of others
State often tried to control merchants – Han Dynasty –
not allowed to wear silk, ride horses or obtain public
office
Despite this some merchants became wealthy – allowed
them to buy land or provide sons with education – often
corruption with state officials led to even greater wealth
II. Class and Caste in India
A. Caste as Varna
1. Origins? Aryans? Purusha? Timeless or flexible?
2. Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vaisya (twice born)
3. Shudra and Untouchables
Caste in India
Caste emerged over thousands of years
By 500 BCE Caste System in place
Varna or class
Brahmins – Priests
Kshatriya – Warriors and rulers
Vaisya – Commoners
Untouchables – men and women who did not work
II. Class and Caste in India
B. Caste as Jati
1. Guilds and professional groups
2. 1,000s of sub-castes
3. Purity, pollution, and privilege
4. Karma, dharma, and rebirth
Occupation based groups (jantis) developed and blended with
the varna system to create India’s Cast society
Eat only with members of own caste
Cast system tended to unite regions but to country – Reason
empress seldom controlled all of India
II. Class and Caste in India
C. The Functions of Caste
1. Localization
2. Security and support
3. Assimilation of new arrivals
4. Exploitation
Eat only with members of own caste
Cast system tended to unite regions but not to
country
Invaders could find a place in the caste system
(Alexander the great)
Caste system allowed for the exploitation of the
poor
III. Slavery: The Case of the Roman
Republic
A. Slavery and Civilization
1. “Social Death”
2. Wide diversity of types of slavery
Slavery
– compared humans to tamed animals
Warfare generated many slaves
males most often killed
Women usually raped and then enslaved
Owned, working without pay, outsider
III. Slavery: The Case of the Roman
Republic
B. The Making of Roman Slavery
1. Greek slavery
2. Vast scale of Roman slavery
3. Prisoners, pirates, and orphans
4. Multiethnic
5. All levels of economy
Greek and Rome
– some slaves could find freedom in their lifetime
Aztecs – children of slaves considered free
China – 1% of population was slaves
Poor- sometimes sell their children into slavery
India –fall into slavery as criminals, debtors, or prisoners
of war
Slaves could inherit and own property and earn
wealth
India did not depend on slavery for its economy
Slavery played a huge role in Mediterranean, or Western
world
Greco-Roman – society was based on slavery
Athens – as democracy grew, slavery grew
Many Greek slaves were able to gain freedom but – not
a citizen, could not own land or marry a citizen
By the time of Christ – Roman society 2-3 million slaves
/ 33-40% of population (slavery not practiced at this
scale again until Europeans conquer the Americas
Wealth Romans owed hundreds and thousands of
slaves
Many freed by owners -some former slaves owned
slaves
Roman Empire – majority prisoners of war, some sold by
pirates, network of long distance slavery and
reproduction
Children of slaves also slaves / favored because they
had never known freedom
Christianity said “Slaves should be submissive to their
masters…”
III. Slavery: The Case of the Roman
Republic
C. Resistance and Rebellion
1. “Weapons of the weak”
2. Spartacus, 73 B.C.E.
Slaves were in all occupations except military
Labor force for huge estates (latifundia)
Many as Gladiators
Women worked in homes, brothels, theater and could be
used sexually
Slaves who obtained wealth / belonged to master
If a slave killed a master all the victim’s slaves would be
killed
Freed slaves could become citizens
Resistance
Some slaves committed suicide / some in mass
Working slow, pretending sickness and running away
Slave catching became a business
73 BCE Spartacus – he and seventy slaves escaped.
Freed other slaves and his slave army grew to 120,000 – fought
Romans 2 years / 6,000 slaves crucified
(no slave revolt of this size until Haitian Revolution in 1790
IV. Comparing Patriarchies
A. A Changing Patriarchy: The Case of China
1. Yin and Yang
2. Confucian teachings: Three Obediences
3. Elite women, mothers and wives, and peasant women
4. Buddhism, Daoism, and pastoral peoples
5. Empress Wu (r. 690-705 B.C.E)
Patriarchies
Male dominant society from 1st society was replicated in
second wave civilizations
Technologies helped define feminine and masculine
work/ roles
Subordinate to men, some became scholars, managers
of commerce and property, military leaders and rulers
Britain, Egypt, and Vietnam – women led resistance
movements to resist being part of the Roman or Chinese
Empires
Buddhist and Christians – some freedom from male
control - stricter in urban than agriculture societies
Starting in the Han Dynasty – patriarchy became
more defined
Yang – masculine and related to heaven, rulers,
strength, rationality, and light
Yin- lower feminine, associated with earth, subjects,
weakness, emotions, and darkness
3 obedience’s – women subordinate first to father, then
to husband, finally to son
Birth – girl placed below bed – lowly and weak, always
humble before others, given piece of pottery indicating
she was to be industrious / announced to ancestors that
she would continue ancestor worship in home
Women honored for her role in producing next
generations of males
When sons married she gained power over mother-inlaw
After collapse of Han Dynasty
Confucianism was discredited
loosened restrictions on women
culture then influenced by nomadic people
Tang dynasty 618-907
Writers and artists depicted elite women as
capable of handling legal and business affairs
Empress Wu 690-705 CE – former concubine- only
women to ever rule china – rule assisted by growing
Buddhist population
Reign very short
Rise of Daoism - Women -new feminine role / virtue
IV. Comparing Patriarchies
B. Contrasting Patriarchies: Athens and Sparta
1. Restriction on elite Athenian women
2. Aspasia (470–400 B.C.E.)
3. Obligations and freedoms of Spartan women
Sparta / Athens
Athens
As democracy grew for men women had no role in
politics or juries / in legal matters represented by male
and name not mentioned
As in China elite women in Athens expected to remain
in home except religious festivals
Women often married in mid-teens to men 15 years
older
Function -manage home and produce sons
Sparta
To handle growing population – conquered
neighbors / they became helots / next to slavery
Population a threat / solved by creating a military
regime
All boys removed from home at age 7 and trained
for military
Age 30 the ideal Spartan male was a soldier
Political power by a few wealthy men Oligarchy
Women main task was reproduction, encouraged to do
sporting events
Both men and women competed in the nude
Married men closer to own age / women had authority
over home because men often away
V. Reflections: Arguing with Solomon
and the Buddha
A. Innovations and changes?
B. Enduring patterns and lasting features?