Chapters 4-7
What is an empire? For
most people, this question would most likely bring to mind the Roman Empire or
maybe even the British Empire. In this
week’s readings, it was refreshing to learn that there were many other
civilizations that achieved this status as well. Like the Greeks, the Han Dynasty of China,
and the Persians. There were also the
larger civilizations that flirted with becoming an empire like the Axum of
Africa or the Maya of Mesoamerica. Then
there were those large civilizations that perhaps could have become empires had
they the desire to, such as the Jenne-Jeno or the Bantu of Africa, and many of
the civilizations from India and China.
It makes me wonder why more civilizations were not like the Jenne-Jeno,
coexisting in peace without the need to dominate one another. It was curious and almost silly how many of
the diverse civilizations found ways to justify the inequalities be they gender,
race, religion or caste. Even the famous
Greek philosopher, Aristotle, found it in his heart to explain why women were
inferior human beings. He said that
women were infertile males because they could not produce sperm which fuels
life. In Athens were equated to domesticated
animals. Wow, really?
Something I found interesting was how wide spread slavery
was and how differently the many civilizations treated their slaves. It was almost comical to read that in some
civilizations even slaves had slaves and it was all to show status. So I would supposed, that the slave of a
slave would be at the bottom of the totem pole so to speak. The majority of slaves seem to have been
prisoners of war who were used mostly to work in construction or doing the
dirty jobs of maintaining sewers or, working in mines. Many others worked as household attendants or
as concubines. Many civilizations permitted
their slaves some freedoms of property and wealth and could eventually earn
their freedom. After being freed, in
some civilizations, slaves could eventually be granted citizenship but not in
others. I don’t recall reading that any
of the civilization allowed their slaves to marry, although, many lived as if
they were. Whether they were born slaves
or if their children were born free or not, all the different intricacies of
slavery was fascinating
In India slaves were part of their caste system and so only
death could free you… assuming you had good karma of course. The clear cut rules of Varna and its
subclass, Jati, was also fascinating.
Caste as ordained by the gods determines your social class at birth. The only way to escape this is through
incarnation and rebirth. It is then of
utmost importance to live an exceptional life so that with good karma you could
move up in caste when you are reborn.
China’s caste system with its possibility of upward mobility is
definitely preferable. In these caste
systems, similar to slaves in most of these Classical Era civilizations, women are/were
still relegated to low man on the totem pole, perhaps not the very bottom, but
close enough. I am definitely glad to be
a woman in the twenty first century!
