700 BCE - 400 BCE Growing participation of free male citizens of the Athenian government
124 BCE 1st Professional Civil Service
73 BCE Spartacus slave rebellion in Italy
79 BCE Eruption of Mt.Vesuvius in Pompeii
184 CE Yellow Turban Revolt
500 CE Caste System is finally established in Indian Society
690 CE - 705 CE Reign on Empress Wu
124 BCE 1st Professional Civil Service
73 BCE Spartacus slave rebellion in Italy
79 BCE Eruption of Mt.Vesuvius in Pompeii
184 CE Yellow Turban Revolt
500 CE Caste System is finally established in Indian Society
690 CE - 705 CE Reign on Empress Wu
- China's Scholar-Gentry class - Scholar-officials, also known as Scholar-gentlemen/Scholar-bureaucrats were civil servants appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance from the Han dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912, China's last imperial dynasty.
- Caste System - A caste system is a class structure that is determined by birth. Loosely, it means that in some societies, if your parents are poor, you're going to be poor, too. Same goes for being rich, if you're a glass-half-full person.
- Jati - a Hindu caste or distinctive social group of which there are thousands throughout India; a special characteristic is often the exclusive occupation of its male members (such as barber or potter)
- Spartacus - Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who, along with the Gauls Crixus, Oenomaus, Castus and Gannicus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. [Spartacus the tv show]
- Ritual Purity - In Indian social practice, the idea that members of higher castes must adhere to strict regulations limiting or forbidding their contact with objects and members of lower castes to preserve their own caste standing and their relationship with the gods.
- Empress Wu - Wu Zetian and during the later Tang dynasty as Tian Hou, referred to in English as Empress Consort Wu or by the deprecated term "Empress Wu", was a Chinese sovereign who ruled unofficially as Empress and later, officially as Emperor of China during the brief Zhou dynasty 690-705), which interrupted the Tang dynasty (618–690 & 705–907). Wu was the only female emperor of China in more than four millennia.
- Varna - each of the four Hindu castes, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra.
- Athens v. Sparta - Sparta- An ancient Greek city-state and rival of Athens. Sparta was known for its militaristic government and for its educational system designed to train children to be devoted citizens and brave soldiers. Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War. Athens- Athens has been the center of Greek civilization for some 4,000 years. The capital of modern Greece, it’s still dominated by 5th-century-B.C.E. landmarks, including the Acropolis, a hilltop citadel topped with ancient buildings such as the colonnaded Parthenon temple. Learn more
- Peasant - a poor farmer of low social status who owns or rents a small piece of land for cultivation (chiefly in historical use or with reference to subsistence farming in poorer countries).
- Landlord - a person, especially a man, who rents land, a building, or an apartment to a tenant. (Land)
- Civil Service - the permanent professional branches of a government's administration, excluding military and judicial branches and elected politicians.
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
B. The Landlord Class
1. Land as wealth
2. Rise of large estates
3. Wang Mang (r. 8–23 c.e.)
4. Scholar-Gentry
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
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
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
C. The Functions of Caste
1. Localization
2. Security and support
3. Assimilation of new arrivals
4. Exploitation
III. Slavery: The Case of the Roman Republic
A. Slavery and Civilization
1. “Social Death”
2. Wide diversity of types of slavery
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
C. Resistance and Rebellion
1. “Weapons of the weak”
2. Spartacus, 73 b.c.e.
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.)
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
V. Reflections: Arguing with Solomon and the Buddha
A. Innovations and changes?
B. Enduring patterns and lasting features?