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1. Who were the Dravidians? Where did they live? When did the height of their culture occur
(approx. dates)?
The Dravidians were a group of people who settled in southern Asia near the Indus, whose waters
were available for irrigation of crops. This society is called the Harappan society after on of its
two chief cities. They lived in southern Asia near the Indus, the valley of a river.

2. Why do we know relatively little about the Dravidians and their Harappan society?
³One reason is that many of the earliest Harappan physical remains lie below the existing water
table and thus are inaccessible to archaeologists. Another reason is the lack of deciphered written
records, because scholars have so far been unable to understand the complex pictographic
Harappan script. As a result, our understanding of Harappan society depends entirely on the study
of accessible material remains´ (48-49).

3. How was the Indus River related to the development of the Harappan civilization?
Like the Nile, the Indus River provided water to the people settling in the region through rain and
melting snow in towering mountains ± in this case, the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas. As the
waters reach the lowlands, the Indus deposits huge amounts of silt on its banks. It made
agriculture possible in northern India.

4. Compare Harappan society to those of Mesopotamia and Egypt in terms of political

organization/authority, trade and labor specialization, and social distinctions/stratification.
-cities/specialized labor came as a result of agricultural surpluses (which came from Indus having
such fertile silt and creating agricultural society)
-much larger than Mesopotamian and Egyptian society
-no evidence about Harappan political system survived, but excavation don¶t suggest royal or
imperial authority
-Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had standardization of things like weights, measures, etc.
-domestic and foreign trade (even with Mesopotamians)
-lots of wealth, like Meso and Egyptrencouraged social distinctions
--rich and poor lived very differently
-venerated gods and goddesses associated with creation and procreation

5. How high would you rate the standard of living in Harappan cities?
I would rate the standard of living very high because there were individual houses, some with
multiple rooms and stories. ³Almost all houses had private bathrooms with showers and toilets
that drained into city sewage systems, which themselves were among the most sophisticated of
the ancient world´ (50).

6. Why did the Harappan civilization decline?

The Harappan civilization declined because of ecological degradation. ³In clearing the land for
cultivation and firewood, Harappans deforested the Indus valley. In the process, they facilitated
soil erosion and desertification« Agriculture is possible there today only with the aid of artificial
irrigation´ (50).

7. To which ethno_linguistic group did the Aryans belong? How did they survive/make a living?
Aryans spoke Indo-European languages and made their money off of animals. ³Cattle became
their principal measure of wealth in early Aryan society. The Aryans consumed both dairy
products and beef, and they often calculated prices in terms of cattle´ (52). Since they were
previously pastoral, their continued reliance on animals was predictable.

8. What were the Vedas? What do they tell us about Aryan society? In what language were they
composed and eventually written?
The Aryans did not write, so they passed on stories orally through their language, Sanskrit. The
Vedas were a collection of hymns, songs, prayers, and rituals honoring various gods of the
Aryans that were passed orally.
They informed us about Aryan society, because the Aryans referred to the Dravidians as enemies.
The Vedas showed us that the Aryans did not have a centralized government unlike the
Dravidians. Rather, they formed hundreds of chiefdoms around herding communities and
agricultural villages, which caused competition for food and resources.

9. By what route did the Aryans enter/migrate into India? When? Describe their interactions with
the Dravidians who were already living there.
The Aryans migrated into the Punjab, the upper Indus River Valley that straddles the modern-day
border between northern India and Pakistan. They began moving towards agriculture (iron tools).
As the Aryans began to move away from herding, they moved away from their tribal rule and
moved towards formal, political organizations.

10. Describe the Indian caste system. Identify the major castes and the untouchables. How did
this social hierarchy compare with the one in Mesopotamia? Same groupings/stratification? Same
or different elites on top? Why?
The Mesopotamian social hierarchy differed with the one in India in that the Aryans¶ caste
system was hereditary. Also, in Mesopotamia, the people who owned the most land were at the
top because wealth equated to power. In India, the priests were the highest in caste were priests
(*
). Therefore, religion was prized to the upmost in India.
The caste system in India were separated by race as well ± Dravidians were automatically
classified as the lowest (the  

 )
The caste system set up an umbrella for the 
, hereditary categories largely determined by
occupation

11. How did the caste and sub_caste system govern daily life in India? Did social mobility
(upwards or downwards) exist? How rigid was the caste system?
³The caste system never functioned in an absolutely rigid or inflexible manner but, rather,
operated so as to accommodate social change. Individuals sometimes prospered on the basis of
their own initiatice, or else fall on hard times and move down in the social hierarchy. More often,
however, social mobility came bout as members of 
 improved their condition collectively.
Achieving upward mobility was not an easy manner ± it often entailed moving to a new area or at
least taking on a new line of work ± but the possibility of improving individual or group status
helped to dissipate social tensions´ (53). It allowed for newcomers to settle.

12. Describe the status of women in early Indian society.

It was predominantly a patriarchal society where men often ruled. Women were distinct in
familiar affairs, but other than internal familiar affairs, were rarely important. However, the
women, if her husband died, was supposed to commit sati, meaning she was to voluntarily
commit suicide since there was apparently no reason to live any longer. Typically only women in
the Brahmin caste observed this, though. This was problematic because girls got married off as
young as 7 or 8 to much older men, meaning it was highly likely and probably almost inevitable
that the man would die first.
13. Why did some people in Indian society become dissatisfied with the early Vedic religion?
³As the centuries passed, many Aryans became dissatisfied with the sacrificial cults of the Vedas,
which increasingly seemed like sterile rituals rather than a genuine means of communicating with
the gods.´ (54)
-People no longer felt that Vedas were an effective way to communicate, so they set out to find
out for themselves, many of them leaving their villages and living like hermins to reflect on
things such as the relationships between humans, the world, and the gods.

14. Describe the main ideas of the †

, including reincarnation, *



and
 
.
-Brahman = the cosmic universal soul that everyone made
-samsara: doctrine that held that upon death, individual souls go temporarily to world of the
fathers aand then return to earth in a new incarnation
-karma: doctrine that accounted for the specific incarnations that souls experienced; individuals
woho lived virtuous lives/fulfilled duties could expect rebirth into a purer more honorable
existence
-encouraged cultivation of personal intergrity
=taught self resepect for all lving things
-vegetarian diet important because aniamls were respected too
-moksha: cycle of birth and rebirth involved certain amount of pain and suffering, so wanted to
escape cycle and attain state of moksha, which was characterized as a deep, dreamless sleep that
came with permanent liberation frpmhysical incarnation

15. Why did the teachings of the †

serve to uphold the existing social order/caste
system?
-in order to fulfill your role and if you ever wanted to move up, you had to do all the duties
assigned to your caste; no moving up, but hope that when you die and are reborn, you will be
born into a better caste/life

16. Compare the Yellow (or Huang He) River to the Tigris and Euphrates, Nile and Indus Rivers
(flooding patterns, effect on development of earliest civilizations).
-Indus: got water from rain (like Nile) and melting snow in towering mountains; deposited huge
quantities of silk on its banks (like Nile); periodic destruction from flooding (happened a lot with
Tigris and Euphrates because of erratic flooding), but still spurred creation of agricultural society;
agricultural surplusrincreased food supply/spurred population growth/supported establishment of
cities and specialized labor

17. Describe the link between irrigation and the establishment of formal political institutions
(governments) in Mesopotamia, China and Egypt.
-The need to organize large-scale public works projects helped establish a recognized authority
and formal political institutions.
-esp in China where the Yellow River was devastating people¶s crops when it flooded r needed
something to control floods
-Shang and Zhou able to provide organization/authority for complex irrigation system/harvests
(need lots of water for rice!)

18. Which Chinese dynasty (family of rulers) first made effective use of bronze? How? By what
route did bronze come to China?
-the Shang dynasty; Shang ruling elites managed to monopolize bronze production, strengthening
Shang forces r had little trouble imposing rule over agricultural villages/extending influence
throughout Yellow River valley (summary: bronze made them stronger and more fearsome)
-it came through Indo-European migrants to China from southwest Asia

19. How did the organization of the Shang state compare to that of the Harappan society? To
Ancient Mesopotamia?To Egypt?
Harappan society: Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had city walls (Shang had lots of walled towns
with local rulers who recognized authority of Shang king); collection/redistribution of taxes paid
in the form of grain (Shang kings made people give lots of surplus agriculture to him); both
patriarchal; both had long-distance trade
Ancient Mesopotamia: divine kingship (not in Shang); had city-states (Shang had cities?); need
for military to protect from invaders caused formal authority/gov (not the reason for Shang); both
patriarchal; both had long-distance trade
Egypt: divine kingship (not in Shang); both patriarchal; both had long-distance trade

20. Explain the concept of the ³mandate of heaven.´ Which dynasty first used it to justify its
overthrow of the preceding dynasty?
The Zhou used it when they usurped power from the Shang dynasty to create a sense of
legitimacy to their rule because they basically said that it was the desire of the heavens for the
Zhou to rule

21. How did the political organization of the Zhou state differ from that of the Shang? What were
the weaknesses of this model?
The Zhou had a bureaucracy where government officials worked for the king and collected
taxes/king had scribes, etc. Zhou recognized need for educated men to serve as government
officials to help with kings and dukes. (The Zhou had such a large territory that they had to put in
a vassal-patronage system, but the dukes got power hungry and paid less and less attention to
Zhou ruler)
Government officials were getting laid off, one of which was Confucius (he was a government
official for a duke who didn¶t get paid), who began formulating a system for a new type of
government.

22. Why did the Zhou¶s power and influence decline?

Vassal-patronage system = ineffective
Nomadic invaders

23. Who were the ruling elites in China? Who owned the land?
-royal family + allied noble families
-hereditary aristocratic class arose from military allies of the Shang and Zhou rulers and they
owned a LOT of land

24. Did slavery exist?

Yes. Most were captives of war between competing Chinese states. They performed tasks such as
clearing fields or building city walls (things that required a large amount of people to perform
hard labor)

25. Describe gender roles in early Chinese society. How did the veneration of ancestors and a
strong emphasis on the family help to reinforce these gender norms?
-very patriarchal
-Patriarchal head of family = mediator b/w family¶s living and dead members r possessed a large
amount of authority in a society where veneration of ancestors was very important
-Chinese didn¶t recognize supreme deity that intervened in human affairs and, unlike
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India, ancient China didn¶t support a large class of priests, so family
patriarchs represented the interests of living generations to the spirits of departed ancestors

26. For what purpose did writing develop in China? Was this the same in Mesopotamia and
India? In Egypt? Why or why not (in other words, what does this tell you about each society and
its values?)? What are oracle bones?
-Writing in China for divination/telling the future in a political context (oracle bones!); earliest
was pictograph
-Mesopotamia was for trade; earliest was pictograph
India: we can¶t make out their writing
Egypt: earliest was pictograph
FINISH

27. How did China¶s geographical situation affect its development, compared with Mesopotamia,
India and Egypt?
-trade + migration + expansion of Chinese agricultural society = people of east and central Asian
societies had a lot of contact with each other

28. Describe the interactions between sedentary and nomadic peoples in China. What did
sedentary peoples gain from the nomads, and vice versa?

29. What was the principal crop of southern China? How was this related to the development of
the Shang and Zhou states?
-RICE
-Shang and Zhou able to provide organization/authority for complex irrigation system/harvests
(need lots of water for rice!)