Deck 5: B: Society and Inequality in Eurasia

Question 1

Provide specific examples of how women,peasants,and slaves challenged the social structures that subordinated them.

Answer 1

•Rebellions: Yellow Turban Rebellion in Han China,the Spartacus Rebellion in the Roman Empire
•"Weapons of the weak": small-scale theft,sabotage,feigning illness,cursing masters
•Runaway slaves
•Empress Wu in the Tang Dynasty
•Aspasia and her relationship with Pericles

Question 2

Historically,what circumstances have contributed to a weakening of patriarchal controls on women's lives?

Answer 2

•Political conflict and fragmentation,common in the early years of a civilization's development or during times of upheaval,disrupted established patterns of male dominance.
•Religions like Buddhism and Christianity opened opportunities for women in convents where,as nuns,they enjoyed some degree of freedom and authority.
•In Sparta,the long absences of men meant that women assumed more responsibilities.The emphasis on physical fitness also meant that girls came into contact with boys in sporting competitions.

Question 3

Compare and contrast the social hierarchies of China and India.

Answer 3

Similarities:
•Both systems were based on inequality and social hierarchy.
•In both systems,birth determined status for most people.
•Cultural or religious traditions in both systems defined inequalities as natural,eternal,and ordained by the gods.
•Little social mobility was available for the vast majority in both systems.
•Slaves were not present in large numbers in either society.
Differences:
•The Indian caste system gave priority to religious status and ritual purity,while China's class system elevated political officials to the highest of elite positions.
•Indian society was divided into vast numbers of distinct social groups,compared to the fewer,but broader,categories of Chinese society.
•India's social groups were defined far more rigidly and with even less opportunity for social mobility than in China.

Question 4

Compare and contrast the different forms of slavery in the classical world.

Question 5

How did the practice of slavery differ among the classical civilizations?

Question 6

In what ways was China's civil service system similar to India's caste system?

Question 7

How was elite status gendered masculine and feminine in the classical civilizations?

Question 8

Compare and contrast the status of women in Sparta and Athens.