What
is considered a Good Life in Ancient Civilizations?
The Egyptians, Mesopotamians
and Harrapans led very different lives and had different beliefs. From the
primary sources, Egyptian Book of the Dead, Hammurabi’s Code and the Bhagvad
Gita, I will compare and contrast the different cultures based on religion and
the development of their land. Since their
spiritual devotion was so great and the growth of their land was so vast, this determined
their fortunate ways of living and gave them the ability to expand their
culture and the moral ways of their daily lives.
Let’s
start with agriculture, the main thing all these ancient civilizations have in
common. The Egyptians they had the Nile River
and the Mesopotamians had the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. But only the
Egyptians were able to gain from the annual floods. The floods allowed the
Egyptians to take care of their land without extensive care and it also gave
them the privilege to harvest crops in the winter. Egyptians also had domesticated animals, mainly
cattle and donkeys. Later form the increase of human population the Egyptians
had to form a more advance agriculture system. In 4000 BCE villages along the
Nile traded regularly and even cooperated in building an irrigation system. (Traditions
and Encounters pg. 52). The canal irrigation was a simple process that didn’t
require much work or organization. (World of History pg.47)
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Contrast
to the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians had to struggle in order to get their
crops. The Mesopotamians developed a small irrigation system in 6000 BCE which
helped them dig fields of barley, wheat and peas. (Traditions and Encounters
pg.26) “In Mesopotamia the flood was the enemy….The forces of nature where
often evil. Life was a struggle”. To fix this economic problem was the
beginning of a city-state society. (World of History pg.47)
The
Mesopotamians and Egyptians well fertile grounds led to an increase in
population and from that, a formal government. And because the population
increased so much, social classes began to developed .Unlike the Mesopotamians
the Egyptians didn’t face any outside threats. Nonetheless, in order to create a
peaceful place and maintain order, the Egyptians created small kingdoms and
states and had some government control reign over them. (Traditions and
Encounters pg. 52)
Mesopotamia
had a ruling class of kings and nobles who earned their positions by being
successful soldiers. Hammurabi was one of the most prominent rulers of Mesopotamia,
mostly due to his “most extensive and most complete Mesopotamian law code” the
Hammurabi Code. (Traditions and Encounters pg. 29)This code gives of the
insight on how the Mesopotamians lived their daily lives. “The law code gives
us an idea of a people’s sense of justice and notions of proper punishment”.
(World of History pg.58) The main punishment for breaking Hammurabi’s Law was
death.He prescribed the death penalty for theft, fraud, murder, runaway slaves,
adultery, false accusations and failure to obey authority. With laws like these,
Hammurabi established high standards of moral behavior. (Traditions and
Encounter pgs.29-30)
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Now
let’s move on to the Harrapans. The Harrapans, just like Mesopotamia and Egypt,
developed its society along a river and their river was the Indus River. Unfortunately
it’s impossible to follow the development of the Harrapans society or figure
out what kind of political organization they had due to the lack of written records.
Everything we know of them is based highly on archeological study.
The
Indus river was very much similar to the Nile.It drew it waters from the rain
and would carry an enormous quantity of silt and deposits it into the rich
soil. The Harrapans got most of their food crops and domesticated animals from
Mesopotamia. And just like the Mesopotamians, the Harrapans would have to sow
their seeds of wheat and barley. The Harrapans where the first society to
domesticate chickens. Around 5000 BCE
they cultivated cotton and dyed cloth came into the picture around 2000 BCE.
Not
only did the Harrapans have a success in agriculture, they also had a wealthy
trade by trading domesticated and foreign items. From neighboring city Persia,
the Harrappans obtained gold, silver, copper, lead, gems and stones
Just
like the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians, India also had a vast food supply
which stimulated the human population, and along with that came cities and
labor. (Traditions and Encounters pg. 72) They even formed the caste system
which is a group of people who will eat together and marry one another in their
same social rank. The Harrapans formed the caste system for three other reasons
beyond controlling the human population:
1)
They didn’t want someone of the upper
class to become “unclean” by coming in contact with the lower class.
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2)
They
didn’t want outsiders to feel compelled to follow the customs of the native
born people.
3)
“The doctrine of reincarnation and of
varna” They saw the caste “as a divinely established institution, hereditary
from father to son”
They
believed that if you were meant to be in a higher class then you would be if
performed your proper duties in life. If you didn’t perform your duties even a
lower class citizen could become a worm or a swine. And someone from a higher
class could become the same. (World of history pgs. 85-86)
Now
that we learned about the start and further development of these civilizations,
we can move on to religion. The number one thing all of these civilizations had
in common was that they were polytheistic. They believed in different Gods and
Goddess and each one affected theses civilizations in many ways. For example,
the Egyptian god Hapi, flooded their lands and gave them their daily bread. (World
of History pg. 47). The ruling God Osiris was the one the Egyptians served
vigorously. He was the god of immortality and of the underworld. He was the one
who judge the deceased in order to decide their fate beyond death. Before one
could be judged, they would have to present a speech to Osiris from the
Egyptian: Book of the Dead which tells us what people did or what they didn’t
do. They say things like “I have commanded no evil upon me” “I have not killed”
“I have made no one weep”. In the end their hearts are judged against a
feather. If the deceased heart is lighter, they spent eternity in the
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afterlife.
If not, his heart would be devoured by the demon Ammut, if that happened, his
existence will end forever. (World of History pgs. 67, 69)
For
the Mesopotamians they had priest who did the gods work. The priests were
responsible for the sacrifices and rituals that were essential for the help of
the gods. In addition, property belonged to the gods so priests administered
it. This made the priests valuable and important in their communities. (World
of History pg.48)
The main religion in ancient India
was Hinduism: “the belief that animals and human castes were created out of the
primal sacrifice of the god Pursha”. The Bhagavad Gita is a story of the
warrior Arjuna who was questioning the battle he was about to enter and whether
he should kill or not. Then lord Krishna appears to him and explains the
concept of death, the caste system, reincarnation and devotion. He explains
death is certain for everyone and avoiding it is impossible. He explains that
Arjuna must fight because he is a warrior. “Look to your own duty; do not
tremble before it; nothing is better for a warrior than a battle of sacred
duty”. Krishna continues to say any man who forsakes his sacred duty shall be
shamed. Krishna uses a metaphor about
changing clothes to make his point; “As a man discards worn-out clothes to put
on new and different ones so the embodied self discards its worn-out bodies to
take on other new one” When someone dies
their old body is discarded and they become a new. For the Hindu gods it didn’t
matter if you were wealthy and powerful or a dirty criminal, if you were
devoted you were considered virtuous. “If he is devoted solely to me, even a
violent criminal must be deemed a man of virtue, for his resolve is right”.
“Keep me in your mind
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And
devotion, sacrifice to me, bow to me, discipline yourself toward me, and you
will reach me!” (World of History pgs.
98, 99, 101)
In my opinion each of these
civilizations had a pretty good life. Because they had fertile lands and a vast
human population they were able to improve their city-states and continue their
devotion to their gods. But like all civilizations, they came to an end.
However, their stories still continue today and the artwork that they made is
still being looked at today.
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