by 3000 B.C.E. - Dravidian peoples - neolithic communties
wheat, barley, cattle, sheep, goats
some grew to cities - with political, social, cultural order
Harappan society - earliest urban society in India - Indus River Valley
Aryan peoples - Indo Europeans from Central Asia
1500-1000 B.C.E.; first conflict, then interaction
and intermarriage
in an Indo European root language, "Aryan" = "noble
people"
Today - political conflicts over relative contributions of Aryans and Dravidian cultures
2 chief cities in Harappan society: Harappa and Mohenjodaro
"gift of the Indus River"
reasons we can't know much about early Harappan society - silt + erosion = rising water table.
absence of a deciphered language
Indo European languages - modern south Asian descendants in language = Hindi and Farsi
Indo Europeans had horses = great military technological development
brought an Indo European language - Sanskrit
the Vedas in this language which became a "sacred" language
Vedas = collectoins of hymns, songs, prayers, rituals - honoring various
gods of the Aryans.
the earliest - the Rig Veda [1400-900 B.C.E.]
brought about the "Vedic Age"
no centralized government - lots of small ones led by Rajas
in place of a centralized government to provide social and political stability, developed rigid well-defined social order
what became the "caste" system
"Varna" - Sanskrit for "color"
4 or 5 major "Varnas" = brahmins/priests, warriors and aristocrats, cultivators and artisans, and landless peasants; later, the "untouchables"
patriarchal society
"Lawbook" of Manu
Harappan decline - sometime after 2000 B.C.E.
ecological degradation + earthquakes+Aryan invasions
ancient Chinese legends: 3 wise kings [Yao, Shun, Yu] who laid foundations for Chinese society
King Yao - harmony to society, family life
King Shun - organized the 4 seasons, instituted weights, units of time
King Yu - rescued China from flooding - bult dikes, founded the
Xia dynasty - first ruling house of ancient China
while legends, reflected interests in pracices and customs that defined society
also moral thinkers - advocated values considered beneficial to society
Domesticated rice about 7000 B.C.E. [compare with dates in Middle East]
ca. 5000 B.C.E. neolithic villages in Yangzi River
by 2nd millenium B.C.E. = cities, large staes, social and cultural traditions
Gift of the Yellow River - very long, 2920 miles from Tibet
Chinese legends speak of 3 ancient dynasties
Xia
Shang
Zhou
Xia - founder the wise King Yu - first effort to organize public life
in China
ca. 2200 B.C.E.
estab precedent for hereditary monarchical rule
no information survives "verifiable" from this time - no written remains
Shang - 1766 B.C.E. to 1122 B.C.E. - did leave written remains
introduced bronze
state builders - armies of 13,000 [compare with Mesopotamia, Egypt]
walled towns, palaces, archives with written documents
lavish tombs
Zhou - first written principles of statecraft and politics
1122 B.C.E. to 256 B.C.E.
theory of politics = assumption that earthly events closely related
to heavenly affairs
heavenly powers - granted the right to govern "the
mandate of heaven" = to a deserving human, known as "son of heaven"
his duty - to govern well - high standards of honor and justice, to
maintain order and harmony
if heavenly powers failed to approve, was removed and a new person given the "mandate" to rule
King of Qin became the First Emperor of China - video
Veneration of ancestors = family solidarity - collective identity, not individual
like India, patriarchal society too
introduction of writing