Hello, everyone!
Today, I'm not exactly feeling the best today. One of my favorite video game companies, AlphaDream, filed for bankruptcy, and they've been a major inspiration in my life. So if I don't sound as cheerful as I usually am, then that's the reason why.
So what better way to cheer me up than to talk about unequal societies and slavery? Yes, what a sad coincidence that we're talking about inequality on a day where I'm not feeling the best mentally.
Anyway, this will be talking about the entirety of Chapter Five.
Intro to Chapter Five
The caste system is ingrained into Hinduism. Because of its religious value, even to this day, the caste system remains in full force. It's even on dating websites, as marrying someone of another caste is taboo in Indian society.
But in many other aspects of modern day society, the world is changing rapidly. Slavery is now looked down upon throughout most of the world. Emperors are much less common in the world. Even the fact that I'm a woman in college would have been mind blowing 200 years ago!
Even then, we still suffer from some of the same issues we've faced for thousands of years, such as sexism, poverty, and inequality in general. It shows how some issues take a long time to solve, and it's very rare for a person to significantly speed up the process.
Society and the State in China
It's time to talk about China again!
So China has been an empire for a long time. The emperor and state officials have ruled the land for centuries, but what was one of the ways they elected officials? Educating them!
Yes, China had schools for the potential officials in 124 B.C.E. It was open to all males, but it tended to favor the wealthy. Still, it was possible for a commoner to become an elected official, which, in my opinion, is one of the most progressive things I've heard of for the time period.
Still, peasants were treated poorly in society. Everything was against them, including nature and the landlords. Why else would you expect the peasants to revolt numerous times?
Poor merchants, though. They were oppressed so much by the Chinese government. Still, it wasn't uncommon in China to become a wealthy merchant, and some officials even liked the merchants. I wonder how they could get so rich with the law against them...
Class and Caste in India
India is starting to get mentioned a lot, too. Not that I'm complaining; India tends to get neglected in the history books for some reason.
No one knows where the caste system exactly came from. It has survived for over two dozen centuries, so at the very least, it's an ancient practice that still goes on today.
The caste system is in this order: Brahmin (priests and teachers), Kshatriya (warriors and rulers), Vaisya (farmers, merchants, and artisans) and the Sudra (just labor work). There's also the class below the Sudra, known as the "Untouchables," but the book states that they are not associated with the caste system.
It's impossible to be in a higher class in your lifetime. When you're born into a class, you're in that class for your entire life. You can only progress within your caste and hope that your next lifetime, you go onto a higher caste.
Basically, you know your role in life at birth. It brings up the philosophical question Brave New World brings up: would people be truly happy if they knew their role in life since birth, even if that means never progressing further and inequality? That is a question different cultures would answer differently.
Slavery: The Case of the Roman Empire
If there's one subject that you would never bring up at a party, it's slavery. It's an uncomfortable subject for both sides, but I think it's important to talk about it and it's history.
Slavery is an ancient practice, started around the Paleolithic era. However, when civilizations became a thing, the practice of slavery grew tremendously. However, although slavery existed in Eastern civilizations, it was more widespread in Western civilizations.
Rome and Greece loved slavery, so much that Aristotle claimed that people were "slaves by nature." Also, around the time Jesus Christ lived, roughly 83% of citizens were slaves. Even good people owned two or three slaves. It's shocking to hear this information.
However, there are a couple things that made Roman slavery a bit less worse than the atrocities of American slavery. Roman slavery didn't depend on race; although some groups of people were thought to be "slaves by nature," they weren't writing on tablets explaining how their race was superior. Also, slave owners were expected to give slaves the necessities of life.
Even then, slaves were abused in multiple ways and were not viewed highly. Also, it's slavery. Why would I support treating human beings like cattle?
Comparing Patriarchies
Sexism has existed for a long time. Let's not deny that fact. But sometimes, ancient societies are less sexist than we think.
China was not that kind of society most of the time. When Confucian texts state the inferior position of wives, you know society isn't exactly equal. Even at birth, there is a ritual for baby girls to show their place in society.
It did get better, though. By the Tang Dynasty, women were portrayed as being able to handle business and traditionally "male" activities. Also, there was Empress Wu, who was a woman. However, by the Song Dynasty, it wasn't as progressive. Maybe I'll learn more about it when I read more of the book...
In Athens and Sparta, in terms of gender roles, Sparta wins. In Athens, despite their democracy, women weren't allowed to participate in law independently. In some cases, they weren't even allowed some of the government privileges men had. Women were also expected to stay inside the house and reproduce, without learning how to read and write.
Sparta, on the other hand, not only trained their men intensively, but also their women. The men were sent to military training at age seven, leaving the women at home. However, in order for them to produce warrior sons, they had to train their bodies in intense ways. Running, wrestling, throwing javelins, driving chariots... women training could be intense! And since the men were away, women ruled the house in ways Athenian women could never dream of.
So moral of the story; if you want a more equal society, make it a militaristic society where boys go off to war at age seven and women do intense training to improve their wombs. Then again, the book claims it's still a patriarchy, and it's homophobic...
So that's my post! It was actually very cathartic to make this, even if it dealt with inequalities. That's probably because even in an unequal world, there are still some societies that are more equal than you think.
Next time, I'll talk about the commonalities and variations of different societies.
Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment