Indus River Vally and Chinese Dynasty

The first four ancient river civilizations all developed in a similar, complex manner and left behind many accomplishments with great influence on following civilizations. While all four has expected differences in culture and language, there are some core similarities that they all share.

Mesopotamia and the Indus River Valley Civilization were two uniform civilizations. These two civilizations shared many similarities and few differences in the social and political aspect of these two societies. First of all, Mesopotamia seemed to neglect the religious and political side, because they focused more on their social characteristics. And because Mesopotamia focused more on social characteristics they had very organized caste systems. The Indus River Valley concentrated their attention on religious beliefs and social characteristics.

The Indian society adopted a class or caste system from the Indus Valley people. Just like the Indus society had priest rulers, the Indian society has the high class Indian Brahmins, which are seen as the priestly class. Trade was a very big part of the Indus Valley society, everything that they did, everything that they made was to ensure that they were able to create and trade more effectively. The class system during the Indus Valley civilization is extremely similar to the class system seen in Pakistan and India today. There were farmers, who grew crops, mustard, sesame, grapes, dates, melons, and khan. There were traders, these people were extremely good at what they did, and this is one of the reasons why the Indus Valley Civilization was able to prosper for so long. There were craftsmen, these people made things for people to use in everyday life. Just like today, they would be people that would make things and other people who would buy them. This contributed to the stability of the Indus civilization. Just like most ancient civilizations, priests played an important part in ruling the civilization. They were seen as the closest to God, and that is why they were given such authority and power. For people who follow religions, the religious leaders are very important because they are seen as all knowing & are respected by the people of the religious community.

The river valley civilizations of Sumer, Egypt, India, and China were historical pillars of innovation. Not only were they each responsible for having forged new technological innovations, but they each created their own system of writing as well. Each of them meets the requirements of being labeled as a “civilization” because each had a form of social organization, trade and economic activity, government, division of labor, and some form of record keeping. What sets them apart from one another are the specifics within the similarities they shared. These similarities and differences within their technological innovations and writing are numerous.

Culture is not just influential in ones beliefs, but a strong factor in how society is impacted today. Culture is not a new concept, it has been around since the first humans were forming societies. There are many definitions of Culture in ancient times, however, I came across one author’s definition that really summed up everything. “The sum total of the equipment of the human individual, which allows him to be attuned to immediate environment of the historical past on the other”. This eludes that culture reflects on the basis of what humans have added to nature, meaning that humans are what make up the culture and society. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the author tries to describe many different ideas in Sumerian beliefs, and Sumerian culture as a whole. Gilgamesh teaches us that the Sumerian Civilization has had many craftsman and artistic skills, and also a strong belief in

Both classical India and China were classified as patriarchal societies. Though for the most part this is true, women within the household had more power than they were accounted with. Women within the household had more say in matters than was written in theory. Both societies however stressed the importance of respect in the direction of one’s father/leader. Another similarity is the large peasant class of each civilization. For the Chinese, these were the mean people and for India these were the untouchables. These classes were both considered the lowest of the low in respect to the social castes. This class may simply exist for the mere fact of making those in other cases appreciate their ranking more, relieving the government of potential uprisings. The mean people understood that they could test their way up and if they could not they accepted their inferiority. The untouchables were born with the understanding that this caste is where they were placed due to the actions of a previous life and this is where they were to belong for this lifetime. It all comes down to religion and its structure. A final similarity is the societal structure brought to each civilization is a result of the civilization’s adopted belief system or religion. In China’s case this is Confucianism and in India’s case this is Hinduism. This is exemplified by the bureaucracy in China due to the structure of Confucianism and the

Culture is the sum of knowledge, attitude, and behaviors shared on or passed on by members of a specific group. This includes human work and train of thought. It’s like a blueprint or rule of how the group of people should behave if they want to fit into a group. It can form us into one group that’s separate from the other groups. Culture involves food, shelter, religions, relationships, language, knowledge, security, social organization, and creative expressionism. A society is a group who basically have nearly the same identity. The term ethnic group is often used to a group that shares mostly was a culture really is. Culture and societies are mostly changing, whether it be at a slow or fast pace. There are about three different types of change or way of change can spread, particularly with innovation, diffusion and its cultural hearth, and acculturation. Language being spread by diffusion ways can establish a cultural identity. Languages identity or culture can lead to the language having to be categorized and making a language family. As languages spread around the world so did religion. Religion consist of a belief in a supernatural power or powers that are regarded as the creators and maintainers of the universe. There are three types of religion monotheistic with one god, polytheistic with more than one god, and animistic or traditional is belief in divine forces in nature. There are also major religions such as

Culture is not just influential in ones beliefs, but a strong factor in how society is impacted today. Culture is not a new concept, it has been around since the first humans were forming societies. There are many definitions of Culture in ancient times, however, I came across one author’s definition that really summed up everything. “The sum total of the equipment of the human individual, which allows him to be attuned to immediate environment of the historical past on the other”. This eludes that culture reflects on the basis of what humans have added to nature, meaning that humans are what make up the culture and society. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the author tries to describe many different things in not only Sumerian beliefs, but also

Both the Indus River Valley civilization and Mesopotamia existed in the time period of 2000-1200 BCE. The two civilizations had economies that had been agriculturally based, and in the civilizations both had polytheistic societies. On the other hand there were differences politically; Mesopotamia had consisted if city -states, while the Indus River Valley was centralized. Although there are similarities in their economics, politics, and culture, was found in their life, these civilizations have enough differences between each other that dignify them into two separate civilizations.

All of the Early River Valley Civilization have contributed in a good variety of ways. The three empires (Egypt,Sumer,and Indus) are similar in their own contributions. The biggest similarity the three civilizations had were record keeping. Sumer had created a system called cuneiform.

The people in the Indus Valley had an advanced civilization. They had an efficient working sewer system. It showed they were an advanced civilization because most people at that time did not have that sort of innovation. It carried waste away from houses so that the city will be clean and diseases free. They also had a grid system for their roads and pathways. It showed they have an advanced civilization because other civilizations did not have such an organized government system that could organize, construct and plan a grid system for the roads and pathways for the city. It shows that they had good architectural knowledge. Another reason why the people of the Indus Valley civilization were part of an advanced civilization is that of their

The only difference is that our customs allow us to separate ourselves from one other to become our own people in our own town, village, state or country. Civilization then knew their regions and used it to work to their advantage. There are regions here today facing difficult conditions and find it hard to just survive each day due to either climate or natural disasters destroying everything they own and worked for yet they are able to survive and come back strong. Back then, early civilization has had limited means of survival from foraging for food to stressful conditions, and yet survived with overwhelming odds. I believe today’s societies have lost quite a bit

What is culture? Is it the way we dress? Is it the way we eat? The real answer is that there isn’t one. With seven continents, one hundred and ninety-five countries, and nearly seven and a half billion people there can’t just be one definition for a word that represents us all differently. The way I live here in America is vastly different from the way a girl like Malala lived in Pakistan. With that being sai, cultures can be compared, they can be traced back to where it all started, and they can be unique down to every last detail.

River Valley Civilization Similarities/Differences Approximately in the years of 3500 B.C- 450 B.C. civilizations began to crystalize independently along a number of fertile river plains in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus valley, and China. These civilizations helped set up the next step in the organization of human economic, political, religious, and social classes. The rivers supplied a continuous if not always dependable flow and supply of water for farming and human uses, these rivers also shaped the development of the early river valley civilizations. However, while many people of these civilizations were dependent on the rivers, the rivers also inspired new technology, economic, organizational and etc.

Religion was a highly encouraged practice in the early river valley civilizations. Even though each civilization had their own gods and beliefs, it is interesting to see that religion was a widespread, prominent factor during the time. Civilizations paid their respects to their gods through worship, art, and even sacrifice. Cities in the Tigris-Euphrates civilization would construct shrines to please and honor their deities. The Huanghe civilization worshipped a supreme god, “Shang-Ti,” who ruled over lesser nature