01:506:201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Morphophonology, Civilization Iv, Shinto
17 May 2018
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Chapter 5
The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 C.E.
1. Expansion and Integration
1. Key point – how did classical civilizations adjust to expansion
1. Between 550>400 BCE Confucius, Laozi, Buddha, Socrates
1. Need to articulate central values
2. How did they all unite?
1. China – more centralized
2. Mediterranean – more localized/diverse
3. India – key religious values – not as vulnerable to collapse –
like Rome
3. What are the two challenges of integration?
1. Territorial – how to command
1. China – language for elite, resettlement
2. Rome – local autonomy, tolerance
3. India – spread caste system
2. Social – inequality between men/women – upper/lower
class
1. China – hierarchy – deference – obedience –
Confucian
2. India – caste system
3. Rome – slavery
4. How to maintain cohesion?
1. Rome – promise of upward mobility
2. China – mutual respect between upper and lower
3. India – future reincarnation into higher form if good life
2. Beyond the Classical Civilizations
1. Some as border civilizations, some entirely independent
1. Wider trade patterns
2. Africa – Kush – hieroglyphics, iron, monarchy
1. Defeated by Axum, then Ethiopia
1. Ethiopian Christian church cut off from Greeks –
isolated
2. Ethiopia – by 20th century – oldest uninterrupted
monarchy
2. Farming on southern border of Sahara – regional kingdoms
1. Agriculture spread slowly – dense vegetation,
diseases on domesticated
2. Eventually farmed new crops, traded w/ Asia
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3. Japan – 200 CE extensive agriculture – migrations from Korea
over 200,000 year period
1. tribal chiefs – each tribe had own god
2. Chinese visitor – law-abiding, fond of drink, experts
agriculture
1. Tattoos to separate social classes
3. Shintoism – worship political rulers and spirits of nature –
eventually nationalized
4. 400 CE – one regional ruler took over surrounding territories
1. By 600 CE began trading/interacting with Chinese
civilization
4. Northern Europe – lagged behind Japan – most backward areas
in the world
1. Regional kingdoms – no written language – except Latin
imports
1. Primitive agriculture and hunting
2. Gods and rituals to deal with nature
1. Not until 1000 CE did Christianity truly unite
5. Central America – Olmec civilization – more advanced than
Europe/Africa
1. Corn staple food crop, but few domesticated animals
2. Olmec culture
1. Artistic forms – jade
2. religious images – animals and humans
3. science – accurate calendars
3. Successors made Teotihuacan – great city, later taken over
by Maya – 400 CE on
4. Olmecs similar to Sumerians – foundation
5. Incas in Peru/Bolivia – isolation form world – couldn’t copy
and react
1. No wheel, iron
2. Advanced civilization – agriculture to city
6. Polynesian peoples – Fiji by 1000 BCE, Hawaii 400 CE
1. Great travelers/explorers
2. adapted local plants, brought in new animals, imported
caste system under kings
7. Central Asia – played central role in trade
1. Invention of stirrup
2. Important contacts between civilizations
3. herding groups invaded civilizations
3. Decline in China and India
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1. 200-600 CE all three start to decline
1. Outside invasion – nomadic growth – Huns
1. Huns realized weakness of regime
2. Internal problems
2. Han Dynasty – population growth/prosperity spiral down
1. Confucian intellectual activity less active
2. Bureaucrats corrupt
3. Local landlords took up power
4. New peasant taxes – social unrest
1. Peasants become day laborers/sell children
5. Daoism attractive – healing practices + magic
1. Yellow Turbans – golden age w/ magic
1. Attacked weak emperor/corrupt bureaucracy
6. Similarities to Rome
1. Political ineffectiveness
2. Epidemics – killed half of China
3. Three centuries of chaos
7. Cultural unity threatened by Buddhism
8. Eventually invaders kicked out by Sui and Tang – started
one of most glorious periods
9. Why survived?
1. Structures too strong – bureaucracy
1. Invaders couldn’t offer anything better
3. India decline – not as drastic
1. Gupta emperors losing control of local princes
2. Hun invaders penetrate deeper into India
3. Regional princes, Rajput, gain more power
4. But…Indian culture evolved – Hinduism wins out over
Buddhism
1. Huns have no patience for Buddhist principles of
calm/contemplation
2. Mother Goddess Devi spread
5. Threat from Islam, Arabs fighting for Allah
1. Hinduism supported more by government
2. Not as much focus on intellectual pursuits, focus put
on uniting Hinduism
3. Arab traders took control of trade
6. Regionalism prevailed, but Hinduism saved the day
4. Decline and Fall of Rome – most severe
1. Symptoms of decay
1. Declining population
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