 Class Structures  Grew more complex during this time period  Low social mobility  Social status generally inherited Political Elites (rulers and their advisors) Aristocracies (families of high birth who helped run government and whose wealth was based on land ownership) Religious ElitesMerchants, TradersArtisans, Craftspeople Unskilled labor, Servants, Cultivators

  Agricultural society with typical features of huge gap between landed gentry and the peasants, esp. in terms of access to culture and language  In general, social status was inherited  Tight family organization helped economic and social views of political life China

  Scholar-Gentry  Status based on control of land and bureaucratic positions in the gov.  Often inherited  Ordinary Citizens  Peasants, some had land and some worked for landlords  All peasants had to work a designated number of days per year on public projects  Underclass  Merchants, traders  Non-Han Chinese on borderlands  Slaves (although not as many as Rome) - Artisans Scholar- Gentry Ordinary, but free, citizens Underclass

 India  Caste system  Varna- Sanskrit word for color and used by Aryans to distinguish classes  By 1000 BCE 4 major classes (see right)  600 BCE – 600 CE caste system becomes more complex and each caste divided into jati (birth groups) and there is no movement between classes  Family life also emphasized the them of hierarchy and tight organization Brahmins – priests and scholars Kshatriya – Warriors and Gov. officials Vaishya – Landowners, Merchants, Artisans Shudra – peasants, laborers

 Greece Sparta  Citizens vs. non- citizens  Beyond that everyone was pretty equal (wore simple clothing to show this)  Distinctions based on military prowess and athleticism Athens  Also distinguished between citizens and non-citizens  However, Athenians okay with luxury so clear urban-based aristocracy developed  Farmers lived outside the city  Reforms led to spread of democracy to all free male citizens but deepened division between free men and slaves  30% of population enslaved

  Aristocrats controlled land that was worked on by tenant farmers  Elite = Patricians and Commoners= Plebians  Patron-Client relationship  Patrons were wealthy people  Clients served them in return for protection Rome

  Patriarchial systems dominated all classical civilizations where men were seen as protectors of women  These systems were accepted and legitimized by religious and cultural thought  You need to look at the legal rights of women to determine how much freedom they actually had Gender Relations

  Families run by older men and male children favored  All women legally subordinate to men  Supported by Confucian values  Political positions for men  Marriages arranged according to family ties  Some women in elite families were educated in the arts, writing, and music  Peasant women were cooks and house cleaners for men Gender in China

  Dominance of husbands and fathers  Arranged marriages  Lawbook of Manu – 1 st Century BCE  “women must never be independent”  “When women are honored the gods are pleased”  Women, however, were celebrated in stories and theory was much harsher than practice Gender in India

  Spartan women free and equal with men and encouraged to be physically fit. Women also didn’t live with their husbands and often ran the city.  Athenian women had much less equality  Elite women confined to the home  Peasant women had more freedom because of farm chores  Women did have citizenship (which could be passed on to sons)  No political rights, or rights to own property or business Women in the Mediterranean