Chapter 2-First Civilizations

Civilization was the beginning of the end. With agriculture came deforestation, organized hierarchy, gender inequality and general demise of equity. Mesopotamia and Egypt were among the first civilized societies. A third civilization appeared around the same time in modern day Peru called Norte Chico. Unlike Mesopotamia and Egypt, Norte Chico developed slowly and lacked economic specification. Norte Chican people traded and continued hunting and gathering long after Eurasian civilization stopped due to a lack of animals available to develop agriculture at the same rate.  In eurasia caste systems as well as City States developed near or in the Fertile Crescent. These divides often led to conflict between peoples in the same region unlike Egyptians who were ruled by one Pharaoh. Living in close procimities and under one rule established order and protection that was desirable compared to wandering and fending for yourself. Agriculture in Egypt depended heavily on the annual gentle flooding which fertilized the crop lands and allowed the Egyptians to remain much longer than Mesopotamians who had an unpredictable flood schedule that often devastated crop lands. With organization came specialization-there were now works outside of agriculture which included scholars, officials, merchants, priests and artisians.  Among those occupations was even deeper specialization usually pertinent to rank and status.  Though all of these developments were impossible without surplus from farmers the masses in agriculture fell at the bottom of the food chain, considered peasants and paid very little for their labors. Government developed at this time as well, resulting in taxation and laws. People who could read or write had great power as they could determine what is recorded in political accounts, legal agreements, and money owed and paid just to name a few.  This is important to me because as Strayer frames it, this is where we go wrong. Progression introduced patriarchy and social injustice as we had never seen before. Women were expected to bow to the will of men and the wealthy and elite stood on the broken backs of the poor. There was no longer room for equality nor equity. Greed became man's motivation and the peaceful ways of the past were lost.

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