Ways of the World Chapter 6

5.0 (1 review)
Aspasia
Click the card to flip 👆
1 / 25
Terms in this set (25)
Aspasia
A foreign woman resident in Athens (ca. 470-400 B.C.E.) and partner of the statesman Pericles who was famed for her learning and wit.
Ban Zhao
A Chinese woman writer and court official (45-116 C.E.) whose work provides valuable insight on the position of women in classical China.
Brahmins
The Indian social class of priests.
Caste
The system of social organization in India that has evolved over millennia; it is based on an original division of the populace into four inherited classes (varna), with the addition of thousands of social distinctions based on occupation (jatis), which became the main cell of social life in India.
Dharma
In Indian belief, performance of the duties appropriate to an individual's caste; good performance will lead to rebirth in a higher caste.
Greek and Roman slavery
In the Greek and Roman world, slaves were captives from war and piracy (and their descendants), abandoned children, and the victims of long-distance trade; manumission was common. Among the Greeks, household service was the most common form of slavery, but in parts of the Roman state, thousands of slaves were employed under brutal conditions in the mines and on great plantations.
Helots
The dependent, semi-enslaved class of ancient Sparta whose social discontent prompted the militarization of Spartan society.
Jatis
In the Indian caste system, the thousands of social distinctions based on occupation .
Karma
In Indian belief, the force generated by one's behavior in a previous life that decides the level at which an individual will be reborn.
Ksatriya
The Indian social class of warriors and rulers.
LatifundiaHuge estates operated by slave labor that flourished in parts of the Roman Empire (singular latifundium).ManumissionThe act of a slave owner freeing their slaves.PericlesA prominent and influential statesman of ancient Athens (ca. 495-429 B.C.E.), he presided over Athens's Golden Age."Ritual purity"In Indian social practice, the idea that members of higher castes must adhere to strict regulations limiting or forbidding their contact with objects and members of lower castes to preserve their own caste standing and their relationship with the gods.Scholar-gentry classA term used to describe members of China's landowning families, reflecting their wealth from the land and the privilege that they derived as government officials.SpartacusA Roman gladiator who led the most serious slave revolt in Roman history from 73 to 71 B.C.E.).SudraThe lowest Indian social class of varna; regarded as servants of their social betters. The Sudra varna eventually included peasant farmers.The "three obediences"In Chinese Confucian thought, the notion that a woman is permanently subordinate to male control: first to her father, then to her husband, and finally to her son.UntouchablesAn Indian social class that emerged below the Sudras and whose members performed the most unclean and polluting work.VaisyaThe Indian social class that was originally defined as farmers but eventually comprised merchants.VarnaThe four major social divisions in India's caste system: the Brahmin priest class, the Kshatriya warrior/administrator class, the Vaishya merchant/farmer class, and the Shudra laborer class.Wang MangA Han court official who usurped the throne and ruled from 8 C.E. to 23 C.E.; noted for his reform movement that included the breakup of large estates.Wu, EmpressThe only female "emperor" in Chinese history (r. 690-705 C.E.), Empress Wu patronized scholarship, worked to elevate the position of women, and provoked a backlash of Confucian misogynist invective.WudiThe Chinese emperor (r. 141-87 B.C.E.) who started the Chinese civil service system with the establishment in 124 B.C.E. of an imperial academy for future officials.Yellow Turban RebellionA massive Chinese peasant uprising inspired by Daoist teachings that began in 184 C.E. with the goal of establishing a new golden age of equality and harmony.