Chapter 2: The First Civilizations

  The text describes civilization as a global phenomenon, showing up independently throughout seven major locations around the world.  What amazes me the most is that agricultural is purely responsible for the development of these civilizations.  The effects of agriculture on the these people literally forced them to get creative.  The surplus of food allowed for larger populations.  Immediately the need for housing, storage, and  labor increased.  And who would make all these decisions? Who was in charge of the storage for food? Simple questions like this brought about a form of government or political system. So now they have established housing, storage, surplus of food, and even some form of government.... And the first civilization was born!

Later came the emergences of people who possessed special skills, among them  came the most crucial skill of all...writing!  The invention of writing changed everything for not only the people of that time, but also for hundreds of thousands of generations to come.  Writing was thought as a gift from the Gods, and literacy defined elite status.  In Mesopotamia and other early civilizations, writing served as an accounting function, allowing them to know who had paid their taxes, laws, religious scriptures, and complex calendars.  As a child I recall how difficult is was to learn how to read and write. So I fully commend these people for not only learning these intellectual properties, but creating them as well.  It is mind-bottling to me that people of this era constructed a form of writing, bravo!

If you payed close attention to my last paragraph you would have noticed I used the word “elite” to describe a status. Unlike the Paleolithic Era, equality did not rein. When the first civilizations were born, oppression and massive inequalities were born as well. People were organized by skills, wealth, status.  The need for government supplied a hierarchy, and the corruption of egalitarianism began.  The wealthy did not share, like one may have in the Paleolithic time.  The establishment of  “mine” and “yours” was designed and engrained throughout these first civilizations. 

As egalitarianism diminished, so did the rights of women. In Mesopotamia, various laws were written to enforce patriarchal family life.  Claiming to offer women protection yet mandating on their submission to the unquestioned power of men.  The text describes that if a women is caught sleeping with another man, she may be drowned at her husband's discretion.  However, if a man was permitted to lavish in sexual relations with his female servants.  As for divorce it was pretty much in the hands of the husband. These new found laws or “norms” in these early civilizations are literally the complete opposite of the Paleolithic gender relations. Being a women living today, in the twenty first century, it is extremely hard to read about the gender relations in the Ancient Era.  To read about the strong, thriving women of the Paleolithic Era, and then  start a new chapter to read about “women under the protection and sexual control of one man.”  It is disappointing to say the least, but what should one expect.  As wealth, status, and power made an overall change, I suppose so did gender relations.  It is just a shame that thriving civilizations could not maintain a thriving sense of equality in wealth, status, power, and gender.