Chapter 6

In this chapter we are able to see how societies are being shaped during the time of the Classical Era for the ancient civilizations. The Chinese society was one that was shaped by the state actions than other societies. The Chinese society had an immense social influence and most importantly political power of state officials. The Chinese society was based on four different social classes the head of the society would be the elite, they would favor the wealthy and those who could educate their own sons and they had their own privileges and prestiges, the second one's were the landlord class, they seem to have some privileges such as evading taxes and kept independent military forces, nationalized private estates and distributed them to the landless. As we can the Chinese culture seemed to have their societies shaped up and settled during the time. India on the other hand, had a caste system that referred to race or purity of blood. In the Indian civilization there was Jati which tied with the varna system, leading to a caste that was based society. The Jati's were the main focus of Indian society. This system was different from that of China.
By the end of the chapter we are able to see how slavery was brought to these civilizations and the reasons as to why slavery began during the classical era in China, India, and Rome. Slavery definitely existed in these societies very differently from each other and most of them involved the lack of rights for people or just independent social identity. In china poor peasants would sell their children into slavery, in India criminals, debtors, war captives were known as slaves, lastly in rome the Greco-roman world was a slave society and wealthy romans owned hundred or thousands of slavery. Slavery was common in these civilizations but were treated differently in some way, slavery created a hierarchy and class level for people who lived in these societies.