Social structure of Mesopotamia: Rule, Priest, or Priestess, Dependent, Man, Freeman, Slave, Woman, Father, Woman, Slave.…
One of the major differences between Egypt and Mesopotamia was that Egypt had a well-organized durable empire while Mesopotamia did not. In Egypt they had a centralized government which meant that there was only one ruler who was the pharaoh. In Mesopotamia they had city states and in each city state they had a different ruler. This made Mesopotamia unstable compared to Egypt. Another difference between them is that Mesopotamia wrote the first set of laws known as the Code of Hammurabi which was created in 3,000 B.C. This was a legal system which tried to bring justice but it set social inequality. In religious structure, they differed because Mesopotamia believed god was not on earth and Egypt believed their Pharaoh was a god.…
Mesopotamia was very specific when it came to the laws. The Code of Hammurabi was very straight forward in the sense that woman controlled nothing. If the husband died the son inherited his possessions. If the son was young the wife got one-third of the land. When the boy grew up the land would become his. Many laws in the Code affected woman harshly. Sometimes the women didn’t do much of anything to deserve the consequence. For example, if a woman owned a tavern and didn’t take the right amount of corn for a drink, she was thrown into the water. Men of Mesopotamia were also very cautious about the women they married or “spent their time with”. You didn’t want to be with the wrong type of female whether it was for image purposes or just the type of marriage you were involving yourself with. Elite men rewarded each other with gifts of gold, horses, slaves etc. Although patriarchy was the way of life they did view their god as a woman whom they valued very much.…
A huge division in these Middle Eastern civilization’s cultures were the formation of urbanization, and class systems. In Mesopotamia, a structured 3-part class system was developed, along with Hammurabi’s Law Code. The top class included land owning males and artisans, as well as royals and warriors. The middle class contained dependent people attached to land, and at the bottom was slaves employed for domestic work. Also the freedoms and some rights of women were lost around the second millennium. In Egypt, there too were classes, yet they weren’t as enforced and structured. Woman were held at a higher standard here because they weren’t secluded in the process of urbanization and class structure, like they were in Mesopotamia.…
Despite the fact that both Mesopotamia and Egypt were first developing around the same time, natural forces and the environment caused variations in many cultural developments such as political systems, religious views, and much more. Their biggest differences were dependent on the river-valleys they lived in and how that affected the way they managed agriculture, as well as their view of their gods. One similarity that Mesopotamia and Egypt did have was that both civilizations developed a system of writing and keeping records.…
Mesopotamia and Egypt were two of the very first civilizations dating back to 3500 BCE. Their cultures were very similar, but were very different. In what ways were their cultures similar and different? Mesopotamia is similar to Egypt in that both were based around a river system and they both created their own form of writing. These two civilizations are very similar, but they are also different in that their structures are used for different purposes and Mesopotamians invented more important things.…
Egypt and Mesopotamia vary drastically in land and geographic features due to its location. They had more differences than similarities which was a cause for the uniquely different cultures of each.…
There are some stark differences in the social structure when comparing Mesopotamia and India in the early time of the world, but there were many similarities as well. Religion was very powerful in that time and helped guide the social structure. In Mesopotamia you had a central monarchy that introduced the code of Hammurabi, while India lacking any form of bureaucracy followed a stringent caste system that has evolved and a form of it still used today.…
In the life of Egypt and Mesopotamia there were similarities and differences. There are comparisons in culture, social class, and gender. Also parallelism in their religions existed however, the differences found, clearly define them as individual entities.…
Historians have come up with certain criteria they believe a society must obtain in order for it to be considered a civilization. These criteria are that the society must be stratified, must contain monumental architecture, and must have a formal system of law and order. Other historians may argue that writing must be part of a society in order for it to be considered a civilization, but that is not a criterion that is certainly agreed upon. According to this definition of a civilization, I conclude that both the ancient societies of Mesopotamia and Athens can both be considered civilizations.…
In order to completely understand the relationship between two events, comparing and contrasting is necessary. Through comparing similarities and differences it is easier to analyze why things developed and occurred the way they did. For example, in comparing Egypt and Mesopotamia it will be easier to achieve understanding of major aspects of their culture, the way other cultures impacted them, and their influence on the future. In addition to the similarities between the two cultures, the differences are what make them unique. Although Egypt and Mesopotamia both left stable heritage in their respective regions, due to geographic location their influences on politics, economy, and social relations differ.…
Neither of them had a government system like the United States has today. In Mesopotamia, priests and kings ran the cities. In Egypt pharaohs and priests were the main leaders but other wealthy people helped lead. So both civilizations had a very similar power chain. Their writing however was not the same at all. The egyptians wrote in hieroglyphs while the people of Mesopotamia wrote in cuneiform.…
Egypt was a monarchy and Mesopotamia was a democracy. In Egypt, the Pharaoh was in charge of making laws and owned everything, meanwhile, in Mesopotamia, there were many kings in different city-states and they did not own people’s belongings. A difference is that the land was measured differently. In Mesopotamia, they divided the land into city-states. Also, both civilizations thought differently about their kings. In Egypt, the Pharaoh was considered a god. Meanwhile, Mesopotamia believed that the kings weren’t gods so they didn’t worship them as gods. At one point, when the Assyrians were expanding a lot, the city-state got cut up into provinces. The ancient egyptians wrote hieroglyphics about the profits, costs and laws civilians made. In Mesopotamia, the scribes would draw pictograms on clay boards. While Egyptians trusted their justice goddess to teach right from wrong among their citizens, Mesopotamians would follow Hammurabi's law that demanded and Eye for an Eye. With this law, the offended person would be free to do the same thing he suffered at the hands of the criminal. In Mesopotamia would have a voice and a vote for city matters as going to war or not meanwhile Egypt didn’t have a voice. Everything was decided by the Pharaoh. So after all, there are differences and similarities between these dissimilar civilizations that…
Women in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia had a much lower status than men. Since men were not needed as much in the household, they were able to get significant and authoritative roles in society. These positions allowed the men to change their practices and values to benefit themselves and not the women. Women were more depended upon in the household and were not able to attain positions such as these. Women were also not able to join the army, and the first slaves were female prisoners of war. In Hammurabi’s Code, there were many written laws that generated gender inequality in Mesopotamia. One of his laws stated that women never had their own identity but were only identified by their father. Fathers had strict control over their daughters and chose their futures. They were also allowed to sell off their daughters to marriage. Both women from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were considered inferior and were not respected as highly as men.…
To conclude, Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were different in many ways. Despite all their differences, they had similarities. These river valleys are my favourite and they were the most powerful. They found new ways of technology and shaped our world into what it is now. Without these civilizations, we would not know writing, medicine, or most of the technology we have…