Book contents
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Global developments
- 2 Humans and the environment: tension and co-evolution
- 3 Women, family, gender, and sexuality
- 4 Society: hierarchy and solidarity
- 5 Educational institutions
- 6 Warfare
- Part II Eurasian commonalities
- Part III Growing interactions
- Part IV Expanding religious systems
- Part V State formations
- Index
- References
4 - Society: hierarchy and solidarity
from Part I - Global developments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Global developments
- 2 Humans and the environment: tension and co-evolution
- 3 Women, family, gender, and sexuality
- 4 Society: hierarchy and solidarity
- 5 Educational institutions
- 6 Warfare
- Part II Eurasian commonalities
- Part III Growing interactions
- Part IV Expanding religious systems
- Part V State formations
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter argues that during the Middle Millennium people in all the societies about which information can be gleaned were reckoned to be more or less unequal. Eurasia, with the addition of North Africa, is by far the best recorded part of the world in the Middle Millennium. Despite all the contacts and more similarities between the societies of Eurasia than traditional stereotypes suggest, there were many differences in economic and social structures and relations. Information about society often comes from records of government while political and social hierarchies and solidarities appear to have been closely related. Most societies started from some kind of unwritten customary law. The combination of solidarity and hierarchy is clear at the local level of society at which most people lived most of the time. Discussion of social and political structures in Africa is hindered by the customary vocabulary of tribes and chiefs.
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- The Cambridge World History , pp. 94 - 115Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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