Mr. Arnold — Mesopotamian Society and Social Class

1. What is the basis of Reno’s economics (how do people/companies) make money? 2. What types of jobs imply upper, middle, and lower class individuals in the United States today? What is the deciding factor in determining these divisions within society? I) Society a. Agriculture i. The Mesopotamians grew a variety of crops, using irrigation. ii. barely, wheat, onions, turnips, grapes, apples, and dates iii. They kept cattle, sheep and goats; they made beer and wine. Fish were also plentiful in the rivers and canals. b. Trade i. Mesopotamians had crops and livestock but the natural environment did not provide metals ii. They used the Tigris and the Euphrates as trade routes. iii. As a result of the large and concentrated population which grew up in Mesopotamia, farming was carried out by peasants rather than by slaves(mass slavery tends to be a response to a shortage of labor) Guided Reading Social classes: Most of the population in ancient Mesopotamia were farmers, working small plots of land. Above them stood a very small elite group made up of the ruling classes - kings, courtiers, officials, priests and soldiers. Merchants and craftsmen also held a high position in society. The elite was greatly restricted in size by the difficulty, length of time and expense it took to acquire literacy and numeracy. The cuneiform script had hundreds of symbols to master, which took long years of hard schooling - and one can be sure that access to such schooling was available only to the children of elite families. In any case, the vast majority of ordinary folk needed their children to be contributing to the family income as soon as they were able, and not spending time in education. All this would have given the members of the literati a huge amount of authority over the rest of the population. Only through exercising the skills of literacy and numeracy could the large bodies of people be organized. Very probably literacy was seen as a mysterious and sacred skill, conferring high status on those who possessed it. In early Mesopotamia, members of this elite group would have been supported by temple revenues. later, as temples lost their pre-eminent place in Mesopotamian society, a career in royal service would have become a more important source of income for ambitious officials. Later still, as kings gave away landed estates, or as wealthy individuals were able to purchase them, the topmost levels of Mesopotamian society would have come to form an hereditary landed aristocracy. Near the bottom of society was an underclass of landless laborers and beggars. These had only restricted rights as citizens; and right at the bottom was a class of slaves, who had very few rights. They could be bought and sold like other property. They had either been war captives, or had fallen into slavery through debt, or had been born into slavery. They worked as household servants, as workers in workshops, and in other menial roles. However, they could acquire property, and even own other slaves. They also had the right to buy their freedom, if they were able.