Hum 360

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law was subject to the hazards of memory and the eccentricities of the powerful.

10. Pyramids represented what to the Egyptians?

- Intended primarily as homes for the dead, the pyramids were built to assure the ruler’s comfort in the afterlife. However, in the centuries after their construction, grave robbers greedily despoiled them, and their contents were largely plundered and lost.

11. Describe a “theocracy”. Why is it different than a civilization that has strong ties to religion?

-theocracy is rule, by god or god’s representative. Religion is the belief or worship of a supernatural power, where theocracy is government, under control of a church.

12. Centralization of government is meant to provide what?

- political centralization. Independent or but loosely connected provinces

with separate interests, laws, governments and systems of

taxation became lumped together into one nation, with one

government, one code of laws, one national class interest,

one frontier and one customs tariff.

13. Describe “absolute power”.

-Establishing complete control. Absolute power was usually given to authority or a ruler, which meant he had absolute power over all his members. Omnipotence/ unlimited power.

14. What story helped in putting forth the concept of “immortality ideology”?

- The Epic of Gilgamesh is important not only as the world’s first epic poem, but also as the earliest known literary work that tries to come to terms with death, or nonbeing. Its subtext is the profound human need for an immortality ideology.

15. Briefly describe the concept mentioned in question 14.

- immortality ideology is a body of beliefs that anticipates the survival of some aspect of the self in a life hereafter. Typical of the mythic hero, Gilgamesh is driven to discover his human limits, to bring about change through human ingenuity, but his quest for personal immortality is frustrated and his goals remain unfulfilled.

16. What “concept” did the Hebrews give to the world?

- the Hebrews forged the fundamentals of their faith: monotheism, the belief in a single, all-powerful creator-god, and the renewal of the covenant binding them to their god in exchange for divine protection. Served as part of the background to Christianity.

17. Describe the difference between “matrilineal” and “patrilineal”.

- Patrilineal societies are societies in which inheritance and royal succession trace through the father of the family. Matrilineal societies are those in which royal succession and inheritance trace through the mother. The father would not be the authority figure in that descent group; rather, the mother’s brother would be. If there is an authority position held by males, the successor is normally the sister’s son.