Exam #1 Study Guide

World History, HIST 112a, Fall 2003

In answering identification and essay questions, use specific information and examples from class discussion and assigned readings as supporting materials. Remember that it is important to locate your answers in the appropriate time frame. Plan your answers so as to display your skills in critical thinking, explanation, and historical analysis.

I. Identifications: Be prepared to identify and explain the historical importance of the following. Make sure you can answer who, what, when, why and where, and in some cases how, as appropriate and necessary for the term.

Cuneiform, afterlife, pyramids, polis, Hellenism, patrician, religious syncretism, monotheism, loess, Harappa, Johann Blumenbach, oracle bones, Warring States

II. Essays: Be prepared to write well-organized and fully explanatory essays. Include specific information from lectures and readings to back up your general responses to the questions. Possible essay questions:

1. Following up on Jared Diamond's insights, how did environmental factors shape the political, economic, social, and/or cultural history of one of the following early civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, Greece or Rome? (pick only one and write as detailed an essay as possible).

2. Discuss the function of early writing systems in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China and the Indus River Valley. Why was writing first “invented” and how did its purposes and functions differ in each civilization?

3. Pick two of the ancient civilizations we have studied and compare the relation between politics and religion in these societies. Are there similarities between the civilizations? Are there important differences?

4. Discuss the social structures of Greece and Rome. Who were the economic elites of the societies and what political privileges did they have? How was the society structured below the elite level? Was their opportunity for social mobility in either society?

5. Discuss the difference between feudalistic societies and tributary states in early China. What impact did these two political and social systems have on the ability of early Chinese states to survive and expand?