Explore II: Civilizations - World History Sem A PDF
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United Township High School
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Summary
This document explores the concept of civilizations, focusing on government and culture. It presents a scenario involving families in a reality TV show to illustrate the challenges faced by early civilizations, emphasizing the need for structure, organization, and the emergence of leadership in the absence of structured governance.
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6/24/24, 4:00 PM Explore II: Civilizations: World History Sem A Explore II: Civilizations Government and Culture Imagine yourself in the following situation. You and your family have joined a reality TV show. On the openin...
6/24/24, 4:00 PM Explore II: Civilizations: World History Sem A Explore II: Civilizations Government and Culture Imagine yourself in the following situation. You and your family have joined a reality TV show. On the opening day of the show you are placed in a group of people and given a task that you must complete together. This group consists of a total of 21 people from six different families, including your own. Although you are very familiar with your family, you have never worked with any of the other families. The group is given the following items: enough food and water to last seven days, flat arable land, seeds, and tools. What do you do next? In your History Journal, list the first three steps that you think the group should take. Now imagine that you have given these recommendations to the group. Consider each individual scenario that is listed below and write your next steps: No other families agree with your recommendations. A person from another family has made their own list and the families are split between this list and yours. One family is much larger in number and size than any of the others. This family decides to take all the supplies and threatens violence to anyone who attempts to take them back. Now that you have played through this scenario in your mind, you can better understand what it must have been like in early civilizations. Governments did not exist and rules and laws were nothing more than familial practice. People were forced to interact and make decisions as a group without much previous experience. Sometimes this turned into organized decision making and other times it turned into conflict over the control of resources. These issues must have contributed to the rise of civilizations by creating a need for structure and organization. The first rulers in the ancient world probably claimed a divine right to leadership. There must have been conflicts between differing tribal peoples over the control of land, rivers, animals, and people. As https://uths.instructure.com/courses/5350/pages/explore-ii-civilizations?module_item_id=468386 1/2 6/24/24, 4:00 PM Explore II: Civilizations: World History Sem A governments became more complex the opportunities for conflict became more frequent. Often, the power of a tribal people was demonstrated by its brutality, domination, and enslavement of rival tribes. A hierarchy began to develop in most early civilizations as people became more specialized. There were farmers, warriors, religious leaders, and artisans. Social classes formed out of these groups. Culture Civilizations began to develop common traits as people lived in closer contact with each other. Historians use these cultural traits to group people. Most ancient civilizations had some sort of religious belief system. These belief systems influenced aspects of their daily life. As belief systems became more complex, their influence on societies grew. In the beginning, the traits of a society were unique to that particular culture. However as civilizations traveled, conquered, and traded with other groups, they began to influence each other, leading to cultural diffusion. (Image source: b4bees (Own work) [CC-BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)], via Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizo_the_scot/3786443548/in/photolist-6LAvKs-wjzRKt-fGsq4C-pVWNuq-87JRya-pVNTAX-pDqwe1-58isvA-pVX22j-87N3Vu- ddVjLd-fDfqrf-5ktuCr-wj6tus-76VHp8-pDqxzY-pmgBFX-z6vSbo-de3ZVD-de411T-5kxQtS-8axxrc-5kGUvP-aDWfLz-fCXT9K-89yPRC-8jxqLk-6UxDcF-8i5F9w- fht37F-ddhcvd-6csSGz-67cHLK-5oJvSi-dcDjaD-ey1QTG-ey1Ehm-douqwf-f1aBc3-douGBs-dedYcZ-9KqoyT-oNSY3o-cPyLry-aDKTWA-owBRtq-pKuNXv- 89y3oL-6dJkhw-k5iCX1) ) https://uths.instructure.com/courses/5350/pages/explore-ii-civilizations?module_item_id=468386 2/2