THE SOCIAL SYSTEM OF THE ARYANS

Origin of the caste system
According to socio-historical theory, the caste system began with the arrival of the Aryans in India. The Aryans arrived in India around 500 B. C. (some claim a much earlier date). The fair skinned Aryans arrived in India from south Europe and north Asia.


Varna
Varna refers to the categorization of the Hindu society by four castes, hypothesized by the Brahmins and their sacred texts.
Varna also means "color" in the Sanskrit language, which is ancient Indian
The four main varnas 

• the Brahmins: scholars, teachers, priests and sages.
• the Kshatriya: kings, soldiers, and rulers.
• the Vaishyas: merchants, cattle herders and agriculturists
• the Shudras: labourers, craftsmen and artisans.

• The fifth varna was that of the "Untouchables", who were the "junk" of the society. They did all the jobs that no one wanted to do, including hard labor and other dirty work. They were believed to be so full of germs, that you could get infected just by touching them, so nobody would ever want to come near them.

Jati

is the term used to denote clans, tribes, communities and sub-communities in India. It is a term used across religions. In Indian society each jāti typically has an association with a traditional job function or tribe, although religious beliefs or linguistic groupings define some jatis. In any given location in India 500 or more jatis may exist, although the exact composition will differ from district to district.

•  Rules of jati included that when you were born, you belonged to the same jati as your parents, and you could not  change that. You usually married people and only spent time with the people that belonged to the same jati as you. Some people became more loyal to their yati than to the government or their religion. You had to treat the people of a higher jati with great respect.
• If rules were broken, you were kicked out from your jati, and that meant you didn't belong anywhere. And it was very hard to function all alone because everyone looked on you if you were an outcast.
• Aryans believed that the caste system made it easier to govern society, as each jati had specific rules. With the caste system, everybody had a task, nobody was "jobless", so it was a great system to get people to do their work. Everybody worked to their full potentional, in the hope of improving their position and moving up one jati in society, which rarely happened to individuals, but more likely to a whole jati from group effort.

Unpanishads

The Upanishads  are philosophical texts considered to be an early source of Hindu religion. More than 200 are known, of which the first dozen or so, the oldest and most important, are variously referred to as the principal, main  or old Upanishads

Brahman

Brahman  is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being. Brahman is conceived as personal, impersonal and supreme depending on the philosophical school.

• Samsara is a belief that when someone dies, they temporarily go to a heaven-like place, and are then reborn into a new existence.
• Karma is the specific existence that someone was reborn into. If you lived a pure life, you were reborn into a better life, for example into a higher jati. But if you lived in sin, you were reborn into a worse life.
• Moksha breaks the cycle of rebirth and lets your soul rest in a state of "dreamless sleep". To attain moksha, you had to lead an extremely simple, pleasure-free life, and meditate until you reached "enlightement".
• The Upanishads were often used to justify the inequality created by the caste system. They stated why one was born into a caste - because of the way one had lived their previous life.

Nov 12 · NCAA Feet: UNC vs. Michigan State – Carrier Classic Recap

College basketball fans were in for an amazing treat when #1 ranked UNC faced off against Michigan State atop an aircraft carrier in Coronado, California. Dubbed the Carrier Classic, this sporting event was a special way to honor the members of the Armed Forces on Veterans Day; the significance of the game seemed paltry to the true purpose of November 11th, as thousands of military veterans as well as President Barack Obama were in attendance, celebrating the remembrance of our nation’s most courageous individuals in a unique way.

Both UNC and Michigan State took the outdoor court wearing the Carrier Classic collection uniforms and sneakers, but also spotted were a number of notable sneakers that were clearly from the players’ own collections; The Air Jordan XI ‘Cool Grey’, Air Jordan V ‘Wolf Grey, Air Jordan XIII White/University Blue, Air Jordan 2011 UNC PE, and the Nike Zoom Kobe VI were spotted alongside the Zoom Hyperdunk 2011 and Air Jordan 8.0. Check out a full recap of the game and the awe-inspiring outdoor basketball court below and be sure to stick with Sneaker News for more NCAA Feet features as the college basketball season rolls on! via Yahoo!. 

FO' SHIZZLE MY NIZZLE - COMPARE & CONTRAST

Social Structure:

• In all societies the ruler was the most important person followed by his family and other nobles
• The basic structure for all empires was King/Ruler > Priests > Wealthy people > farmers/workers > women
• Towns in Ancient Egypt were made of mud brick, much less permanent than stone. Modern Egyptians live exactly on the same place of their ancestors, on towns located on the banks of the Nile.
• Grain was used as a form of currency in Ancient Egypt and, judging by the size of the silos, the town must have been quite prosperous.

Religious Beliefs:

• In ancient times, Egyptians followed the Egyptian pagan religion, which was a quite complex, syncretistic religion with many gods. This gradually disappeared from the late fourth century onwards because of Roman imperial support for Christianity.
• Phoenician religion was inspired by the powers and processes of nature. Many of the gods they worshiped, however, were localized and are now known only under their local names. A pantheon was presided over by the father of the gods, but a goddess was the principal figure in the Phoenician pantheon.
  
  
• All these religions believed in many gods, which means they were polytheistic

Writing Systems: 

• All societies had their own writing system
• Phoenicians used some pictographs but they couldn't express abstract ideas through this system. Babylonians also used this system.
• Babylonians used Cuneiform - writing on clay tablets
• Then the Phoenicians developed an alphabetical writing system 
• Egyptians used hieroglyphs, a style of writing based on sounds and on objects or syllables. Egyptians  developed an early form of paper, papyrus, which was a lot more effective than writing on stone.

Geography:

• All empires were located near a big water source. This was important for irrigation and transport. Also agriculture, but that is related to the irrigation.
• The Egyptians used the Nile River as the main source of water for agriculture.
• The Phoenicians were located near the Mediterranean Sea, which enabled them to explore and sail way further than other empires.
• The Babylonian empire was situated between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Agricultural Advances:

• Let's start with the Phoenicians. They didn't really rely on agriculture because of their super trading ability and sailing knowledge. They developed industry and building.
• The Babylonian environment between two big rivers was ideal for farming and agriculture so they developed a great agricultural system
• The Egyptians were the last to start with agriculture but they did a great job using the Nile River's floods to irrigate the crops.

Technical Advancements and Inventions:

• Babylonians invented the the famous law code of Hammurabi and they have built the Hanging Gardens, which is one of the 7 wonders of the world
• Egyptians are known for building pyramids, writing on papyrus, mummificating their deceased people, ancient surgeries
• The Phoenicians invented first alphabet, built great ships

Trade Routes: 

• Phoenician trade routes were the biggest and most expanded; they took control over the whole Mediterrannean Sea.
• The Egyptians traded with the Nubians but also with some countries around the Mediterranena such as the Phoenicians
• Babylonians traded just within the empire

EVERY DAY I'M SHUFFLIN'

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Life In Mesopotamia - Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid 23rd Century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq), that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur.  Their descendants still live in the region today, and they form the Christian minority in Iraq, and exist also in north east Syria, south east Turkey and north west Iran. 

• Let's talk about the artistic site of Assyria. An Assyrian artistic style distinct from that of Babylonian art  was the dominant contemporary art in Mesopotamia. The characteristic Assyrian art form was the polychrome carved stone relief that decorated imperial monuments. The precisely characterized  reliefs  affect  royal affairs, chiefly hunting and war making. Authority is given to animal forms, particularly horses and lions, which are magnificently represented in great detail. Human figures are comparatively rigid and static but are also minutely detailed, as in triumphal scenes of sieges, battles, and individual combat. 

• Now a little bit about the social life in Assyria. The houses of the people contained little furniture; chairs, tables and couches were used.  After death, the body was usually partially cremated, along with the objects that had been buried with it.  There was a large body of slaves; above them came the agriculturists and commercial classes, who were comparatively few in Assyria. Assyria had its artists, money-lenders, poets and musicians.
• Political system: The Assyrian government was very militaristic and had a monarchy. It was the Babylonians that created the code of Hammurabi. The Assyrians were the first know terrorists and were very brutal to their enemies. They tortured prisoners and slaves. The government was successful because the Assyrians built roads and started a postal service that enabled faster communication.
• One of the greatest Assyrian achievements of the fourth century was the founding of the first university in the world. The School of Nisibis had three departments: theology, philosophy and medicine, and became a magnet and center of intellectual development in the Middle East. The statutes of the School of Nisibis, which have been preserved, later became the model upon which the first Italian university was based.
• The religion in Assyria was something like a predecessor forancient Semtic religion.  The Assyrians practiced polytheism, which is a belief in many gods, before largely converting to Christianity.
• There were many jobs the Assyrians had. Some of the main ones were kings, forestry, mining, priests, scribes, slaves, farmers, merchants, craftsmen and sculpters. The kings, priests, sculpters and scribes were upper class. Middle class was foresters, merchants, craftsmen and miners. Low class was slaves and farmers. The lower class usually got mistreated and had more rules and less freedom. Even though farmers got mistreated the civilization could not survive without them. They provided food for them and food for trade. Wives did not have a definite social level. They usually went into whatever social level their husband was in. The Assyrians traded the things they had a lot of for things they were low on. They traded tin, lead, textiles and surplus grain for precious metals and stone.

Did Cooking Make Us Human?

  Did cooking make us human?  Well , cooking is critical in evolution. We can say that it transformed us. From Australopithecus to Homo sapiens. How did it start actually?  Cooking was discovered when one of our ancestors  accidentally dropped a piece of meat or some food on fire. It tasted better and gave them much more energy than raw food.  Cooking allowed them ,and allows us to digest food  a lot more easily and  the meal will release much more energy then raw. Cooking food breaks down its cells, meaning that our stomachs need to do less work to liberate the nutrients our bodies need and also destroys the bacteria in raw meat. Cooked food goes faster through stomach .  When people started to cook they didn't have to eat that much because cooked food gave them more calories.  The more the human spieces evolved, the more evolved their teeth so they were able to chew meat easily. Today we need a lot of more energy than our ancestors and that means more food. Our brain, for example, uses 20% energy when we are sitting.  Eating meat caused the evolving of humans. The process of human evolution had much to do with food and how it was prepared.