Patriarchal Societies Emerged Early in Human History

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Question 2: Stratified, class-specific, patriarchal societies emerged early in human history.
Stratification and patriarchy was common in early societies. People were very class specific and would only associate themselves with people from a similar class. There are several factors that led to the development of this phenomenon. Firstly, resources were very limited and every member of society wanted to have a share of the scarce resources. With the rise of capitalism where people only had self-interests to the exclusion of others, competition arose. Stratification and class specific, therefore, came about as people divided themselves into groups based on the amount of wealth amassed. There were three classes of people. At the very top there were the rich who controlled majority of the resources (Cashmore, 2010). They owned most of the resources and had power and influence. The second category was the middle class. This group had amassed some wealth, but not enough to get them to the very top. They had enough to live decent lives but not too much to get to the level of affluence. The last group was at the very bottom. This group could best be described as ‘the have nots’. These were the poor in society and are the people who would live in the slums and ghettos. The main reason for stratification was so that the rich could remain at the top without facing any form of rivalry or competition.
Through their power and influence, they ensured that social class remained. If the middle class were given a chance to climb the ladder, it would mean that there would be more people at the top and this would increase competition for resources. This is also the case if the poor people would get to the middle class level. Stratification was, therefore, meant to ensure that the rich and powerful remained at the very top controlling the resources. Stratification was, therefore, a selfish motivated move whose aim was to ensure that the status remained.
Early societies were highly patriarchal to mean that there was heavy male dominance. Women were treated as lesser humans and were expected to be submissive to the men. Male dominance was used in early societies to ensure that men had a sole voice in the society. In any society both ancient and present, the women always formed the greater majority (Lindsey, 2015). As a result, men feared that they could easily be overpowered by the women. To counter this, they came up with a strategy of female oppression and male dominance. This would see women silenced so that the men in society had absolute power.
Question 3. Significance of Scientific Advancements in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is one of the ancient civilizations that contributed to development both scientifically and technologically. It was as a result of these developments that civilization was gradually realized. The people of Mesopotamia were initially hunters and gatherers. They would later change to become farmers to ensure that they had enough food. Production of wheat and barley began and this saw a boom in food production (Hollar, 2011). This changed the mindset of other regions who began to appreciate the need for farming. They also began building houses as they ...