WHO AM I? (30 pts)

1. I am part of a group of professional African storytellers, responsible for passing down through the oral tradition stories, histories, and epics of my culture.

2. I communicated my policies by inscribing edicts in natural stone formations and pillars, built a highway, and went out of my way by providing shade trees, wells, and inns along it to ensure that foreign visitors to our civilization would be comfortable as they were traveling.

3. I was the creator of the Babylonian empire and reigned from 1792-1750 BCE with a detailed code of law.

4. I am the god that is worshipped in the kingdom of Axum beginning in the fourth and fifth centuries CE.

5. According to Buddhist legend, after sitting under a Bo tree for 49 days I received enlightenment and understood the problem of suffering and the means by which people could eliminate it from the world.

6. I am named after the Beatles song archeologists were listening to when they dug me up in 1974 in East Africa and am the best-known example of the genus Australopithecus.

7. I unified Egypt through conquest and brought about the first centralized state rule by a pharaoh.

8. I am the First Emperor and in order to ensure the unity of my empire I ordered all the books of philosophy, ethics, history and literature to be burnt and hundreds of dissenting scholars to be buried alive.

9. My devotion to Aten as the one and only god represented one of the world's earliest known expressions of monotheism.

10. I am the cardinal direction at the top of most ancient maps.

11. When one of my wives longed for flowering shrubs from her homeland I had them planted in terraces above the city walls. Today the Hanging Gardens of Babylon still signify the luxury of our city.

12. I am an alchemist who lived during the Tang dynasty and am part of this religion whose scholars discovered gunpowder.

13. We are a nomadic, pastoral people who settled and constructed a well-defined social order which relied on hereditary distinctions between individuals and groups according to occupations and roles in society, the foundations of the modern day caste system.

14. My disciples called me "Master Philosopher King" and many of my teachings are compiled in a book called the Analects.

15. I am well known in the Islamic world for my pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324-1325 BCE and during a three-month visit to Cairo I distributed so much gold that the metal's value dropped 25% in local markets.

SHORT ANSWER (40 pts)

1. Give three examples of syncretism. List the geographical locations, time periods, and religions involved in the process. Give and briefly explain at least one belief or practice for each example as evidence of syncretism in action. (15 pts)

2. Each culture we have studied treats their dead in different ways. Identify the practices of two cultures we have studied and briefly compare them with one another. (4 pts)

3. Briefly explain the concept of "bushes and ladders" introduced by Stephen Jay Gould. Briefly summarize the previous theory of evolution and identify how Gould's is different. (6 pts)

4. One of the most important developments in early civilization, and certainly our best source of information about the ancient past, was the ability to write. List three civilizations, their writing techniques, the implements they wrote with, the materials they wrote on, and the languages they wrote in. (15 pts)

ESSAY (80 pts)
Choose two essay questions and write between one and two pages typewritten, double-spaced, 1" margins, 12-point font (approximately 500 words) for each. Essays will be graded for spelling, grammar, sentence construction, and style as well as content and strength of argument.

1. The birth of civilization is dependent on many factors, one of which is geography. Choose three cultures (must specify the time periods or eras you are discussing within them), compare the resources at their disposal because of their geographical location and natural surroundings, and argue which was better positioned to succeed based only on their environment. How did these environmental factors actually contribute to or deter the development of their civilizations?

2. The 18th Century French Philosopher Voltaire in his famous essay "The Good Brahmin" explores the age-old question of whether human's ultimate goal should be happiness or knowledge. Choose three ancient religions or philosophical belief systems we have studied and explain how they would view this question.

3. Trade was a very important factor in every ancient society. Choose three different civilizations and discuss the role that trade played in their technological, social, economic, and religious development. In which of the three do you think trade played the most important role?

4. Within each culture we have studied there have been different governing strategies at different times. Choose one culture, and explore at least three major changes in government strategy that happened between 3500 BCE and 1500 CE. In your opinion what were the major factors that caused or called for each change and which of the three was the most successful for its time period.

5. The invention of widespread agricultural production propelled most of human society out of the hunting and gathering culture they had practiced for centuries. Explore how this important change affected society. Be sure to give at least three examples of societal changes due to this change and their repercussions.

6. Women were treated very differently in each of these societies. Choose three different cultures and explore what place women had in cultural, political, and family life. In which society do you believe women were most powerful and why?

7. Some historians refer to Mesopotamia as the "cradle of civilization." Why is this? Do you agree that "civilization" originated there? Why or why not?

Due Wednesday, October 16th, 2002
at the Beginning of Class,
NO EXCEPTIONS