Western Civilization Research Paper

1864 Words4 Pages

The Birth of Western Civilization
Around 4000 B.C.E, the first people settled down next to the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, alongside the Nile in Egypt, and much later in Greece. Naturally, the people in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece developed different lifestyles. To most, Egyptian life was much different than that of the Mesopotamians. Even within Greece, the Hellenistic and Classical Greeks showed discrepancies in their customs. Though massive tracks of land separated them, congruencies between their cultures also existed. Most prominent are the overlaps and disparities between the topics of women, slaves, religion, and the law.
Among the first things settlers in Mesopotamia and Egypt wrote down were laws, most famous among …show more content…

As time went on, these changed, but a permanent diet was put in place when Moses appeared. Originally, meat eating was prohibited, but according to Soler, “Meat eating, then, will be tolerated by Moses, but with two restrictions. The [taboo] against blood will be reinforced, and certain animals will be forbidden”. With the coming of Moses, the distinction of “clean” and “unclean” food comes, with clean food being what can be consumed. Animals were categorized by their habitat, either land, water, or air, and then deemed safe to eat or not if they met additional requirements. One such requirement was, “Everything in the waters that has fins and scales…you may eat”. This passage in the Hebrew Bible excludes animals like mollusks, shellfish, and eels from the diet. Though these rules may seem like torture to pork-lovers, it’s truly interesting to see a society deciding what is and isn’t ok to do and the justification of their choices.
One of the biggest differences between Classical and Hellenistic Greece is found in their schools of philosophy. Among the first to start teaching philosophy was Socrates. He became famous for teaching people to look to improve their soul, not necessarily look for happiness. The Stoics and Epicureans of Hellenistic Greece, however, preached that people should seek happiness. By seeking happiness, people were living by the natural law, according to the Stoics. The aim of Classical and Hellenistic philosophy differed greatly, one seeking improvement, while the other seeking immediate

Open Document