What is a social structure?
Social Structure: Something that classifies each level of a civilization. Take Mesopotamia for example. Back when they were a full functioning civilization, they had classifications for people like the picture on the right. The highest was the king because he ruled all the people. The second highest were the scribes because they worked for the king, writing and recording events. The merchants were third highest because they traded or sold and bought goods for their civilization. The artisans followed the merchants because they made arts and crafts. A lot of the the artifacts we see in museums today were made by artisans back in the day of Mesopotamia. Poets and musicians followed Artisans because they were the people that would play music for the king and other high people. The second to last were farmers, because they were the ones that harvested and grew crops for the civilization. Lastly, the slaves. These people were used to do a lot of the hard work and labor. What did these classified people do specifically? Kings: The kings ruled over everyone. They gave jobs to people like which slave was to do what task. But most importantly, they were believed to be the earthly form of the gods they believed in. There were kings like Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, Sargon, who established the Akkadian Empire, Hummurabi, who established the old Babylonian state, and Tiglath-Pileser, who established the Assyrian empire. Scribes: The scribes recorded important information or wrote things down for the king. The very first form of writing, Cuneiform, is what they used and they would write on blocks of clay with a stick usually. Merchants: Merchants traded and bought things for kings and emperors usually. They rarely ever traded for themselves. They traded things like goods, food, merchandise, and art. Artisans: The artisans made drawings and basically art. For example they made things like pottery Poets and musicians:These people like the Artisans created what we call the Arts and Entertainment section of Mesopotamia. Farmers: The farmers were in charge of all the food. They harvested crops and then gave the food to the people of their civilization. For example, they harvested crops like corn, rice, wheat, and other fruits and vegetables. Slaves: The slaves were the lowest of the class. They did all the dirty and big work usually because they had to pay something off to the king. Once they worked off the debt they had, they were freed. |
Mesopotamian | Social Structure |