Social Inequality In Ancient Civilization

Since the beginning of time, there has been inequality. Although it is thought that Paleolithic hunter-gatherer groups were generally fairly equal, as soon as the Neolithic revolution happened, there started to be divisions based on gender and class as people accumulated more welth and started to own property. This inequality can be seen many different civilizations. In my paper I will, first, talk about types of social inequality and cause, and second, give some examples of inequality.
The different ways that people could be inequal in the ancient world were in wealth, status, and power. There as alot more wealth because early economies were producing a lot more goods. The wealth tended to accumulate among a few people rather than being shard equally amongst everyone.1 It was really obvious who was wealthy and who was not based on apperance. “Early Chinese monrchs bestowed special clothing, banners, chariots, weapons, and ornaments on their regional officials,and all of these items were graded according to the officials precise location in the hierarchy.”2 Most people were commoners and laborers, and farmers, and did all the hard work and paid taxes and tributes to the upper classes. Even below laborers and farmers were …show more content…
One exampe is in Mesopotamia. The Law Code of Hammurabi treats different people differently depending on their class. An example is if you put somebodys eye out. “196. If a man put out the ye of another man, his eye shall be put out. 198. If he put out the eye of a freedman... he shall pay one gold mina. 199. If he put out the eye of a man’s slave... he shall pay one half it’s value.”4 Some laws of the Law Code of Hammurabi were retributive like the eye for an eye we see in the bible, and otehrs were compensatory, like where you pay money if you did a person wrong. In this quotation we see both. Other penalties were things like throwing you in the river (which was bad if you couldn’t swim) or