Chapter 5 Society and Inequality in Eurasia

 Chapter 5 Society and Inequality in Eurasia

                  Strayer opens the chapter with China’s social hierarchy. During the second wave era, the classes consisted of the elite of officials, landlord class, merchants, and the peasants. China’s social hierarchy was much needed and enforced because I believe that humans will naturally try to dominate one another thinking back on other societies we have studied and pondering on the question if subjugation is inevitable in societies. The peasants were a substantial majority of the population. Being at the lowest class, they were the most vulnerable because famines, droughts, and pests could do a lot of damage at any given point in time. 

                In India, they ran the society on the caste system. The caste system as Varna and/or Jati was similar with the classes in which birth decided the social status for most people (affluent or poor families, inequalities characterized social life, and religion played a role in defining the inequalities as natural, external, and ordained by the gods. The caste system was a hierarchal structure as well and consisted of the Brahmins (priests), Kshatryia (warriors and rulers), and the Vaiysa class (commoners). These classes were called "twice born", and the last class was the Sudras. This does not surprise me that another caste system arose (caste as jati). There will always be people opposed to society's infrastructure because everyone's mind thinks differently and socially accepts different values and religions. India cannot satisfy the entire population under one structure.  On the chart displayed on page 226, I found it interesting that each caste as Varna had different colors symbolizing the different levels of the caste system.