History of Western Society Essay

Histories of ancient civilizations, namely those of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece—covering both the Hellas and the Hellenistic periods, reveal that religion and philosophy were invariably tied to the kind of geography where these civilizations have been founded. Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations, prospering mainly because of nearby large water tributaries, took a different path in their development than that taken by the Greeks. While the former took advantage of rivers to centralize tribes and villages, and therefore fashioned the brand of religious ideologies and philosophy to unify the peoples, the latter leaned more towards philosophy to bring different cultures together. In addition, unlike the religions of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Greeks had to strike a balance among a variety of gods and idols. As such, Greek mythology was a result of combining gods of individual tribes into one literature so that each tribe had its own representative in a belief system shared universally in every city-state (McKay, 2002). Mesopotamia lies between two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. It has been home to one of the earliest and most influential civilizations in history. At around 3000 B. C. , small villages and tribes founded a number of cities which grew and combined later to form the large Sumerian society and thus made Mesopotamia the â€Å"cradle of civilization† (McKay, 2002). Precisely because of these two great rivers, commerce and free exchange of ideas and goods were possible. Its geographical advantages allowed the civilization to thrive as a distinct society for the longest time. Early forms of pictograph writing enabled its citizens to develop crude educational institutions, literature, religion, mathematics and philosophy. Sumerian cuneiform, as it is commonly referred to, evolved from such pictographic system to â€Å"an ideogram system and then later, a phonetic system† (McKay, 2002). Likewise, scribal schools used writing to preserve and cultivate thought, and as such, became centers for learning and culture. In terms of religious ideology and thought, Sumerian civilization believed in spirits and created a mythological system to explain natural events. Later, religion was incorporated in its laws to govern the actions of men. They also employed myths to describe how the universe began (McKay, 2002). For instant, the ancient epic of Gilgamesh was used to explain the origins and mystical history of Earth. Sumerian civilization had developed a field in mathematics as a practical tool for construction and free market as well (McKay, 2002). On the same note, Egyptian civilization flourished because it was situated near the Nile which had a significant impact on Egyptian life, society and history (McKay, 2002). Egypt subsisted and prospered agriculturally from the seasonal flooding of the river (McKay, 2002). They had little need for irrigation since they only had to time crop rotation to fall within the fertile seasons of the land. Other than the agricultural benefits that Egypt derives from the Nile, it has also benefited from the fact that the river spanned the whole extent of the land thereby making it easier to unify the entire citizenry under one rule. In other words, the Nile became the super nautical highway of business, politics and culture (McKay, 2002). Consequently, inasmuch as the problem of distance was immediately solved by the presence of the great river, the kings or â€Å"Pharaohs† were able to bring together different tribes in Egypt under one leadership (McKay, 2002). This political and cultural unification paved the way for the establishment of the old kingdom of Egypt at around which time the land was bountiful and prosperous (McKay 2002). The kingdom of Egypt heavily relied on the seasons for their harvest. This explains the reason why the civilization had learned to use mathematics to predict the seasons. Likewise, they developed means to map out the stars in order to understand changes in the season. They also studied geometry and construction to be able build storehouses to hold the fruits of their harvest as well as religious monuments to appease the Gods to give them a good year for harvest (McKay 2002). However, in contrast to the geographical advantage enjoyed by Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations, Greeks and the Hellenistic civilization, which came later, had little patches of fertile and arable lands suitable for agriculture (McKay, 2002). Chains of mountains isolated the tribes which came down from northern parts of Europe to settle down (McKay, 2002). Unification of different city-states was a big challenge to overcome. Consequently, the city-states were either constantly at war with each other to unite the land or politicians, orators and philosophers took the charge of solidifying the Greek culture by means of a painstakingly gradual amalgamation of the tribes through education and thought (McKay, 2002). At any rate, the Greeks and the Hellenistic civilizations learned how to navigate the seas as an alternate route to reach other city-states and trade with their neighboring nations. Religion and philosophy, examined under closer scrutiny, describe the spread of a particular culture among civilizations where its tenets are compatible. The spread of Christianity, for instance, had been more successful in late Rome than it had been in other places. Notwithstanding the perilous routes early Christians had to traverse to reach Egypt and Mesopotamia, Christianity merged with Hellenistic culture much faster than any other nation (McKay, 2002). Hellenistic civilization welcomed Christianity as a change in their belief system simply because the extant mythological ideologies at this time were more divisive than they were helpful. Going back to the thesis that Greeks had to have several representative gods from different states, the motley Greek mythology no longer suited its political and social purpose when Rome was on the verge of collapse (McKay, 2002). The religion and philosophy of Egypt and Mesopotamia were firmly established as a way of life among its peoples, quite in contrast with the Greeks, where both were used to diffuse several ideas in one body of literature as a flimsy unifying factor. In other words, religion and philosophy for Egyptians and Sumerians were easily identifiable to a single ruling power in the kingdom, while these same ideologies are jointly and severally diffused in the consciousness of the Greeks (McKay, 2002). References McKay, J. , Hill, B. D. , & Buckler, J. (2002). A history of western society (7th ed. ). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.