World History: Patterns of Interaction: Chapters 7–9

Some edicts guaranteed that Asoka would treat his subjects
fairly and humanely. Others preached nonviolence. Still others urged religious toleration—acceptance of people who held different religious beliefs.

Most Indian families were patriarchal, headed by the eldest male.

Southern India followed a different cultural pattern. Some Tamil groups were matriarchal, headed by the mother rather than the father. Property, and sometimes the throne, was passed through the female line.

Wealthy Buddhist merchants who were eager to do good deeds paid for the construction of stupas—mounded stone structures built over holy relics.

Liu Bang’s first goal was to destroy the rival kings’ power. He followed Shi Huangdi’s policy of establishing centralized government, in which a central authority controls the running of a state.

Wudi’s government employed more than 130,000 people. The bureaucracy included 18 different ranks of civil service jobs, which were government jobs that civilians obtained by taking examinations.

A monopoly occurs when a group has exclusive control over the production and distribution of certain goods.

To unify the empire, the Chinese government encouraged assimilation, the process of making conquered peoples part of Chinese culture.

Most people in Africa live on the savannas, or grassy plains.

They generally also included elements of animism, a religion in
which spirits play an important role in regulating daily life. Animists believe that spirits are present in animals, plants, and other natural forces, and also take the form of the souls of their ancestors.

Few African societies had written languages. Instead, storytellers shared orally the history and literature of a culture. In West Africa, for example, these storytellers, or griots, kept this history alive, passing it from parent to child...

As an important pattern in human culture, migrations have influenced world history from its outset. Migration is a permanent move from one country or region to another.

They created a new method of agriculture, terrace farming. This enabled them to greatly increase the productivity of their land. Terraces, or steplike ridges constructed on mountain slopes, helped the soil retain water and prevented its being washed downhill in heavy rains.

By 3400 B.C., these early farmers grew maize, or corn. Maize soon became the most important crop.