Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

and practices were inseparable from daily life. Ancient Egyp- tian rituals were very theatrical, taking place in dark temple roo ...

Miriam led the women in celebratory dances. Virtually all depictions of kings or other high-status persons drinking or feasting ...

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC BY JUSTIN CORFIELD Ancient peoples throughout the Asian and Pacifi c region used drama and theater to re-cr ...

bodia through the union of the daughter of a dragon king and the Indian Brahmin Kaudinya. Th e Mahabharata and es- pecially the ...

ductions and that two or more actors performed the speak- ing parts, perhaps with a narrator delivering the narrative parts of t ...

but that number later increased to 15. Contrasting with the relatively large number of performers needed for a chorus, Greek pla ...

Terence (185–159 b.c.e.) was Rome’s other great writer of comedies, and all six of his plays are still complete, because monks c ...

Rome had instituted a new spring festival called Floralia; the celebrations included horse races, gladiatorial combats, and stag ...

fountains, artifi cial waterfalls and streams, and gardens where people could rest during breaks in the entertainment or go at o ...

soamerica’s staple food crop, fi rst grown on an intensive scale by the Olmec. Th e Maya of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, ...

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341  ▶ economy introduction An economy requires that people cooperate in deciding what they value in their society. In a subsis ...

Surpluses of food allowed for the development of spe- cialization in the workplace. In most early societies, every- one needed t ...

class laid claim to the production of others. No market econ- omy drove the demand for and supply of food. Th e demand was persi ...

Th is type of bartering extended to services as well as to goods. Th roughout much of Africa, patron-client relation- ships were ...

liefs. Iron, because of its strength, was regarded as a source of power, even virility. Iron provided weapons that could be used ...

built a smoky fi re to indicate their arrival and withdrew to a safe distance. Th e locals came down to the beach, inspected the ...

plentiful during the New Kingdom. Such evidence includes off ering and trading scenes among individuals or between the state aut ...

Th e Egyptians used four units of measurement to price and trade commodities, the deben, the senyu, the hen, and the khar. Th es ...

tributes the king obtained during his campaigns and deliv- ered to the religious institutions. Such royal benefi ts were used fo ...