Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

Another opportunity for social advancement was through education. Schools open to boys from many walks of life began in 145 b.c. ...

CENTRAL AND NORTHERN ASIA Most of what has been recorded about the peoples of central and northern Asia was written by people wh ...

that is known to us from written records emerged from these formative periods centuries and millennia earlier. Most of what is k ...

freely than other people and were oft en welcomed as visitors because they off ered entertainment. Although Celtic society was p ...

GERMANS Th e best source on Germanic social organization is the Roman historian Tacitus (ca. 56–120 c.e.), who describes the peo ...

Goths (who split into the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths), the Alamanni, the Vandals, the Suebi, and the Burgundians. Th e Visigot ...

largest of these landholders, is the king (basileus) of Ithaca. Other noble landholders compete for honor and power within Ithac ...

members were phrateres, a word derived from the Indo-Eu- ropean root meaning “brother.” Th e names of phratries nor- mally used ...

was its status as the basic unit of citizenship. Young men were enrolled at age 18 in their deme registers, thus becoming citi- ...

tax of one drachma per month and needed to be sponsored by an Athenian citizen. Th e metic enjoyed the privileges of residence a ...

stayed with the family that had owned them to work for pay in the fi elds or in the household. THE ROMAN REPUBLIC (509–27 B.C.E. ...

those who could trace their ancestry back to the fi rst Roman Senate at the beginning of the republic. Th ey were the aris- tocr ...

Th e elite in Rome did not have to work. Because many owned large estates in the countryside, their source of in- come was secur ...

service. Some earned their freedom through service in the military. Still others were able to buy their freedom. Many freedmen c ...

and continuity of the band. For the most part, however, indi- vidual bands were self-suffi cient. Th e social organization of th ...

or “Made People.” Th ese were ritual leaders who earned their position through their skills and service to the community. Th ey ...

or inherited social power. People lived in tribal communities consisting of hamlets of perhaps 20 or so huts built near the fi e ...

(skull) is pliable and fl exible. Among the Zapotec, cranial deformation was regarded as a sign of nobility. Typically, a few da ...

of the Gilligammae are like those of the rest of their countrymen. Th e Asbystae adjoin the Gilligammae upon the west. Th ey inh ...

BOOK VIII (INDICA) XI. Th e Indians generally are divided into seven castes. Th ose called the wise men are less in number than ...