Instructions
Write well-developed essays on two of the essay topics listed below. You must argue a thesis and cite specific evidence from relevant primary sources when arguing your case. Failure to cite primary sources (either with clear summaries or exact quotations) and interpret them will result in a grade of C or below.
Cite the essay topic number. Give your essay a jazzy title if you like. There is no need to restate the question in full.
The grading rubric, citation style recommendations, guidance about length, and instruction on writing theses can be found below the list of Essay Topics.
Please note: Comparative questions about social and gender history – topics central to this course – do not appear among the Midterm Questions. These topics will on the paper and final exam assignments.
Essay Topics
1. Higher powers. To the best of your ability, compare the “higher powers” (for example, God, the gods, Heaven, Brahman, Dao “The Way,” Nirvana, or (implicitly) human reason) in the primary sources of three of the following peoples: The Mesopotamians, Chinese, Indians, Greeks & Romans, and Hebrews & early Christians. For Indian and Chinese civilizations, you may select among the variety of religious or philosophical traditions in them. You may want to consider some of the following questions: In what ways are these higher powers alike or dissimilar? How, if at all, do these entities interact with humans? How are humans supposed to interact with them? In the final analysis, despite their differences, do these philosophical and faith traditions have similar moral codes of conduct?
2. The Pursuit of Happiness. The ancient world was violent and often unstable. Who or what did ancient peoples expect to ensure peace, prosperity, and happiness? Their political leaders and governmental systems? The god(s)? Individual effort? Or some combination of the three? Using primary source evidence, discuss the thought of three of the following: The Mesopotamians, the Greeks and Romans [consider the two as effectively one similar civilization], the Chinese, or the Hebrews & early Christians. For Chinese civilization, you may select among the variety of faith or philosophical traditions in them.
3. Leadership. Compare and contrast the principles of good leadership/government that emerge from the primary sources we have read about in three of the following civilizations: the Chinese, Indians, and the Greeks & Romans [take the Greeks and Romans together or just one of them as you like]. What strikes you as most significant, the similarities or the differences in their presentation of good government and leadership? Note: We’ve ‘been there, done that’ with respect to Gilgamesh and Hammurabi, so Mesopotamia is left off the list of options.
4. Humankind’s place in the natural world. Because we in eastern NC face hurricanes, environmental challenges like sea-rise, and, recently, the pandemic Coronavirus, here is a more speculative question: Compare and contrast two or more civilizations views of the natural world (including disasters!) and humankind’s place in it. Here are some questions to spur your thinking. They need not all be addressed.
– Where do they place humans within the order of all that exists: from the natural world, that is seemingly ‘lifeless/inanimate’ matter like earth and water, which nevertheless sometimes moves (earthquakes [= the Bull of Heaven in the Epic of Gilgamesh] and floods), through living things like plants and animals, to the entities transcending the natural world like spirits, the gods, God, Brahman, the Dao, etc.?
– Why do they think we die and what do they think that means about their place in the universe?
– How do they regard the natural world: as capricious, hostile/dangerous, a blessing, a playground, a responsibility, or other? In other words, are humans masters, stewards, citizens, or servants of nature and by what right?
In sum, are humans merely part of the natural order or do they have a special place in it?
5. East and West comparison. Chinese and Indian civilizations grew up independently in relative geographic isolation. Hebrew ethical monotheism and Greco-Roman “rational humanism,” while quite different, evolved independently but in the close geographical proximity in the wake of Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations and then coalesced in the Roman world. Which of the Chinese philosophies or Indian religions seems most like or unlike (your choice) any of the latter ‘western’ ones?