The development of crop and animal raising as a food source among humans to supplement hunting and gathering
Agricultural Revolution or Neolithic Revolution
A form of government in which power is held by the nobility
Aristocracy
Of or relating to a land, culture, or people alien and usually believed to be inferior to another land, culture, or people
Barbarian
Members of the highest of the four major castes of traditional Indian society, responsible for officiating at religious rites and studying and teaching at the Vedas
Brahmins
The administrative structure of a large or complex organization
Bureaucracy
Centers of population, commerce, and culture of significant size and importance
Cities
A relatively high level of cultural and technological development
Civilization or Advanced Society
The specialization of trade
Complex Institutions
Something that is used as a medium of exchange
Currency
A divine character or nature
Deity
A form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system
Democracy
Conformity to religious law, custom, duty, or one's own quality or character, originally used in Buddhism
Dharma
The spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another
Diffusion
A varied selection of food readily available to a community
Diversified Food Supply
Any of various animals that have been tamed and made fit for a human environment
Domesticated Animals
An important political theory in the history of China
Dynastic Cycle
The belief that all people are created equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities
Egalitarian
A system of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct
Ethical Codes
A region just beyond or at the edge of a settled area
Frontier
People who search the land for animals to hunt and edible plants to gather
Hunters and Gatherers
A cold period marked by episodes of extensive glaciation alternating with episodes of relative warmth
Ice Age
An agricultural production system characterized by high inputs or labor
Intensive Cultivation
Artificial application of water to soil near or far from the source
Irrigation Systems
The sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as their deciding fate
Karma
A traditional Chinese philosophical concept concerning the legitimacy of rules
Mandate of Heaven
The practice or state of being married to one person at a time
Monogamy
A person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world
Pagan
A social and economic system based on the raising and herding of livestock
Pastoralism
A system of government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family
Patriarchy
The practice of having more then one wife or husband
Polygamy
The act of keeping detailed notes about activities and events
Record Keeping
Denoting attitudes, activities or other things that have no religious basis
Secular
The production of raw silk
Sericulture
Populations of people who stayed in their location
Settled Populations
The state of being a slave
Slavery
The learned skill of a specific job
Specialization of Labor
An amount of something left over when requirements have been met
Surplus
Reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief, as in philosophy or religion
Syncretism
Any cloth or goods produced by weaving, knitting, or felting
Textiles
A form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities
The worship of ancestors whose spirits are frequently held to possess the power to influence the affairs of the living
Ancestor Veneration
The belief in the existence of individual spirits that inhabit natural objects and phenomena
Animism
An enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others
Bodhisattva
A social structure in which classes are determined by heredity
Caste System
A sovereign state consisting of an independent city and its surrounding territory
City-State
Of or relating to the most artistically developed stage of a civilization
Classical
The arrangement or systematization of something into a code or set of codes
Codification
The basic, eternal principle of the universe that transcends reality and is the source of being, non-being, and change
Dao
The dispersion of Jews outside of Israel from the sixth century B.C.E., when they were exiled to Babylonia, until the present time
Diaspora
A blessed state in which the individual transcends desire and suffering and attains nirvana/moksha
Enlightenment
A deep respect for the parents and ancestors
Filial Piety
A fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and Southwest Asia, and a departure from earlier Greek attitudes towards "barbarian" cultures
Hellenistic
An event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, esp. a theory or an abstract idea
Manifestations
A businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit
Merchant
People who are sent on a mission, especially one sent to do religious or charitable work in a territory or foreign country
Missionaries
A state ruled or headed by a monarch
Monarchy
A community of persons, especially monks, bound by vows to a religious life and often living in partial or complete seclusion
Monastery
A system of winds that influences the climate of a large area and that reverses direction with the seasons
Monsoon Winds
A prince, chief, or ruler in India or the East Indies
Raja
The incarnation or embodiment of a soul in a new body after it has left the old one at physical death
Reincarnation
Payments, usually of an amount fixed by contract, made by a tenant at specified intervals in return for the right to occupy or use the property of another
Rents
A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them
Republic
A ceremonial act or a series of such acts
Rituals
Important Hindu literature composed in Sanskrit
Sanskrit Scriptures
Any book or body of writings, especially when regarded as sacred by a particular religious group
Scriptures
The animistic religion of certain peoples of northern Asia in which mediation between the visible and spirit worlds is effected by shamans
Shamanism
The action of making Chinese in character or changing or modifying by Chinese influence
Sinicization
The peaceful interaction of human dynamics among members of a social group or groups
Social Harmony
Ideas that hold true across belief systems everywhere
A devastating epidemic in the 14th century across most of Europe and Asia
Black Death
The way of the Japanese warrior, similar to chivalry
Bushido
An Islamic state led by a supreme religious as well as political leader known as a caliph
Caliphate
A method of ancient Mesoamerican agriculture which used small, rectangular areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico
Chinampa
The traditional code of conduct associated with the medieval institution of knighthood
Chivalry
The part of the world where most people are Christians
Christendom
Chinese system of determining a person's capability of holding a leadership role
Civil Service Exam System
Religious conflicts mounted by the Roman Catholic Church to regain access to the Holy Land
The Crusades
Areas where Muslims are in the majority
Dar al-Islam
A port where merchandise can be imported and then exported without paying import duties
Entrepót
A political and economic system of Europe from the 9th to about the 15th century, based on the holding of all land in fief or fee and the resulting relation of lord to vassal and characterized by homage, legal and military service of tenants, and forfeiture
Feudalism
The property or fee granted to a vassal for his maintenance by his lord in return for service
Fief
Persons of high birth or social standing
Gentry
The longest canal or artificial river in the world
Grand Canal (China)
A period in North America and Europe where temperatures are thought to have been warmer than in preceding and following periods
Great Warming Period
A member of a caste responsible for maintaining an oral record of tribal history in the form of music, poetry, and storytelling
Griot
An association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards
Guild
A pilgrimage by Muslims to Mecca
Hajj
A former economic and defensive confederation of free towns in northern Germany and neighboring areas
Hanseatic League
A medieval ruler of a Mongol, Tartar, or Turkish tribe
Khan
To kneel and touch the ground with the forehead in worship or submission as part of a Chinese custom
Kow Tow
A period characterized by expansion of mountain glaciers and cooling of global temperatures, especially in the Alps, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Alaska
Little Ice Age
The system of manorial social and political organization, as in the Middle Ages
Manorialism
A system or tribute to the government in the form of labor in Incan society
Mit'a
An attempt to create a more rationalist and secular form of Confucianism by rejecting superstitious and mystical elements of Daoism and Buddhism that had influenced Confucianism during and after the Han Dynasty
Neoconfucianism
A social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary
Nobility
The office of the pope
Papacy
Recording devices historically used in the region of Andean South America
Quipus
The military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan
Samurai
The status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century
Serfdom
The moral code and religious law of Islam
Sharia
The second largest denomination of Islam, which believes that only God can choose a representative to safeguard Islam
Shia
A religion defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam
Sufism
The title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty in practical terms (i.e., the lack of dependence on any higher ruler), without claiming the overall caliphate
Sultan
The largest branch of Islam; believes that rulers should be chosen by people
Sunni
A Bantu language and the mother tongue of the Swahili people
Swahili
A technique of financial management, namely the process of commuting (changing), by its assignment by legal contract to a third party, a future uncertain revenue stream into fixed and certain periodic rents, in consideration for which commutation a discount in value received is suffered
Tax Farming
The combination of two or more things to form something new
Synthesis
A system utilized by China to extract wealth and respect from surrounding entities
Tribute System
The educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies
Opposition to the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies
Anti-Imperialism
Hatred of the Jewish race/religion
Anti-Semitism
Any system or practice that separates people according to race, caste, etc.
Apartheid
An action yielding to the demands of a person, group, or nation in a conciliatory effort, sometimes at the expense of justice
Appeasement
The melding of theological ideologies to ideas regarding state well-being
Application of Religion to Political Issues
A government exercising complete or almost complete control over the will of its citizens
Authoritarianism
A wandering Arab of the Asian or African desert
Bedouin
A movement with the aim of securing the resurgence of the defunct state of Biafra from Nigeria
Biafra Secessionist Movement
Plants and animals improved by science
Chemically and Genetically Enhanced Forms of Agriculture
A sustained state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States with NATO and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in Warsaw Pact)
Cold War
Organizing something centrally both politically and economically
Collectivization
A theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state
Communism
The fact or practice of an increasing consumption of goods
Consumerism
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