ShmoopTube

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And here's your shmoop du jour brought to you by the Sumerian god

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Enki who's pretty bummed no one remembers him anymore...Alright which of [Boy points to Enki]

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the following best describes the social structure of Mesopotamian civilization

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and here are the potential answers.... alright well the civilizations of ancient

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Mesopotamia including the Sumerians and Babylonians were meticulous record [Sumer and Babylon on a map]

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keepers they wrote down a lot of stuff which gives us a very good idea of how

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their societies were structured anyway let's take a look at each potential

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answer did Mesopotamian civilization have a no social hierarchy this would [People stacked in a pyramid formation]

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mean everyone was completely equal and no one could order anyone else around

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which was the case for example a king was most certainly higher on the social

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ladder than his briefs or subjects, so cross off A) by order of the king does C)

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have it right and even though their economy was agriculturally based the [Farmer wearing king crown]

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agricultural workers were just part of the society and didn't have as much [workers picking berries in a field]

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power as say the Queen so the answer is not C).. D) women had few opportunities and

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rights in Mesopotamian civilization hmmm wrong-go completely the opposite for

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example women in Babylon could own land and own their own businesses we now know [Woman appears from a hut]

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that the Mesopotamians were way ahead of their time when it came to women's right

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B) mesopotamias social structure was highly stratified well records tell us

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their civilization was made of distinct classes each occupying a higher or lower [A wooden ladder]

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rung on the social ladder there were nobles, landowners, priests, merchant,

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farmers, craftsmen and finally slaves so yeah B) is the one even to this day we [Man pouring out laxative into a cup]

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owe much to the Mesopotamian civilization and culture how much well

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just imagine how much the patent on the invention of writing would be worth [Man's eyes turn to dollar signs]

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today...

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