Both the Mesopotamians and Chavin had polytheistic beliefs. The Mesopotamians built their cities around temples, which is similar to what the Chavin did. This centralized everything around worshiping their gods. They had high status level priests that were responsible for appeasing the gods in favor of themselves and other people in their society. The Mesopotamians would ask their gods for rain to help their crops because they believed that their deities controlled the climate.
I 1. Compare and contrast the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Point out the similarities and the differences in geography, religion, social structure, political systems, economy, status of women, and other factors, and explain the effect of these differences and similarities upon each civilization. The similarities between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia as far as geography is both civilizations depended on a drainage system for their existence.
They both had organized and centralized religion. The Ancient Israelites and the Mesopotamians were also different in many ways. One way was that the Israelites practiced monotheism, while the Mesopotamian s practiced polytheism. Also, Mesopotamians laws was based on the Hammurabi's Code.
The people of Mesopotamia ( Tigris and Euphrates River Valley), and the Nile River Valley had a very strong belief in polytheism. The belief in a religion called polytheism, or the belief of many gods not just one in particular. The Egyptians worshipped as many as 2,000 gods, but the chief god was known as Ra the sun god,
Polytheism is when people religiously believe in more than one god. The two civilizations believed that they had gods for everything, such as gods of sunlight, gods of food, and gods of rain. China believed that their gods were their ancestors, and Mesopotamia believed that their gods were central forces. Adding to their religious beliefs, the two civilizations also believed in an afterlife. China and Mesopotamia both believed that how they lived their current life would affect their future afterlife.
The Nile flooded with regular precision, making farming easy, leading the Egyptians to believe the Gods were relatively kind and caring. The Tigris and Euphrates, on the other hand, flooded violently and unpredictably, leading to the assumption of the Mesopotamians that the Gods were uncaring and cruel. The gifts of the Nile were enough to convince the Egyptians of a very different set of Gods than those held by the Mesopotamians living in a much harsher environment.
In contrast, the Egyptians were polytheistic, worshiping an immense amount of gods in an attempt to describe and understand daily behaviors and change of their environment, while the Chinese did not typically worship gods; They worshiped their ancestors in a complex system. “Religion dominated everyone’s lives in ancient Egypt. Nearly everything was seen as being controlled by hundreds of deities (gods and goddesses). Their religion influenced how the ancient Egyptians built.” The
The Egyptians had gods for every aspect of their lives and afterlives. Although the Mayans had many gods, they also practiced Animism. Both cultures had places for rituals and ceremonies. The gods they believed in were different from each other and some were worshiped more than others. With very few differences, the religious aspects of both cultures influenced both cultures equally.
People of Ancient Mesopotamia viewed their gods as being unreliable like their rivers. Life was likely better for Egyptians during this period because they did not have to worry as much about survival, whereas peoples
In the Ancient world, Life began around rivers. Throughout this essay I will be comparing and contrasting two of the prominent ancient civilizations, the Egyptians and the Sumerians. They had many cultural and governmental differences between them. Below are some examples. To start, each civilization began next to a river(s).
In Mesopotamia they had new inventions. For example they had the wheel, the sail, and the plow. In Egypt they had came up with the idea of pyramids. The pyramids were built by slaves and other workers. The pyramids were made for the Pharaohs or the Egyptian god-kings.
The three early civilizations; the Mesopotamians, the Hebrews, and the Greeks, believed in different deities. All of their gods were all similar yet very different from one another. The Mesopotamian and Greek civilizations were polytheistic, believing in many gods. The Hebrew civilizations were monotheistic, believing in only one god. Mesopotamians relationship with their gods, was all about serving their gods.
Religion played an important role in civilization as government laws and divine kingship derived from it. Both civilizations were quite similar, but acquired some differences unique to each civilization. These differences include the environment, divine kingship, and sense of security from either nature or law. The idea and practices of ancient Mesopotamia originated from the Sumerians. Moreover, both Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization diffused their practices and ideas to other ancient civilizations like the Hebrews and the Greeks.
Both these civilizations had own achievements and power that could surpass Greece’s results in some spheres: “compared with the Egyptians, we are childish mathematicians”, Hamilton cited Plato (28). She also mentioned that Indians were more skillful in this field than Greeks. But these civilizations had less impact on the Western world because of their attitude to people’s life and knowledge’s availability. Ancient Egyptians were interested more in the afterlife than in their current existence. They created a culture that was built on the death: “countless numbers of human beings for countless numbers of centuries thought of death as that which was nearest and most familiar to them” (Hamilton 23).
Some of the major differences can be seen in the ideas of origin and the meaning of life. In today’s society, as a whole, most do not believe that the world was created because various gods were fighting or because a monster of chaos was destroyed. In a modern, Christian worldview, we believe God created us and the earth and that He genuinely cares for us. For us, the meaning of life is similar in the idea that happiness is a goal; however, we find meaning in what we do and how we impact others. The Mesopotamians on the other hand never gave much evidence to support the idea that they were invested in the people around them and making their lives better along with their own.
