Chapter's 3-6

I found it very interesting to read Herodotus Histories regarding Persian and Egyptian customs. Mostly because there were several notable items that have come down to us today from these First Civilizations that I would not have expected. One, that using the bathroom should always be private, I honestly thought this was a more modern invention and did not think latrine use was private prior to the Middle Ages. Another amazing fact (in my mind) was the practice of circumcision coming from the ancient Egyptians. Because it is such a key component of the Jewish tradition, I always thought that is where it originated. Now I wonder, if the Jew's learned this and some of the other laws from living in Egypt. It would appear to me that the modern day United States Postal service, derived their motto from the ancient Persian Empire. Herodotus noted "Neither snow, nor rain, not heat, nor darkness of night prevents them from accomplishing the task proposed to them with utmost speed." Also, that he noted the Persians celebrated Birthday's more than most. In Chapter 4 reading about the difference between Confucianism and Daoism was very interesting. I had to wonder were the Daoists, Pastoralists already fighting the growth of civilization. Early on the book Strayer talks about how we have always up through modern times striven to return to our deep historical roots. I felt reading about the Doaists extolling people to live in smaller bands and return to nature, were referring to the Human History of the previous 100+ thousand years. We always have Utopian Societies and I don't think I realized previous to my reading that, that is what Daoism really is. I also found it very interesting that Hinduism developed along with the rest of Indian Culture, that there wasn't a "single founder" as there are in other widespread religions. Hinduism seems extremely contradictory on the subject of Women. Push them down, raise them up; which one is it. Whereas Buddhism shared some surprising similarities to Christianity and Christ. The first thing to hit me was the fact that Buddha was the same age as Christ when he "reached enlightenment". I also found it very interesting to read that Buddhism died out in India and what was left there was wrapped into Hinduism. Learning that China had developed the concept of Civil Service was very interesting. You don't think of an empire with a single ruler as being one that would choose its bureaucratic servants based on merit and not familial or social ties. In Chapter 5 when Strayer is comparing Patriarchies he seems to lose some of his objectivity. And begins using very strong descriptives as in the case of Sparta "Sparta clearly was a patriarchy, with women serving as breeding machines for it military system and lacking any formal role in public life". Very strongly worded, but when I read his description or comparison to Greek Patriarchy, I believe I would have rather lived under the Spartan form. It was interesting to read about the Moche, Wari and Tiwanaku Empires of the Andes. It was very interesting to see that although the Wari and Tiwanaku cultures grew up near each other they were very different. And to learn tat the Wari created a very different way in which to manage their agricultural, by creating and planting raised beds in swampy areas. A practice we still use today in different areas. I walk away from these chapters trying to digest all of the similarities between these societies that we still see down to today. I also wonder, how it is we went from seeming to be societies that were egalitarian in nature, to most patriarchal societies.