A few differences between these civilizations were the social structure, natural resources, and differing cultural strengths. The Aztec and Mayan Civilizations in Americas The Mayan and Aztec civilizations were the earliest advanced civilizations in Central and South America. Each was different but they still shared a few similar traits. They had a daily life revolving around religious rituals generally requiring human sacrifices. Both civilizations had their own calendar and counting system along with polytheistic religious beliefs.
The Shang believed in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, while the Egyptian religion was centered on the ruler and the eternity of the soul. The two civilizations possessed political differences, too. For instance, Shang military officials had more power than the governors did in Egypt. Shang was also a little more organized. However, Shang had human sacrifices, usually prisoners of war, as a way of honoring the gods.
comparative AP World History Around 2,500 B.C many civilizations began to develop. Egypt and Mesopotamia were two of the civilizations that developed. They however had different governments and structures. These two civilizations were similar in the fact that they developed along rivers and built irrigational systems. However Egypt had more differences than similarities between Mesopotamia.
In what way did Mesopotamia and Egyptian civilizations differ from each other? Besides Mesopotamia, another civilization grew up in northeast Africa, along the Nile River. Egyptian civilization interacted with Mesopotamia civilization for thousands of years on exchange of goods and technologies produced a quite different society and culture. These two civilizations differed from geography, environment, religions and politics. In Mesopotamia, the extremely flat land between Euphrates and Tigris River in present day Iraq and Kuwait, the unpredictable floods by Euphrates River forcing the farmers into heroic effort to keep the ripening grain fields from being drowned by water.
Mesopotamia and Egypt Compare and Contrast Thesis Although Mesopotamia and Egypt share traits in their hierarchy of gods, the role of a dominant political leader, and the governing communities for irrigational purposes, they differ in their point of view on the afterlife, the treatment of their gods, and the presence of a written law code. Egypt benefited from technological influence, trade, and some religion from Mesopotamia, but constructed a relatively different culture and society. Although different, they did have key similarities to relate to each other. Both Egypt and Mesopotamia had a very wide range of gods that were associated with certain political centers in the region. Range of these gods went from the low individual city and local gods, to state and region gods that were more highly praised.
The Unique Culture of Egypt While the Sumerian civilization was developing, a similar process took place along the banks of the Nile River. Yet, the two civilization’s culture was very different. Egypt was united into a single kingdom, which allowed it to enjoy a high degree of unity, stability, and culture continuality over a period of 3,000 years. The geography, writing, architectural structures, society, and their process of mummification made the Egyptian culture unique compared to the other civilizations of the time. The Ancient Egyptians thought of Egypt as being divided into two types of land, the “black land” and the “red land.
Though Mesopotamia and Egypt were alike there were some differences between the two. With Mesopotamia gaining all the wealth from agriculture and with a few natural defenses, this made the people susceptible to have more invasions and to have internal conflicts. Egypt on the other had didn’t have as many interruptions as Mesopotamia, because of the high mountains and deserts helped to protect the Nile Valley. In Egypt their main focus was the funerary practices. The rulers devoted their time to the design and decoration of extensive funerary complexes, as well as the pyramids and subterranean tombs.
Within the cities were centralized large pyramid structures. While the Egyptians used their pyramids mostly for the tombs of great kings, the Maya used their pyramids or both tombs and religious ceremonial centers. The Mayas pyramids were for sacrifices, praises, and in a sense ancestor veneration centers for the elites. Also, the Egyptians and the Maya both had calendar systems, although they were very different. The Egyptians calendar revolved around the annual flooding of the Nile river which brought rich silt to the valley, and was the beginning of the agricultural season for the Egyptians.
Ancient Egyptian Religion The Force Behind Everything As the ancient Egyptian religion was an important part of everyday life for all Egyptians (rich and poor), they built a great many temples and had shrines in their homes. The term used to describe ancient Egyptian theology is Polytheism. This just means that they believed in many Gods. Gods were not only formless entities with certain roles - but the Gods were also the forces of nature, the elements, and the characteristics of certain powers. Some Egyptian Gods merged with foreign Gods too.
The middle kingdom focused their work force on economical and infrastructural matters rather than the construction extravagant tombs. The middle kingdom was prosperous for about 4 centuries then it fell. The fall to the middle kingdom brought the Second Intermediate period. The delta was occupied by the Hyksos and upper Egypt was split by the native Egyptian chiefs. Egypt returned to unity and the climax of wealth and power with the New Kingdom.