Treatment of Minorities
How was the treatment of women?
Byzantine Empire:
Upper Class women took care of the home and the children. Women who had to work, worked in many different industries. Women could not perform judicial duties or religious functions in the Church.
Mongolian Empire:
Women did the same daily chores as men and they took care of the animals, camps, children, and cooking.
How could one move up the social hierarchy?
Byzantine Empire:
Accumulation of wealth, education, religion, and politics. Or women could marry into higher-class families to rise in the social structure.
Mongolian Empire:
You could rise in the social classes by getting into positions of power.
Where did they worship?
Byzantine Empire:
They worshiped in Churches.
Mongolian Empire:
They were nomadic so they didn’t have a permanent structure for worship. There were dedicated places of worship for all the major religions.
What was their religion?
Byzantine Empire:
They were Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Mongolian Empire:
Their religion included shamanism, ancestor worship, and a belief in natural spirits.
How did they treat their conquered people?
Byzantine Empire:
They treated them better than the Mongol’s treated their own conquered people, and considered them part of their society.
Mongolian Empire:
They were rather violent when it came to their conquered people not following their direct orders, but when they did follow their commands, they were quite accommodating to their native cultures and religions.
How did social class affect daily life?
Byzantine Empire:
Your social class mattered a lot when it came to how you were looked upon in your day-to-day life. Your family name meant everything and it would determine how your life played out.
Mongolian Empire:
What kind of punishment you would receive if you didn’t obey commands, depended on where you were on the social hierarchy. The lower down you were, the harsher the punishment would be. This affected their day to day lives quite a bit.
Did they make sacrifices to their gods or beliefs?
Byzantine Empire:
They didn’t make any type of extreme sacrifices such as human sacrifice. Instead they prayed to God, took communion, and were baptized.
Mongolian Empire:
Sacrifices weren’t exactly made to the Spirits that they believed in. However, there were things called “Taboos” which they made sure to avoid at all times so that they didn’t upset the Spirits.
What gods did they worship?
Byzantine Empire:
They were monotheistic and believed in God.
Mongolian Empire:
The Mongols believed in entities, also called spirits. However the Mongols took on many religions over time and believed in Buddha once Buddhism spread. They were also exposed to Christianity.
Were they accepting of people of other religions?
Byzantine Empire:
They were very religiously intolerant and went after many religions.
Mongolian Empire:
They were pretty tolerant of others beliefs and they almost never imposed beliefs or way of life on conquered people.
What were the social classes and how was each social class treated?
Byzantine Empire:
There were the honestiores, the humiliores, and everyone else, except slaves who were even lower.
Mongolian Empire:
The social structure was based on men. But the women still had a lot more freedom than other patriarchal cultures.
Who were their religious leaders?
Byzantine Empire:
The head of the Eastern Orthodox Church is called the Patriarch of Constantinople. There were also men called bishops in the more diverse cities.
Mongolian Empire:
The closest things that they had to priests were called Shamans. This was passed by lineage but you could also become one through a connection of the spirit world or a near death experience.
What were their beliefs on the afterlife?
Byzantine Empire:
They believed in the separation between flesh and soul. Prayers could be said on behalf of the dead to increase better judgment.
Mongolian Empire:
They saw the afterlife as a continuation of their life. They believed that ancestors would watch over their descendants.