Political
This term refers to the practice of demanding payments or goods from a weaker state or society in exchange for protection or the right to exist.
What is Tribute?
These structures were used along trade routes in the Islamic world to provide shelter and provisions for travelers and their animals, and played an important role in facilitating long-distance trade.
What are Caravanserais?
This system of social organization was used in India for thousands of years and placed individuals into strict, hereditary social categories based on their birth and occupation.
What is Caste system?
This term refers to the blending or fusion of different cultural and religious traditions into a new, hybrid form, often as a result of cultural contact.
What is Syncretism?
This belief, held by many religions including Hinduism and Buddhism, is the idea that after death, one's soul is reborn in a new body.
What is Reincarnation?
This Inca system required all able-bodied citizens to perform labor for the state, such as constructing public works or working in the fields.
What is the Mit'a System?
This term refers to the use of paper money in the Tang and Song dynasties of China, which allowed for easier trade and contributed to the growth of the economy.
What is Flying Cash?
This term refers to the dispersal of a group of people from their original homeland, often as a result of political or religious persecution.
What is Diaspora?
This term refers to the separation of government and religious institutions, and the prioritization of worldly or non-religious concerns over religious ones.
What is Secular?
This philosophical movement, which emerged in China during the Song dynasty, sought to reconcile Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism and emphasized the importance of moral cultivation and self-discipline.
What is Neo-Confucianism?
This form of government was established by the early Islamic community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and was led by a religious and political leader known as a caliph.
What is a Caliphate?
These individuals were legally bound to the land they worked on and were required to provide labor and other services to the lord of the manor in exchange for protection and a share of the crops.
What are Serfs?
This rigid social hierarchy, deeply rooted in Hindu tradition, structured Indian society into hereditary classes and influenced social interactions, occupations, and religious practices.
What is The Caste System
This city in West Africa became a center of trade, scholarship, and Islamic learning during the 14th-16th centuries, and was an important hub for the trans-Saharan trade network.
What is Timbuktu?
This term refers to the office of the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, and the centralized authority it represented during the Middle Ages.
What is the Papacy?
This system of government administration involves a complex hierarchy of officials who manage the day-to-day affairs of the state.
What is Bureaucracy?
This system of landholding and labor organization was used in medieval Europe, and involved peasants working the land and paying taxes to the lord of the manor in exchange for protection and the use of the lord's resources.
What is Manorialism?
This term refers to the educated elite of China who held government positions and often came from wealthy landowning families.
What is the Scholar-Gentry?
This Confucian concept emphasizes the importance of respect for and obedience to one's parents and ancestors, and was a central tenet of family and social life in China for thousands of years.
What is Filial Piety?
These West African storytellers and musicians were responsible for preserving the oral history and cultural traditions of their communities, often through epic poems and songs.
What are Griots?
This practice involves selling the right to collect taxes to private individuals or groups in exchange for a percentage of the revenue collected.
What is Tax Farming?
This Inca system of record-keeping used knotted strings to represent numbers and other information, and was used to keep track of taxes, labor obligations, and other important data.
What is a Quipu?
This term refers to the belief in equality and the rejection of social hierarchy.
What is Egalitarian?
This process refers to the spread of Chinese culture, language, and political institutions to other regions through trade, diplomacy, and migration.
What is Sinification?
This practice, common in many religions including Christianity and Buddhism, involves withdrawing from society and living a life of contemplation and devotion in a monastic community.
What is Monasticism?