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Egypt And Mesopotamia Similarities

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Mesopotamia and Egypt are two of the oldest and most famous civilizations in the history of the world. Mesopotamia and Egypt were both River-Valley civilizations, yet, their political, social, and cultural beliefs developed differently due to their geographic location.
The rise of these early river valley civilizations occurred around the same period of time. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt grew alongside mighty rivers, however, Mesopotamia developed between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers while the Egyptian civilization emerged beside the Nile River. In Egypt, the Nile flooded regularly and at the right time of the year, thus, leaving a rich and easily worked deposit of silt. On the other hand, the Tigris and Euphrates had unpredictable floods …show more content…

Together, a city and its agricultural hinterland formed what we call a city-state. Differently, Egypt was governed by a central administration in the capital city through a system of provincial and village bureaucracies. Egypt was a theocracy, meaning it was ruled by religion. The Pharaohs were considered the living gods and the vital link between humanity and the rest of the gods. Similarly, both civilizations were divided into a 3-class social strata system. It is believed that the development of agriculture brought about a decline in the status of women in Mesopotamian society because men did the value-producing work of plowing and irrigation. Women were able to own property, control their dowry, and engage in trade. In contrast, paintings indicate that Egyptian women were subordinate to men and engaged in domestic activities, but they did have the right to hold, inherit and will property and retained rights over their own dowry after divorce. They probably had more rights than Mesopotamian …show more content…

Earliest religious awareness was closely associated with nature and environment. Both religions were polytheistic, meaning they recognized many gods. These gods had certain similarities in both traditions. In Mesopotamia, they believed in anthropomorphism meaning that they would attribute human shape or form to nonhuman things, such as the gods. Since Egypt was “the gift of the Nile” and generally peaceful and prosperous Egyptian gods tended to reflect a positive religion with an emphasis on a positive afterlife. In Mesopotamia the forces of nature were more chaotic and as a result, the gods were seen as unpredictable beings of extraordinary power that had to be kept content by priests. People were under the control of the gods, so the job of humanity was to carry out their wills and make them

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