Hammurabi, Agricultural Revolution, Zoroastrianism Hammurabi, Agriculture, Zoroastrianism

Hammurabi, Agricultural Revolution, Zoroastrianism

Hammurabi, Agriculture, Zoroastrianism

The Code of Hammurabi

Justice and the law is not a new concept, though throughout the millennia, both have evolved to what is today our modern political system, namely that of the municipal courts and the branches of government involved within nations. It is clear, however, that many of the concepts and ideas that are still being used today have stemmed from a much older doctrine, one that's been imagined around 4,000 years back into our primitive past. Such is the case of the Code of Hammurabi, a doctrine carved in cuneiform around 2200 B.C. In his ancient Babylonian kingdom, Hammurabi devised a rigid class-structure that gave rise to the "series of practical laws to bring about justice (Blaise, J. 2009). The Code has outlasted Hammurabi's life, and the legacy is quite evident in modern society.

From archaeological finds, it has been seen that Hammurabi's laws sought to create a moral structure for citizens of Babylon to adhere to. Hundreds of years after Hammurabi's own life had already passed, evidence of a Babylonian proverb emerged which had been derived from the "eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth" doctrine that had been written centuries past: "If you go and take the field of an enemy, the enemy will come and take your field" (Blaise, J. 2009). The code -- a cumulative set of 282 laws -- established a society where the people were depended upon to respect one's leader, and in turn, the leader provides for the people; this mindset might even have been the start of English feudalism in 1066, where monarchy financed its vassals, who in turn swore fealty to their ruler. Even today's medicine is involved, wherein the Code of Hammurabi "set out for the first time the concept of civil and criminal liability for improper and negligent medical care" (Blaise, J. 2009). Hammurabi's code had even set forth the beginnings of modern day's governmental systems, namely the bureaucracy within society.

Agricultural Revolution

The origins of agriculture for the different civilizations in the past are disputed and have been far from simultaneous. However, while the different societies arrived at agricultural cultivation at different times, there is a similarity that ties all these societies together; namely, they all came about discovering agriculture through the same concept of gods and the divine. For instance, during the 1st century B.C., Diodorus Siculus had stated that agriculture came from Osiris and Isis, who were the first gods to "make mankind give up cannibalism…because it seemed to their advantage to refrain from their butchery of one another" (Harlan, J.R. 1992). Similarly, the goddess Demeter appeared as an explanation of agriculture in Greece; Ceres appeared for the Romans; Shen-nung the ox became the agricultural deity in China; serpentine Quetzalcoatl was Mexico's symbol; and Viracocha was Peru's deity of agriculture.

Once this agricultural revolution took place -- the first phase being called the Neolithic period -- the indications of changing social lives were evident within the generally-hunting societies of thousands years back. Many theorists have even gone so far as to explain the reasons as to why agriculture has developed and what the results have been thus far. Carl O. Sauer has maintained that the Agricultural Revolution has not been the result of food shortage; in fact, those who have undertaken agricultural developments probably had the ample time to do so in the first place. So according to Sauer, this implied that as far as social behaviors stood, the "founders of agriculture were sedentary folk" (Harlan, J.R. 1992). Furthermore, agricultural societies have changed from the hunter-gathering society through its dependency upon children; because of agriculture, children have become necessary inputs within the society's survival.

Zoroastrianism and Religion

Perhaps Zarathustra had not envisioned such a worldly influence of his founded religion when he and his society priests worshipped it during the B.C. period. Regardless of when he started this movement of Zoroastrianism (for there is still dispute as to when this prophet was born to begin with), it had undoubtedly spread and influenced many of the religions of different cultures today. With an ancient background, it is no surprise that Zoroastrianism is one of the "oldest living religions in the world" (Stausberg, M. 2008). And while the religion itself has become a minority -- found mostly in Western India and Iran, as well as minor factions in the U.S., England, and Australia -- the ideas that have stemmed from Zoroastrianism have been absorbed into various religious orders, including but not limited to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.