Wealth In Ancient Modern Times

WEALTH IN ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES

Wealth in Ancient to Modern Times

Monica LaPorta

University of Phoenix

HUM/100

Professor Kevin Ballard

Wealth in Ancient to Modern Times

In ancient China, it was very easy to tell the rich from the poor. The wealthiest had the finest clothes and dressed themselves in them from head to toe. The rich wore silk to show their status. Members of the royal family and high-ranking officials themselves wore jade, gold, or silver on a regular basis. They ate more and better-tasting food and had more leisure time. China's richest man was the emperor.

Jade was used to mummify the kings. They were encased in what seemed like jade body armor when buried. The royal tombs were filled with Chinese art, bronze statues, and carved jade.

People who had money put them in a high social status. They can afford to become educated. The educated are the ones who held positions in government.

In today's world, or our modern times, China is like anywhere else in the world.

The rich still hold the highest positions in government. Family values are still very important. Women hold jobs. Though jade, bronze and precious stones are not as easy to come by as it was back in ancient times.

In ancient Egypt, back when pharaohs ruled, in order for the son of a pharaoh to have the throne he would have to marry his sister. This was done because the land was passed on by the lineage of the women. The land was sacred to the Egyptians. Real estate was the predominant productive asset.

Though their society recognized no difference between fine art forms, such as paintings and sculpting, and "lesser arts," such as pottery or cabinetry the people who made them were considered just plain commoners. For most of Egypt's long history no currency existed for exchanging commodities at set values, essential goods were generally manufactured by the user or members of his immediate family and traded.

Pyramids were built for the pharaohs by the commoners or peasant class and held gold and other precious artifacts within them. They were built and stocked with things like artifacts and food along with linens just to name a few items, so the rulers can live in the afterlife as they did on earth. The promise of life after death dominated the Egyptian culture.

Religion was such a powerful force in ancient Egypt that it determined both the

structure of government and the organization of society. (Modern Egypt.

Retreived September 26, 2005 from The Pharoahs Network). Common people took

almost no part in religious rituals; that was the sacred responsibility of the priestly class.

Today the country's farmland is intensively cultivated even though the economic growth in Egypt has been held back by the growing population along with the control of the Nile. Things today are much the same as they have always been, for the majority of the peasant farmers.

Even though Egypt has becomes modernized, it never renounced