Vocabulary


 * Ascetic:** one who refuses comforts of life


 * Despot:** a dictator-like ruler
 * Docile:** easily controlled; very tame/obedient


 * Egalitarianism:** equality
 * Edicts:** laws/orders
 * Envoy:** an official representative, like an ambassador
 * Excommunication:** process where the Church does not allow one to receive sacraments


 * Heresy:** a great sin/insult of religion/religious beliefs - one who commits heresy is a **heretic**


 * Laiety / Lay:** Non-ordained. People who help run the church who are not a pastor/priest/nun


 * Manumission:** Freeing a slave


 * Nomad:** a wanderer, generally a herder
 * Nuclear Family:** the most immediate family-- parents, kids, grandparents


 * Papacy:** the office of the Pope
 * Pastoralism:** Herding-based jobs (cows, goats, sheep)
 * Plunder:** to take, loot


 * Renounce:** to formally end support for something


 * Sanction:** to support, officially authorize
 * Secular:** not associated with a religion (generally associated with a government)
 * Senility:** "lost one's mind"
 * Sinicization:** To become more "Chinese" in nature or culture
 * Syncretism:** A combination of different cultural/religious elements


 * Tenets:** teachings/beliefs


 * Vernacular:** Use the language of the local people