p3ch5culture

Name: Marissa Bavencoff

 * **Theme** || **How does this theme apply to your civilization?** ||
 * Religions || * Chinese people practiced the veneration of ancestors rather than worshiping any particular gods.
 * Instead of priests, the male head of the family led rites and sacrifices.
 * If their descandants showed them respect and took care of their needs, leaving items like food, drink, jewelry, tools, and weapons at their graves, ancestral sprits would watch over and protect them from the other dimension they traveled to at their death. ||
 * Belief Systems, philosophies, and ideologies || * Some literature from the Zhou dynasty were very important, and were used as textbooks in Chinese schools.
 * The most important literature was the Book of Songs, also known as the Book of Poetry or the Book of Odes, as poetry was very influential in Chinese life. ||
 * Science and Technology || * By 1200 B.C.E., China had acquired things like bronze metallurgy, horses, horse drawn chariots, and other wheeled vehicles from southeast Asia.
 * The Xia dynasty was overthrown by the Shang dynasty partly because Shang had managed to take control of bronze production, making them accessible to better weapons. ||
 * The arts and architecture || * Modern day Chinese letters and symbols evolved from pictographs, the earliest form of Chinese writing.
 * Although messages were often written on strips of silk or bamboo, which do not last very long, many oracle bones have been found inscribed with an unknown Chinese language. ||