McNeil Article

1) McNeil's argument is that Indian and Greek societies developed differently due to many factors arising from culture.

2) McNeil's definition of a caste is a "group of persons who will eat together and intermarry", the book's definitions is an organized guild with an unchangeable status in a social hierarchy.

3)
a. "ceremonial purity"
b. Doctrine of Varna
3. Unification through caste system

4) I think these ideas seem convincing since these reasons make sense as to how caste systems were effective at the time.

5) The caste system caused the decentralization of state, and the make it very unlikely for a ruler to arrive, since people were most likely to just stick with their caste.

6) The desire for detailed prayer is what caused the shift, this ultimately ended up giving Brahmin more power since people were convinced that Brahmin's prayers could be answered by gods.

7) The Upanishads explained that priests were not necessary to achieve the goal of breaking free from the cycle of reincarnation and that it could be achieved through self discipline, meditation, asceticism, and letting go of ordinary concerns of daily life.

8) McNeil's definition of "Territorial Sovereignty" is that it is when the state has the right to govern its territory without external influences.

9) Greeks began to turn away from religion as an explanatory factor in the organization of society because individuals began looking toward logical inconsistencies of religion.

10) The consequence of the Greek's rigid adherence to the polis was that there was a difference in thought of how the universe functioned. Because laws governed people in the polis, natural laws governed the universe.

11) I buy McNeil's argument that the societies of India and Greece developed differently due to cultural differences because McNeil asserted that the caste system is what caused India to have no central government, and how Greeks began to look toward logic as opposed to religion. These two reasons support his claim.