Asia
The Book of Rites, The Birth of a Child
The "Patterns of the Family," is drawn from The Book of Rites, a text that defined Confucian rituals of all kinds.
The Book of Rites, Early Education and Gender Differentiation
In early China, aristocratic boys are said to have studied the Asix arts. Specifically, this referred to ritual, archery, charioteering, music, writing, and mathematics, all skills associated with government, warfare, and religious and court ritual.
Learning begins in the Womb: Fetal Instruction
Han dynasty intellectuals such as Liu Xiang (c. 77-6 BCE) advocated "fetal instruction" [taijiao] as a means to influence the moral development of the child at the earliest possible opportunity.
Mourning Rituals for Deceased Children
This moving tribute, carved in the stone of an elaborate shrine, honored a five-year-old boy who died in 170 CE.
Marxists Internet Archive
Because the Archive offers such a wide-ranging set of sources from the Marxist tradition, students can be encouraged to explore cross-cultural comparisons.
The Child as Microcosm
In this passage, fetal development is described in terms of Daoist cosmogony in which all things in the universe emerge from one source, the Dao (meaning "the Way").
The Child in Early Chinese Social Hierarchy: The Biography of Li Shan
The society of early China was organized into a hierarchy where elders were generally deemed superior to and expected deference from their juniors, principles that also guided the relationship between men and women, parents and children, and nobles and commoners.
Bhakti Poets: Poem, Bahinabai 2
Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities.
Short Teaching Module: Bevel-Rimmed Bowls
The main point in discussing bevel-rimmed bowls in the classroom is that artifacts are as useful as texts in researching ancient societies.
Bevel-Rimmed Bowl
This is a Uruk period bevel-rimmed bowl from Habuba Kabira South, now present-day Syria. This bowl was most likely made between 3400 and 3200 BCE. These kinds of bowls can be found along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers into central Syria and Anatolia, and eastward into Iran.