Brittany Keefe

4/19/16
Debt: The First 5,000 Years
Cultural Anthropology

The Axial Age Summerization

The axial age is the time period of 800 BC 600 AD. This is a very
important time in our history because we have some of the greatest minds
throughout the world, studying and questioning life at one time. You have
Pythagoras during 570-495 BC, the Buddha during 563-483 BC, and
Confucius 551-479 BC. The questions regarding such topics as nature of our
minds, the cosmos and even after the end of human existence were some of
many that arose during this time period. Some of these same questions are
still trying to be answered by philosophers today. Not only did this time
period bring upon us a very important base to philosophy but also religion.
During this same time period, it was the start of many different
religions such as; Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Prophetic Judaism,
Jainism, Taoism, Islam, and Christianity. Many believe that for all of these
questions and beliefs to be going on at the same time, without any of the
leaders knowing about one another that something had to be connecting
them. Life experiences are a strong opinion to what brought on this age.
When considering this you must look at what is similar between all of these
different areas: China, India, and the Mediterranean. What Graeber points
out is the one major similarity between them is the time period of coinage.
In early China and India you can see the same pattern of coins being
created by private citizens, which is then taken over and turned into a

monopoly by the states and/or government. Prior to this time period gold,
silver, and bronze were not easy to come by. Only the rich could get their
hands on this type of merchandise. But the Axial age is when it all began to
change, things were brought from temples, broken up and given to the
poorer sector. Another way to look at it is, the time of stolen goods. There
was a rise in the black market, drug dealings and prostitution. An argument
that Graeber makes is that war and plunder were nothing new to these areas
so what was the different between previous ages and now? Warriors werent
just the run of the mill anymore in these armies, they were aristocratic,
trained professionals. Alongside their soldiers being mercenaries, they also
had to be rewarded properly, unlike previous armies.
The Mediterranean can be a great example for the relation between
coinage and military power. Graeber goes into detail regarding Athens and its
far-flung naval empire and the Roman Empire. There are several similarities
between these two cities, one being their debt crises, two that their crises
were solved by coinage. He also refers to this time as a military-coinageslavery complex. Many Christian fathers refer to this time as miserable and
desperate, many average peasants were caught in a richer mans webs.
Philosophy began in the Mediterranean with speculation of the cosmos.
India could not be any more different than the Mediterranean. Where in
the Mediterranean their armies were mostly consisting of slaves, India
brought on a new type of military. One that was trained, professional and was
filled with young men of every sort of background. These armies had all of

their equipment supplied to them by a central government and were also

provided with a decent salary. Philosophy began with theories about the soul
and the universe.
China you see the same patterns of the Axil age with trained armies,
and the creation of coinage to pay said armies. Here is where you will see
major differences from previous areas. China never minted gold or silver
coins, they specifically used bronze plates. The philosophy in China were
more towards the lines of education.
You can relate this chapter from Graebers book, Debt: The first 5,000
years to a lot of things we have went over in the textbook and encyclopedia.
A major relation that I can make is studying Stratification. Social
Stratification is a social hierarchy resulting from the relatively permanent
unequal distribution of goods and services in a society. As you see many
societies in the beginning of the Axel age didnt have the gold, silver and
bronze materials to trade because of their social standings. We also study
wealth, which is the accumulation of material resources or access to the
means of producing these resources. The creation of a central form of
government throughout this time, focuses wealth on certain types of people,
merchants and soldiers.
We also study the idea of culture. Culture is the learned behaviors and
symbols that allow people to live in groups. The primary means by which
humans adapt to their environments. The way of life characteristics of a

particular human society. As we discussed in class it can also be What

humans do, when acting as humans. You can see through the study of the
three different societies, how different but also how similar their cultures are
especially regarding debt and coinage. Along with that you also have the
study of transculturation which is the transformation of adopted cultural
traits, resulting in new cultural forms. You see this with the military section of
these different countries. How wide spread ruling and adaption of debt
created a more trained and sophisticated military for them.