But you last sentence is misleading. History shows the exact opposite of your claim of happy, joyful people.
p.s. Religion IS Superstition.
The history I have been reading shows that they have very few wars. Loved music and entertainment. Food was a big item. Being a chef was a good career. One temple for example received over 5M flower bouquets in one month. Which show the people had the time to grow beautiful flowers. People don’t grow flowers unless they have grown all the food they can use first. The women had time to wear beautiful cloths and use makeup. They wore beautiful jewelry. They had their hair done in fashion. They love their pets to the point of mummifying dogs and cats. From what history is showing us. They had the best medical practices at the time.
Where they had problems were in the area of alcoholism. A side effect of plenty of beer and wine.
Note, you have to read the new history out about Egypt. The old theories are not holding water.
You'd better read some real history and anthropology if you have such a view of humanity.
As one example of many, a large proportion of the ancient population were slaves, including in Egypt. Grinding poverty has always been a factor in most societies. How about looking at the real world for a change. Your view is complete fantasy. You will never get a realistic view if you see only the people who were comparatively well off.
You also don't consider the Black Death, or any of the history of devastating disease and poverty the world over.
Take off the blinders and rose-colored glasses. They are skewing your view. You are living in a fairytale.
Yes, I have read about slaves. And I think Americans confuse slaves of the ancient world with the slave trade in early America. For example, a slave in Egypt might work a second job to be able to afford to be a slave at a temple. They would have to pay to be a slave. Not quite the American system.
Please provide a valid historical citation for Egyptian slaves paying to be slaves and taking an extra paying job to "afford" being a slave at the temple. Do you know the meaning of the word "slave"?
Now you might ask why they would do this. The reasons are, the temples were the big entertainment centers. Great music, great food. And the temples were known for good health care benefits.
Valid historical ciitation, please.
We grew up being told the pyramids were built by slaves. To this day, there is no proof. And they are coming out with other views now of the labor market back then.
Valid historial citation, please.
From what I have read is that the biggest changes in labor laws happen in 1700 B.C. with the arrival of the Hyksos.
As far as slaves in Babylon, all you have to do is read the laws of the time. They pretty much spelled out how you had to take care of slaves, what their medical costs were. Inheritance laws for slaves and so on.
Everyone had rules for how slaves were to be treated, sold and beaten, including American slaves.
Another problem of understanding is the ownership system. For example. The first born male belonged to the Pharaoh. When you look at the system, it was not a slave system, it was a tax system.
Valid historial citation, please.
When you look at the Indus Civilization of the Harappans, they had houses hooked to sewer systems with bathrooms and kitchens. They did not have electricity, but they built their swimming pools so the breeze over the water would cool the house.
And slaves were using them, right?
Valid historial citation, please.
There were good times to live at in the past. Times when people got along and there were no wars. And I am sure there were many bad times with plagues and wars as history shows. In reading the old Genesis stories there were natural disasters and population explosions that were reduced by plagues. But I was very surprised they never mentioned any wars.
But plenty of happy, healthy slaves.
So only wars count, not plagues, not slavery, not natural disasters and not starvation? Interesting view of "history," anthropology, sociology and human nature.
I think you need to view a timeline. In five thousand years they did not have as many conflicts as we have had in 400 years. Personally, it is my feeling that the people were so superstitious that they would be hard pressed to whip someone. Curses were very much believed in. And they had that good, bad thing going for them with religion.
Americans are unbelievably stupid when it comes to slavery in Egypt. For example. We put pictures in books showing slaves being whipped and pulling big heavy stones. Yet we will show pictures of the same time of farmers plowing the fields using oxen. I guess they want us to believe the farmers were more advanced than the pyramid builders. In the past decade research on the camps of the temple and pyramid builders have found no signs of slaves. They have found families of the builders living in the camps.
Everyone had rules for how slaves were to be treated, sold and beaten, including American slaves.
No I never read the rules you are talking about in Babylon or Egypt. Those laws were what inherence the slave would receive. Laws on marrying your slave and adopting the children. They lived in a caste system where you were charged rates by the caste you were in. And a slave was in the lower caste. So you could not charge a slave the same rate for services as someone in the upper castes. The slave systems used was more like what we would call the indentured servant that was used in the British colonies of America. The historians call them slaves. Me, I don’t see it. I see a labor method tied to a social method. Like in Egypt, if you worked at the temple (a slave) then you were also protected physically by the temple. The police forces operated differently back then. Remember the temples were also the banks and colleges of the times. And most people yet today have to pay something to be able to go to college.