The Dead Vs. The Living - 1611 Words

The Dead Vs. The Living Government has come from killing to keeping. When talking about the evolution of government, within the western world, there are tremendous amounts of changes; beliefs, or perhaps intentions to be mentioned. In the beginning there were many laws in place that enforced the killing of people, or sentencing of death, for their wrong doing(s). Yet, down the road, came laws that seem to be less harsh on society and to the people who were being accused. Also, the beliefs and structure of governments, varying for each place, changed as well. Although authority may have still operated in harsh ways in 1650, the majority of governments progressed from slaughtering people on corners, to handing out tickets. Beginning with the†¦show more content†¦Besides the 32 laws sentencing people to death, there are also some more severe laws that can force violators hands to be â€Å"hewn off†, buried, and situations where one will be forced into a fire. Now, although those are less excessive laws, people were still dying from those sentences. His laws are a prime example for the saying, â€Å"an eye for an eye†. Providing an example, if a man broke the bone of one of his equals, his own bone would be broken in return. (Law 197) Additionally, for crimes that could not be proven or disproven, the code often put the accused in a deadly situation in order to find innocence. Vice versa, if the accused is found to be not guilty, the accuser would have been put to death. The use of powerful kings and powerful â€Å"codes†, encouraged people to either be more cautious or more law abiding, however the beliefs of ancient Egypt are very different. Ancient Egypt, very contrary to Mesopotamia, was more on the â€Å"believer† approach of government. In Egypt there were pharaohs, the â€Å"Lord of the Two Lands†, who were believed to be gods on earth; hence the creation of the massive pyramids which were tombs for the Pharaohs and queens. Pharaohs controlled the political and religious factors of their society. The main purpose of a Pharaoh was to maintain an overall peace among the country; they were the rulers and leaders among the people. In ancient Egypt, taxes were collected, which went