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The characteristic of a civilization that had the most influence  on the Mesopotamian society is Social Structure. Social Structure impacted Mesopotamian history by making it so that different people had different jobs in the society. Another reason Social Structure impacted Mesopotamian history was by having different outcomes of laws depending on what class you were. Even Hammurabi's code made it so that your punishment for the crime you did was different depending on what social class you are.

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According to document 5, “Hammurabi’s code called for different punishments based on the lawbreaker and the victim of the crime.”

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This shows that if you are a higher hierarchy like the kings, you get everything easier, but if you are lower like the slaves, punishments for you are more harsh and you get everything way harder than the kings and upper class get them. Hammurabi’s code made it so that your class affects you very much in pretty much everything.

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In the document Elements of Civilization: Social Structure it states, “While the Code of Hammurabi was supposed to make society more fair and just, it ultimately created more inequity. It clearly favored men and the upper class.”

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This shows that Social Structure was very important to the Mesopotamians because of how Hammurabi’s code made it so that the lower class punishments for crimes were far worse than the upper class punishments. If you were in the upper class, you got things really easy, but the lower classes really had to work for things and still got treated horribly.

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Some could say that Religion is the most important because every civilization has a different god that they all look up to. In the article Elements of Civilization: Religion it states, “Everything about life in Mesopotamia revolved around the deities. If you didn't respect them, you could have bad luck and even die. But if you pleased the gods and goddesses, you could improve your luck and life in general. Religion gave people hope, a structure for how to live, and a way to understand how the world worked.” Gods are a very important part of the Mesopotamian civilization. However, without social structure, there would be no kings and the kings are the ones that communicate with the gods. If there was no social structure, religion would be less important for Mesopotamia.