Many people may not know it, but they have heard part of Hammurabi's Code before. It is where the fabled "eye-for-an-eye" statement came from. However, this brutal way of enforcing laws was a way to keep the people under this rule in order. When the population of a certain place under one ruler gets to be over 25 or so there is a need for social control. In this way the Code of Hammurabi is very similar to the Code of Ma'at, the Hindu Caste system and Buddhism. The Code of Hammurabi is famous for demanding punishment to fit the crime (or an eye for an eye) with different treatment for each social class. The code of hammurabi is the greatest example of the need for social control because it was the first set of written down laws. …show more content…

The purpose of all of these laws is the idea of social control. The greater the population the greater the need for social control. If there is a group of under 25 people there really isn't a need for social control in the case of the kung. The can live pleasantly with no rules or anything. But once you approach a larger population there becomes chaos if there isn't a way to keep them in line. That is why society has created rules and laws that have consequences. As in the case of the code of Hammurabi, the Code of Ma'at, the Caste system and slightly in Buddhism. Each attempted to achieve social control by putting laws in place, enforcing them and created the laws so harsh that it would actually scare the people enough to live by them and not be punished.

If I had to live under one of these sets of rules I would have to chose the Code of Ma'at. Because I think it would be the easiest to live by because you have slightly more freedom and yet you still are forced to live with out sin, and I think that in this case it is a good way to keep people in line partly because you don't have to discipline them much while they are alive mainly because they can discipline them self's when you think about it you strive to reach the afterlife so you are