Cultures Across Time Periods and Religions

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Please find the relevant information noted below in the attachment.

Buddhism
Politics
Buddhist politics tends to exist only in the sense of religious authority, most notably that of, for example, the monks and Dalai Lama and/or his sectarian equivalents.

Society and Economics
As a religion, society is based around compassion and economics tend to be related only to that which is sustainable, in other subsistence economy.

Technology
Technology is very limited in the most Buddhist cultures, as a dependence on such technology would end up being contrary to fundamental Buddhist theories on attachment.

Art
Art is mostly relayed through the practices of Buddhism, for example in the dress, instrumentation of devotion, and depiction of leaders or historical moments (for example the Buddha himself).

Music
Music, as well, is somewhat limited in that it only exists as a part of the practices of Buddhism, for example the prayer wheels and chants.

Architecture
Architecture tends to be mostly eastern in style, particularly with plain wooden floors, pillars and slanted roofs, though there are a number of notably large structures in Buddhist areas of countries such as China and Japan. Pagodas are a major symbol of Buddhist influence.

Philosophy
The philosophy is complex, but can be mostly summarized by pointing to a need to deny one's attachment to anything and everything physical, as this attachment causes desire and desire causes suffering.

Literature
Literature is extensive, existing in numerous, large tomes of Buddhist teachings from many past schools and leaders; these tomes are often called "Sutras."

Early Middle Ages
Politics
This period saw the devolution of much of the usual authority we now recognize, since Rome fell to Visigoths who were quite tribal in nature.

Society and Economics
Society was organized by small bands of people, ruled by landowners who allowed people to work their land in return for food and protection, while the economy was entirely subsistence oriented; you might be more familiar with its term: Feudalism or the Manorial economy.

Technology
Again, due to the fall of Rome, while some ideas and concepts lasted, most technological advances died out with that Roman culture. Technology was severely limited.

Art
While art existed, it's hard to say it would fit our modern definitions, even to the point of saying it had room to exist; when the entire social structure is in a rebuilding mode, luxuries and higher forms of education or expression tend to die out.

Music
See previous entry; music existed, but only in the ancient classical forms (for example, lyres).

Architecture
Architecture either maintained (in other words, no new building were added) or became highly and only functional, as again there existed very little means of financing such endeavors as we would label "sophisticated."

Philosophy
This is one area that may not have suffered as much as the others, though it was entirely sustained and grown by Christian monasticism.

Literature
See previous entry; for most of the world, literature was not only a luxury, it was reserved only for that content which could be embellished with pictorials and seen as a basis for a society. This is when works such as The Book of Kells were produced.

High Middle Ages
Politics
While emperors like Charlemagne had tried to control governance in the prior period, they were mainly unsuccessful, paving the way for the Church to become the central political authority. The road towards this had already been created by the Church becoming more "secular" in its owning of land and experience running monastic communities.

Society and Economics
Again, society was dominated by Church structure and authority; economics was run mainly through the guild system, as this allowed people of a certain trade to ensure stability and their position in society.

Technology
Technology was now becoming increasingly more fortified, particularly in the development of weapons and armor.

Art
This is the period for which the term "Gothic" is created and applied, growing from the Romaneque tradition. See the architecture entry, as art primarily existed in this form at the time.

Music
Musical skill and content developed, though the instrumentation was much the same; organs and other wind instruments would start to predominate. Epic poetry was often sung (see the literature ...