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Women in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome
Women in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome
Gender inequality in the ancient world
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The Life of Women in Mesopotamia, India and China Ages ago gender has played a major key role and had very much affects with social relations in this current era. Gender is something that frames a stereotypical norm of how a man or women should act dress or even how they should carry their relationship with one another. Men and women are seen diverse and different from physical appearances to social and emotional. Gender is a constant difference between men in women especially when it comes to social relations. As we look back in time, we see how in Mesopotamia, India and China had a great impact on how gender affected social relations. In general, women was seen as the “stay home mom” and the men as the one who worked the nine to five and …show more content…
We notice how the males are the most dominant and are in charge of most things. The law of Manu examines more in India and how women are more controlled by men and are not guaranteed escape from the male. Religion played a part in which the women fate of ending up in heaven was if she treated her husband a good way. These documents displays how gender affected social relations in Ancient Mesopotamia, India and china trough men being seen as the most dominate species, Women being seen as stay home mom and being controlled by their husbands and fathers. To maintain justice in the land and to promote welfare of the people the king came up with certain law to keep thing in place. With that being said the Babylonian Law Code starts off with a male writing it and coming up with the laws. Giving’s males the dominate position of becoming king once born and at the right age from the ancient seed of royalty. In some situations the male or the female are penalized for the same actions, such as “if a man aid a male or female slave of the place freeman to escape form the city gates, he shall be put to death.” In this case both genders had a punishment for the same actions. This law does not
Gender hierarchies have been a central pillar of social orders almost since its inception. However, the balance has not been remotely even throughout history, with patriarchies far outnumbering matriarchies. Despite the large dominance held by men, it was not all black and white in East Asian societies. Even though Tang and Song China were all patriarchal, they were very different in their application and influences of gender hierarchies.
Gender roles have been a predominant factor in our world since the early emergence of human societies whether they are positive or negative. They are based on expectations that societies have over the people in them. The Epic of Sunjata, shows us how men and women are treated almost equally in different forms. Women are praised for their ability to birth leaders, which is similar to the early Greek Society. In most societies, women are treated less equal than men. This was prevalent in the early Indian society. No matter the gender role, it has been shown that any society cannot survive without both men and women.
Most classical society’s political and social organization revolved around the idea of patriarchy, a male dominated social system. This system exacerbated the inherit difference between men and woman and assigned gender roles based on these observations. Men were generally regarded as superior to woman therefore given greater religious and political roles as well as more legal rights. As the natural inverse, women were subordinated and seen as week; their main roles reproductive and domestic. Information about patriarchy in the classical era, though abundant, was, for the most part, written by men, therefore history does not give us an accurate depiction of women’s viewpoints. Four societies of the classical era, India, China, Greece, and Rome, adopted a patriarchal system, however, due to many factors, each developed identifiable characteristics.
Back in the days of Mesopotamia, things were quite different. Women were respected for who they were and did not have to fight to gain the rights they had. Hammurabi’s Code contained laws, which respected the rights of women. Society in general was formed around this sort of sexual equality. Many of the codes within Hammurabi’s Code favor the men of the society, though many of them spell out certain rights for the lives of the women.
The code of Hammurabi was the first set of written laws to have been created. There were a collection of 282 laws which were recorded. Hammurabi states in his codes the reason for his laws. As stated in The Making of the West by Hunt, "to show Shamash that he had fulfilled the social responsibility imposed on him as a divinely installed monarch" (p.16). This meant that Hammurabi clearly felt that he was accountable for the justice and morals of his people, and that they should abide by them. One of the major points of the moral code included equal punishment under the same class. Code 196 states "If a noble man puts out the eye of another noble man, his eyes shall be put out." This clearly implies that the equal punishment law was severely followed by the Babylonians. Another important point was how woman were of lesser importance compared to men. Code 132 states how if a woman is not caught sleeping with another man she should jump in the water for the sake of her husband. This shows how woman were expected to be faithful and follow by their husbands side. While, if a man was to create adultery with his daughter he would only be exiled. The making of the West by Hunt states "A wife could divorce her husband for cruelty; a husband could divorce his wife for any reason" (p.16). This evidently shows how indisputably biased Hammurabi was towards woman in that society. Slaves' conducts and rules were also listed in the codes. They had absolutely no rights at all, even if they were to be killed by another being.
Society is defined as being “an enduring and cooperating social group whose members have developed organized patterns of relationships through interaction with one another” (merriam-webster). The relationship between men and women has played a large role in its culture; “gender hierarchy has been the implicit operating model for understanding … past societies.” (Stokett). As stated, gender hierarchy defines the relationship between the genders as unbalanced in respect to each other, typically placing men as the dominant gender compared to the roles females play. Although often seen as inferior; women have played a prominent role in defining cultures; such is the case for Maya, Inca, and Aztec societies.
In ancient Greek society women lived hard lives on account of men's patriarch built communities. Women were treated as property. Until about a girl’s teens she was "owned" by her father or lived with her family. Once the girl got married she was possessed by her husband along with all her belongings. An ancient Greece teenage girl would marry about a 30-year-old man that she probably never met before. Many men perceived women as being not being human but creatures that were created to produce children, please men, and to fulfill their household duties. A bride would not even be considered a member of the family until she produced her first child. In addition to having a child, which is a hard and painful task for a teenage girl in ancient civilization to do, the husband gets to decide if he wants the baby. A baby would be left outside to die if the husband was not satisfied with it; usually this would happen because the child was unhealthy, different looking, or a girl.
This rule over women started to trend in early civilizations. In the early civilizations like Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, Chinese and Islamic cultures, the societies are said to be patriarchal and women would report to men. In the Babylonian empire, the ruler Hammurabi created something no civilization had ever seen before: a law code citizens were to abide to. This law code was one of the most famous ancient law codes because of the harshness and the women's rights. In the Hammurabi code the social order was really important and exceeded importance of individual right. Hammurabi also emphasized the sacrifice of women’s sexuality just to assure legitimacy. Women were seen as property of men and that obviously isn’t
The struggle for women to play an important role in history can be traced from the ancient Mesopotamians to the 1900’s. There has been a continuous battle for women to gain equal rights and to be treated equally in all aspects of life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest recorded account of the roles of women and their importance in a functional society. Women have been viewed as anything from goddesses to unwanted servants throughout history, regardless of a variety of changes in rulers, religions, and simply time periods. The Epic of Gilgamesh might lead one to consider the roles of women a small and insignificant part compared to the man 's role. In fact, three women; Shamhat, Ishtar, and Siduri, were able to create and maintain a civilized Mesopotamian society with using their uniqueness of their body, mind, and spirit.
Henrik Ibsen once said, “A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.”(Notable Quotes) Ibsen’s statement exemplifies what life was like for women during ancient times. In many of the organized ancient civilizations, it was very common to find a primarily patriarchal civilization in government as well as in society. The causing factors can be attributed to different reasons, the main being the Neolithic Revolution and the new found dependence on manpower it caused. As a result of this, a woman found herself to be placed into an entirely different view in the eye of society. In comparison to the early Paleolithic matriarchal societies, the kinds of changes that came about for women due to the introduction of agriculture are shocking. Since the beginnings of the Neolithic era, the role and rights of women in many ancient civilizations began to become limited and discriminatory as a result of their gender.
...ct that women of Babylon could marry slaves of the state remains an unconventional aspect compared to other societies such as ancient Greece or Egypt. Female slaves received even harsher treatment compared to free women in that in addition to the work and toil they would have to perform, they rarely received any sort of recompense or justice if they were harmed or wronged by either another slave or a free person. They remained the property of Babylonian men essentially; the gender favored by the gods and who exercised power, authority, and strength. Hammurabi’s Code made all of these characteristics of women evident and emphasized what men found displeasing in the behavior of females as opposed to what they desired in their behavior. Therefore, through the consequences listed by the primary source, one can accurately infer what a woman experienced in her daily life.
The role of women in different civilizations, even though on different spectrums of the world, had many similarities and only a few differences. Women in these four civilizations: Greece, Egypt, China, and India faced many of the same hardships, struggles, and prejudices. Some of this treatment of women didn’t even end until present day (1920’s). In some of these civilizations women were able to rise up somewhat in their communities but it didn’t come without some kind of interference.
The Kingdom of Kush is one of the earliest civilizations to develop in the Nile River Valley; it was located in the Northern African region of Nubia, which is today’s Sudan (Kaufmann). The Kingdom of Kush contributed to the civilization and culture of Egypt. One thing that did not carry over into the Egyptian lifestyle was the importance of woman. In Egypt, women were placed in more traditional, homebody roles (Kushite Politics). In Ancient Kush, women were more active than men (Kushite Politics). Women worked on farms, in the labor force and they were even royalty (Kaufmann). Kushite women played a large part within the governance of the kingdom, which is considered unique for the ancient civilizations of that time.
The traditional view of gender roles differs where women are nurturing, home oriented and calm. On the other hand, men are seen as the opposite. Nevertheless, the modern view does not distinguish these differences because of the greater involvement of the father in the family. The differences do not lie among the genders but the perspective of the individuals in society, both genders can contribute to each other’s works regardless of what sex they fall under. The society, religious institute, and media play a greater role in shaping these gender roles.
Gender is an important aspect of our social life; it comprises of power relations, the division of labour, symbolic forms and emotional relations (Connel, 2000).