Male Dominance in Mesopotamia The social and family structure in Mesopotamia, through “The Code of Hammurabi,” shows us how marriages were mainly the males decision, making male the dominant figure in the Mesopotamia social structure. Males were dominant in other ways too, by making sure they had a male air to pass on his wealth to, this way they could keep their family name in the society. Not only males, but noble males were able to do more things then the lower-class male because they could pay them off. I think “The Code of Hammurabi,” shows male dominance throughout the Mesopotamian society’s social class and into their family structure, by having more power over women. One-way male dominance showed in the Mesopotamian society, is by faithfulness of their wife’s, to the male family figure. In Nelson’s, “When the Mesopotamian Honeymoon Ends: The Code of Hammurabi's Assumptions about the Roles of Spouses and Problem-Solving Approach to Regulating Marriage,” it talks about how women had to be faithful to their husbands. It was the father and future son-in-law who would arrange the marriage, by signing a contract (to be able to marry his daughter) and paying a fee. Letting males make the decisions on who marries who, without letting the women of Mesopotamia decide, is another reason why males had more …show more content…
Slave were not equal to the free lower-class men because slaves couldn’t own property, whereas free lower-class men could. Although slaves weren’t equal, they were valuable property to the wealthy class. One-way slaves could help is, if the noble women/wife couldn’t have a male child, they could have a male child and make it part of the noble family. This way the noble male has someone to pass his wealth to. After the slave birthed them a male child, she couldn’t be sold off. This shows, even if you were a slave, you had a role in Mesopotamians society and in the social
According to a chart on slavery and cotton production in America, cotton and slavery are directly proportional (Doc B). For example, in 1840 the number of slaves in America was 25,00000 slaves, while the number of bales was 125,0000 bales. Another economic reason that made slavery a dominating reality of Southern life in the antebellum period was slave auctions. On the auction block, families were often sundered, due to economic reasons. These economic reasons included insolvency or the segregation of “property” among successors. The separation of families was one of slavery’s biggest psychological nightmares. The poster from 1823 promoted a slave auction (Doc A). The point of view of the poster is in favor of slavery. In this poster, the slaves are described in terms of their capability to do tasks. Slaves would be inspected like an animal by potential buyers. Potential buyers would have slaves open their mouths, and would also prod them with sticks. The younger and healthier the slave was, the more expensive he/she
This was a major reason slave-owners could justify slavery. No matter how hard a slave worked, they were all treated equally, each getting the same amount of care from their master, the slave-owners claimed. With slavery, there was no favoritism among the slaves and there was no insufficient pay because they weren’t paid at all!
Inside three people’s lives: free black men, slave women and a middle class white woman, none of them actually had the freedom and rights as opposed to today. If a middle class white woman was married, her life would be controlled by her husband. She had no property rights and could not vote. Free black men could own property and vote in many states outside the South. The slave woman had no rights at all.
Male dominance has been prevalent ever since the hunter/gatherer social transformation. It continues to be so, in almost every culture, except of the apparent Amazons. Even today, in our post-Industrial era, males are still more dominant than females, especially in third world countries. The male gender were the ones to become leaders and determiners. They define what is acceptable for a woman ranging from one culture to the next. Whether it is the way a woman should dress, be treated, or how she should behave, it is all decided by the males in society. These decisions vary from female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, to anal sex as the initiation into womanhood, to women being whipping for a man to transition into adulthood.
There were a number of different reasons why the population of indentured servants had decreased. For whatever reason, indentured servitude was a form of labor that was declining, and the need for labor increased rapidly. African-American labor was beginning to be more valuable than white labor. African laborers were beginning to be looked at as property, as well as being treated that way. By the 1660’s, the status of the African as an indentured servant was gone.
“The right to have a slave implies the right in some one to make a slave; that right must be equal and mutual, and this would resolve society into a state of perpetual war.” Senator William Steward, an anti-slavery supporter, issued this claim in his “There is a Higher Law than the Constitution” speech. Steward, like all abolitionist, viewed all of man as equals. This equality came from the “higher law” that is the Bible. Since all men were created by God then all men were equals in God’s eyes. Abolitionist believed that whites had no more right to make a slave out of a African American than the African American had to make a slave out of a white man.
Their limitations amongst society can also be noticed by the amount of education that they are entitled to. Plato’s Republic mentions how the role of women is determined by the status of their spouse. For instance, if a woman were to be the wife of a guard, then she would be expected to live at the level of that status, too. She is expected to be able to contribute to society a great deal more rather than stay at home and take care of her children and household.
A woman was not seen as being equal to a man. This is clear in the laws dealing with marriage. Women were contractually obligated to remain with their husbands only, while their husbands were permitted to have a mistress or second wife. If a woman was caught with another man, she would be drowned (“The Code of Hammurabi”). Another thing that shows that women were not equal to men is the fact that they could be sold into slavery by their husbands at any time. Women did, however, have some rights such as the right to own property and the right to inherit and pass down that property. They also played very important roles in society. Some of these roles included shop owners, bakers, or scribes (Judge and Langdon,
Slavery is the idea and practice that one person is inferior to another. What made the institution of slavery in America significantly different from previous institutions was that “slavery developed as an institution based upon race.” Slavery based upon race is what made slavery an issue within the United States, in fact, it was a race issue. In addition, “to know whether certain men possessed natural rights one had only to inquire whether they were human beings.” Slaves were not even viewed as human beings; instead, they were dehumanized and were viewed as property or animals. During this era of slavery in the New World, many African slaves would prefer to die than live a life of forced servitude to the white man. Moreover, the problem of slavery was that an African born in the United States never knew what freedom was. According to Winthrop D. Jordan, “the concept of Negro slavery there was neither borrowed from foreigners, nor extracted from books, nor invented out of whole cloth, nor extrapolated from servitude, nor generated by English reaction to Negroes as such, nor necessitated by the exigencies of the New World. Not any one of these made the Negro a slave, but all.” American colonists fought a long and bloody war for independence that both white men and black men fought together, but it only seemed to serve the white man’s independence to continue their complete dominance over the African slave. The white man must carry a heavy
This stratification of classes has happened in all great societies. Anti-abolitionists believe that if it weren’t for the slave’s utter lack of intelligence, they would be capable to run the farms without white supervision, and slavery would be unnecessary (Fitzhugh 389-390). The slaves now fill that role which must always be filled. In the North it is filled by factory workers and beggars (Hammond 448). If the slaves were to be set free, the freed slaves would compete for jobs at the lowest level.
Equality was necessary for many people during this time because of their living conditions. But some people in society did not believe this was acceptable. But equality is very important as a democratic idea. Equality was being fought for the slaves and the women in the community. The slaves were starting to gain their freedom when the Northerners realized how immoral slavery was.
Throughout ancient civilizations, women were lower than men. In some civilizations like Mesopotamia society, women were below slaves. It is not shocking that they would still not be equal to men. In Roman society, women had more independence and people were more encouraging of women being educated in philosophy. In the Hans society, women did not have any freedom. They were required to follow what the men told them. By examining Gaius Musonius Rufus’ essay and Ban Zhao’s essay, the views of women were different. Woman in Roman society had more freedom and women in the Han’s society were required to fulfill her responsibilities.
A consistent characteristic among the first civilizations was social stratification. In most of the first civilizations, social hierarchies included kings, the elites, the working class, and slaves. Social stratification was evident in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian societies based off of the documents from the Babylonian Empire, The Law Code of Hammurabi, and the Egyptian student text, Be a Scribe. In the document The Law Code of Hammurabi, soldiers, farmers, salves, and other jobs are mentioned (96-97). In the document Be a Scribe, farmers, cobblers, soldiers, and various other jobs are mentioned (100-101). It is significant that these jobs are mentioned in both documents because it illustrates the similarities in these civilization’s social hierarchies. But, the similarities in their social structures do not end there. Special treatment based off of social standing was a consistent factor in both of these civilizations as well. This is clearly exemplified in Mesopotamia with the harshness of punishments for crimes being dependent on class (97). In Egypt, evidence of special treatment based off of social stratification is insinuated in the document Be a Scribe. This document delves into the negatives of having low class jobs and encourages people to become educated to grow in class rank (101). Despite these similarities, these two civilizations still held vastly different values and
The Hammurabi Code: Women’s Rights is a paper I wrote for my Foundations of Western Civilization class taught by Dr. Munson. His goal was for all of his students to write a paper about a topic that interests us during a certain time era.
In addition to physical male dominance, economic superiority was displayed every time the male, whether it is the boyfriend in the intimate couple, or the father in the family, paid the bill, rather than the female.