Patriarchy In Ancient Civilizations

Patriarchy is a system of ruling based on men’s dominance, so men were masters of the society and even masters of the household who controls everything and who has the first and the last say in everyone’s else life and decisions. So living in a patriarchal society means living beyond the power of men with excluding women. Most Agricultural civilizations were peculiarly patriarchal because men were handling most of the community needs (political, economic, and cultural life). Distinctive patriarchal conditions were evolved in Mesopotamian civilization. Men were selling their wives and children into thraldom to pay off their debts. Moreover, According to Hammurabi’s laws adultery penalty is Drowning to death for both the woman and her partner, but the law would permit him if the faulty was a man and

So some of the aspects that indicate this are as following. First, by 1500 BCE, men forced women especially from upper class to cover themselves by veils when leaving home to discourage other men attention. Secondly, they insisted on the virginity of brides at marriage and they banned casual communicating between married couples and different families. Those habits spread through out most of southwest Asia, which enhanced the patriarchal society. Nowadays, there is no patriarchal societies like in the ancient civilizations, but it does exist in some places in the world like India but it is not that strict as in Antiquity. We can say it does exist in the rate of fifty fifty. Because in some communities what shows up is there is no patriarchy, but when deepen in family relationships we find that patriarchy does exist somehow. And when talking about GII (Gender Inequality Index) that indicates empowerment, labor and reproductive Health, it seems that women have made huge strides since 1990 but they have not yet gained gender