Mesopotamian Marriage Law

Marriage Law in Ancient Mesopotamia very much resembled property law. As discerned from Hammurabi's Code, wives were bought and sold in a manner very much resembling slavery. The legal institution of marriage, its rules and ramifications, show that in the Mesopotamian world, marriage and slavery were legal cousins.^[1]

Cultural Institutions

The difficulty of understanding social and cultural values based on a legal code must not be ignored. For Sumer and Akkad and Assyria, we have an understanding of their material culture in the form of archaeologial evidence. We have glimpses of their culture, from Gilgamesh and the Eannatum, but we can only guess of their demeanor. Were these laws of marriage built out of necessity or whim, a personal desire of Hammurabi’s or to correct a perceived ill of society? The short answer, of course, is that we’ll never know. One can see a basic egalitarian spirit within the code. It treats male and female slaves equally. It affords protection to children borne of a slave if those children are ever treated as part of the family. But the protection afforded to wives, though well-mannered, is like the protection afforded to the honest merchant, the oxen and the ill-gotten slave. A woman is required to kill herself if a charge of adultery is brought against her, not for her impurity, but because she has brought shame upon the family. This is the case with no guilt. If she has actually committed adultery, then she is to be thrown into the river.

Divorce

Divorce is acceptable, even amiable, if it’s a matter of returning the dowry and getting a refund on the bride-price. Finding a new wife, marrying a priestess, they’ve all got their rules. The position of a woman in Mesopotamian society can best be seen with two examples. The one is the responsibility of a father to leave his son with a wife. The wording is to, “enable him to acquire a wife.” The wife is treated thus, as a piece of property, which is not to say poorly, as the Mesopotamians treated their property with respect.^[2] The word translated as husband is, literally, “Owner of a wife”.

Teleology

This Middle Eastern history-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · edit] References ^ http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=58 ^ http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/women.html Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая? Joshua Braff Guntersblum Look at other dictionaries: Mesopotamian mythology — is the collective name given to Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq.The Sumerians practiced a polytheistic religion, with anthropomorphic gods or goddesses… …   Wikipedia Mesopotamian religion — Introduction  beliefs and practices of the Sumerians and Akkadians, and their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, who inhabited ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) in the millennia before the Christian era. These religious beliefs and… …   Universalium MARRIAGE —    The social structure of Mesopotamian society was patriarchal, but women were not considered the legal property of males. They could own property and engage in business in their own right. Marriage in Mesopotamia was the socially sanctioned… …   Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia Portal:Law of England and Wales — Shortcut: P:ENGLAW Wikipedia portals: Culture Geography Health History Mathematics Natural sciences People Philosophy Religion Society Technology …   Wikipedia Namus — For other uses, see Namus (disambiguation). Namus is the Arabic word (Hebrew nmūs , Greek νόμος ) of a concept of an ethical category, a virtue, in Middle Eastern patriarchal character. Literally translated as virtue , it is now more popularly… …   Wikipedia education — /ej oo kay sheuhn/, n. 1. the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. 2. the act or process of… …   Universalium slavery — /slay veuh ree, slayv ree/, n. 1. the condition of a slave; bondage. 2. the keeping of slaves as a practice or institution. 3. a state of subjection like that of a slave: He was kept in slavery by drugs. 4. severe toil; drudgery. [1545 55; SLAVE… …   Universalium Islamic studies by author (non-Muslim or academic) — Included are prominent authors who have made studies concerning Islam, the religion and its civilization, except for those studies of Islam produced by Muslim authors meant primarily for a Muslim audience.[1] Herein most of the authors from the… …   Wikipedia MESOPOTAMIA — The original article in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica traced Mesopotamian history to its earliest beginnings and provided a detailed survey of Mesopotamian literature and institutions. With the availability of such tools as J.… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism biblical literature — Introduction       four bodies of written works: the Old Testament writings according to the Hebrew canon; intertestamental works, including the Old Testament Apocrypha; the New Testament writings; and the New Testament Apocrypha.       The Old… …   Universalium 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”