Women’s Studies and Ancient History
Most of us, as products of a
patriarchy-created
educational system, believe
that women have always
had less status than and
been dominated by men.
Most anthropological writings indicate that the
general egalitarianism in these societies did not fully
apply to women.
–These writings recognize that matrilineality
existed argue that it just substituted the authority of
a woman’s male relatives for that her father and
husband.
– They suggest that women, even in foraging
societies, were basically equal to men but had
slightly lower status.
– They suggest that women’s role is always
“private,” while men’s is “public.”
Theories of early humans or their
predecessors have long believed that men
were hunting, while women gathered seeds
and plants and took care of the children.
Thomas Hobbes,
a famous historian and
philosopher, theorized that
aggressiveness and
competitiveness were what
enabled people to “overcome”
their environment and create
great civilizations.
http://www.skuola.net/filosofia/pensiero_politico.asp
A study of available data, however, suggests that
these statements are not true, that probably some
bias caused assumptions to be made about data
that were not necessarily true.
We now believe that:
1) that a stage of primitive communism,
preceded the emergence of social
stratification
and
2) that women in certain ancient societies,
did hold a relatively equal position to that of
men, even where stratification existed, but
gradually lost that status as patriarchal
societies gained power and used it to
institutionalize changes
Eleanor Leacock believes that studying data
from social and physical anthropology,
archeology, and primatology in their
entirety, rather than selectively, suggests
that sociality, curiosity, and playfulness--not
aggressiveness or competitiveness as
Thomas Hobbes once theorized--made it
possible for a fairly small and defenseless
creature to evolve into the human being that
created many different ways of life around
the world.
Sociality is the abounding desire to be close
to others of the same species and an
overriding interest in them.
Rather than competition among individuals for an
elevated status, some historians now believe that a
rich group life led to cooperation, which itself led
to and depended upon the development of tools,
utensils, and language.
Private property,
Social stratification,
Political subjugation, and
Institutionalized warfare with standing armies
That these exist do not automatically express
some innate human nature or some necessary
linear progression of human history.
The institutionalized
inequalities so familiar and
“natural” to us, the
dominance hierarchies,
arose in the fourth
millennium B.C.E., during
the urban revolution.
Prior to that, data
suggests, that at different
times, various egalitarian
gathering and hunting,
and later, horticultural (or
hoe-agricultural) societies
existed.
•
They elaborated ritually
on various forms of social
and ceremonial rank but
still maintained, as far as
can be determined, the
equal right of all to basic
sources of livelihood.
http://www.museums.org.za/sam/resource/arch
/linton3.htm
The theory of urban revolution goes like this:
As a result of human inventiveness and
ingenuity (agriculture and its tools)
specialization of work developed, moving
some out of direct contact with food
production. Barter became commerce,
supplies began to be stored for the future for
the first time, and Priest-chiefs gradually
began assuming control of the stores,
transferring ritual rank to elitism. Equal
access to land became restricted, and class
systems were created--not always without
resistance. (Leacock 18)
The Ancients
• Study of the Ancients
is difficult for several
reasons:
– Source Material
– Competition
– Bias
Exam Stats—Multiple Choice Portion
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Class Average = 17.1
Back Row = 15.1
Third Row = 17.6
Second Row = 18
First Row = 19.2
Women = 17.2
Men = 16.8
Source Material, itself
Material about ancient cultures, produced by these
ancient cultures is not always readily available or
easy to come by. Most of it must be literally unearthed and can be damaged or destroyed in the
reclaiming process. Materials usually consist of
burial or ceremonial sites, or in the case of more
“advanced” or “civilized” societies--like Egypt or
Sumer--written texts of economic accounts, laws
or codes, or personal seals. Much data from the
past has not survived or is currently unavailable.
Disciplinary Priority
The very people involved in reclaiming and
studying these artifacts can hinder the study of
those artifacts.
Archeologists tend to concentrate on excavating
palaces, temples, and royal tombs rather than on town
sites which could potentially tell us more about the
lives of ordinary people in antiquity.
Philologists, who translate texts, often give higher
priority to figuring out lexicographical and grammatical
problems, seldom analyzing the content as thoroughly
as a social historian.
Ethnocentric Bias
Ethno- meaning Race, from the Greek for People
Societies with histories outside of the traditions of
Europe or the Orient are commonly all lumped
together and labeled “Primitive.”
This has two effects.
1) Statements made about women in “primitive”
societies do not usually take into account the
diversity of all those societies.
2) Scholars can misinterpret data based on their own
assumptions, such as assuming either that malefemale dyads exist in all societies’ social-economic
and child care organization, as they do in Western
civilization, or that social action is always divided
into public, formal, political (Male) spheres and
private, familial, informal (Female) spheres.
This has historically been a difficult bias to overcome.
Many of the Greek and Roman historians found other
societies, either ones which dominated and conquered or
ones which they were dominated and conquered by, strange
and less civilized--just based on different customs and, in
some cases, different gender relations.
Androcentric Bias
Andro- meaning Male, masculine, from the Greek
for Man
Anthropologists and scientists, on the whole, have been
men who interview other men and assume that the data
collected is sufficient for understanding a society.
Women scholars have ‘accepted’ this, because they,
too, are products of the same culture and institutions.
They are trained to think ‘like men.’ Only recently have
men and women become conscious of the distortions
created by “male” or patriarchal bias. (Kimmel’s
invisibility)
A recent re-analysis of the data suggests,
again, that patriarchal traditions were
preceded by egalitarian horticultural
societies, as can be discerned from what
little we know about the early hunting
peoples of Europe.
Neanderthal Society
• The few hints left about the life of the
Neanderthals, the theorized ancestors of modern
humans who lived until 40 or 50,000 years ago
confirm the essentially social nature of human
evolution.
• Several families shared single large dwellings, and
evidence suggests that the infirm were cared for.
Burial sites give the evidence of this:
– A Skeleton of relatively old arthritic cripple in one site
– One of an older man whose right arm had been
amputated when young
– Older skeletons buried with flowers
Cro-Magnon Society
• This social nature is reaffirmed by studies of the CroMagnons, (35,00-10,000 years ago) the theorized
successors of the Neanderthals and precursors to
modern humans.
– Cave paintings of the Cro-Magnons indicate a respect for
hunted animals (as opposed to an aggressive desire to kill a
weaker creature) and an appreciation of their beauty.
– These paintings also suggest a ceremonial life in which both
men and women participated.
– Additionally, numerous female figurines, ranging from very
fat to almost stick-like but always very stylized indicate the
importance of women to ritual.
Women in the Stone Age
• Venus of Willendorf
– c. 24,000-22,000 BCE
– Limestone
– 43/8 inches (11.1 cm)
high
– (Naturhistorisches
Museum, Vienna)
1966
Movie
Poster
Theory of Creation of Patriarchy
• The urban revolution (economic and
political changes) coincided with territorial
challenges and disputes, which necessitated
the creation of standing armies, which, in
turn, further divided labor between and
thought about the sexes. Women were
likely to be seen as objects or property that
needed protection.
Two different strands of social development
occur:
• That of the Mediterranean world, where the
classical patriarchy of the ancient Middle East
finally succeeded in submerging what had been
the formal public participation of women in
social, political, and religious matters; and
• That of the northern European periphery where
women, though far from equal to men,
nonetheless retained a relatively higher status
than in Mediterranean cultures--a status that
persisted long enough to effect early medieval
society.
A Comparison between Ancient
Egypt and Assyria
By analyzing the data we
can see that women
had a higher relative
status in ancient Egypt
than in Assyria.
Queen Hatsheput
Egypt
• Egypt survived for 3,000 years until the GrecoRoman civilization, led by the Roman war
machine under Caesar, finally conquered it in the
era of Cleopatra.
• In ancient Egypt men and women were treated
relatively equally to each other, although they
experienced differences in treatment based on
class.
– For instance, a wealthy Egyptian man and a wealthy
Egyptian woman were seen as equals under their laws,
as were a poor man or a poor woman; however, the
wealthy citizens had more rights and more advantages
under their law than did the poor.
Although it was not
always practiced
consistently, the right to
succeed to the throne
passed through the
women of the royal
family. Thus the king,
who was considered to
be an incarnation of the
sky-god Horus, had to
marry a princess of the
royal blood known as
the Daughter of the God
because of her kingly
father’s acknowledged
divinity.
Egypt
• Often in the royal family, brother married
sister to keep the throne within the family.
This corresponds to their mythological
accounts of Isis and Osiris, sibling deities
who marry to maintain power.
Royal Women
• Lists of kings often record their mothers’ names as
well because of their role in the succession.
• Splendid tombs provide evidence of this high
respect of kings’ mothers, as well. One queen
(Hetepheres) was buried with golden furniture.
• Royal women did not dwell secluded in harems
but took an active role in court life, assuming the
duties of regents if their husbands died before the
heir apparent came of age.
Common Women
• Murals show unveiled women selling products in
marketplace and working in harvest scenes
alongside men. Women winnowed wheat,
handpicked flax, spun it into thread, wove it into
linen cloth, ground wheat, and brewed beer.
• Household accounts of an Egyptian farm in 2000
B. C. Shows that all members of one family
received wages for the work they performed; adult
men and women receiving equal amounts, youths
less.
Assyria
In ancient Assyria, where Amorite peoples
displace Sumerians, misogyny borne out of a
“patriarchy in the extreme” seems to be the rule of
gender relations. Assyrians, unlike Egyptians,
expressed little or no faith in an afterlife.
Their law code then is extremely harsh as all
penalties for improper behavior cannot be left for
the “next” life.
Assyrian Law
• Private property was extremely important, and
women had no right to property. Their fathers or
their husbands controlled everything.
– A husband could give property his wife brought into
their marriage to anyone at anytime.
– However, a woman could still be held responsible for
her husband’s debts, and daughters could actually be
enslaved for their father’s debts.
Assyrian Justice
• Women who were victims of crime usually
suffered at the hands of justice.
– A virgin who was raped by a man would be made to
marry him, perhaps because he had claimed her only
asset or perhaps because the rape was seen as being her
fault.
– A rapist was punished by having his own wife raped by
the victim’s father; the rapist of a married woman was
put to death.
• Many offenses under the law code could result in a
woman’s death, such as abortion, adultery, or
“suspicious” activities outside the home.
Assyrian Sexuality
• Female sexuality was intensely regulated.
As the descent was patrilineal, legitimacy
was guaranteed by restricting women.
Virginity was prized for brides.
• Women needed to be veiled when in public.
• Even queens were highly restricted, guarded
by eunuchs along with their husbands’
concubines in the kings’ harems.
Patriarchal Patterns Cross-Culturally
As we will see with our study of the earliest
creation myths across several societies, a
pattern seems to emerge in ancient history:
that of a creative mother goddess or a
creative male/female deity pair that, over
time and corresponding to the development
and entrenchment of patriarchy, gets
replaced with a male creative deity/deities.