Women’s Studies and Ancient History

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 un-earthed 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 male-female 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 Cro-Magnons, (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 Greco-Roman 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.

Egypt 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.

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.

Women’s Studies and Ancient History