Assignment task:
Hammurabi's Code covers a broad spectrum of moral, social, and commercial obligations. Its civil and criminal statutes specify penalties for murder, theft, incest, adultery, kidnapping, assault and battery, and many other crimes. More importantly for our understanding of ancient culture, it is a storehouse of information concerning the nature of class divisions, family relations, and human rights.
Under Babylonian law, individuals were not regarded as equals. Human worth was defined in terms of a person's wealth and status in society. Violence committed by one free person upon another was punished reciprocally (clause 196), but the same violence committed upon a lower-class individual drew considerably lighter punishment (clause 198), and penalties were reduced even further if the victim was a slave (clause 199). Slaves, whether captives of war or victims of debt, had no civil rights under law and enjoyed only the protection of the household to which they belonged.
In Babylonian society, women were considered intellectually and physically inferior to men and-much like slaves-were regarded as the personal property of the male head of the household. A woman went from her father's house to that of her husband, where she was expected to bear children (clause 138). Nevertheless, as indicated by the Code, women enjoyed considerable legal protection (see clauses 134, 138, 141, and 142); their value as both child bearers and housekeepers was clearly acknowledged.
From Hammurabi's Code
134 If a man has been taken prisoner, and there is no food in his house, and his wife enters the house of another; then that woman bears no blame.
138 If a man divorces his spouse who has not borne him children, he shall give to her all the silver of the bride-price, and restore to her the dowry which she brought from the house of her father; and so he shall divorce her.
141 If a man's wife, dwelling in a man's house, has set her face to leave, has been guilty of dissipation, has wasted her house, and has neglected her husband; then she shall be prosecuted. If her husband says she is divorced, he shall let her go her way; he shall give her nothing for divorce. If her husband says she is not divorced, her husband may espouse another woman, and that woman shall remain a slave in the house of her husband.
142 If a woman hate her husband, and says 'Thou shalt not possess me,' the reason for her dislike shall be inquired into. If she is careful and has no fault, but her husband takes himself away and neglects her; then that woman is not to blame. She shall take her dowry and go back to her father's house.
196 If a man has destroyed the eye of a free man, his own eye shall be destroyed.
198 If he has destroyed the eye of a plebeian, or broken the bone of a plebeian, he shall pay one mina of silver [approximately one pound of silver].
199 If he has destroyed the eye of a man's slave, or broken the bone of a man's slave, he shall pay half his value.
Please answer the following questions:
Q1. What limits to human equality are suggested in these laws?
Q2. How would you evaluate the rights of women?