Women in the Ancient Mediterranean Research Paper

Wo hands in the Ancient Mediterranean - Research Paper utilisationImplicit within the patriarchal ideology was the perception that those outside the hegemonic male were losers and inferior to males. The paper explores the spatial relation and role of wo manpower in ancient Mediterranean. A review of womens agency in ancient civilizations such as Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Rome demonstrates the social, political, and cultural factors that propelled female empowerment. In addition to the powerful images of goddesses and womens roles within the spiritual sphere, womens activities manifested within other social realms including economic, health, war, poetry, governance, and philosophy (Rutland 16). Largely, the sphere of religious practice can be regarded as an opportunity for prodigious women to attain their own value within a culture that concisely defined feminine roles as subservient to masculine models. Hence, historians highlight the Minoan civilization that appeared to manifest several(prenominal) of female deities backing the assumption that women in Knossos benefited from religious gender democratization. In most cases, only exceptional women who are atypical of the mainstream impacted on the politics of the day, mainly through their husbands as was the case of Olympias (Alexander the neat mother). This observation also applies to Cleopatra VII, who was the final Pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty. This was also true of the egalitarian early Christian perform that largely relegated women to the home to serve their husbands (Walcot 163). Discussion In ancient Mediterranean, women ranked along property kind of than separate legal persona. As a result, the control of women remained a male prerogative hence, adultery or rape remained sins against the male members of the family (husband, father, and brothers), and only incidentally against the victim (woman). This is well captured in the book of Deuteronomy (2225-8), whereby if a unite woman is ra ped within the confines of the city and is non heard to cry out, the ordeal is not considered rape but adultery, and as such, should be castigated accordingly. In the ancient Mediterranean, prostitutes were depicted as dangerous, capable of discovery men their virtue (at worse their masculinity) since they were not within the confines of a dominant male. Women came out as irrational, prone to hysteria, and sex-obsessed. Women, especially virgins formed a section of the particular(a) good of the society as limited resources to be pursued and acquired by men of prestige, power, and wealth. Men epitomized status and honor while women epitomized decorum and sinlessness and lack of these meant the presence of shame. The social stigma heightened the powerlessness of the woman (Walcot 163). For instance, upon registration, a prostitute lost her estimable liberties as a citizen and listed for life and marriage or motherhood could not eliminate her name from the list. This highlights tha t a prostitutes occupation was the core determinant of her entire life-style and the stigma associated with the occupation could not be eliminated. on that point is ample literature on the social structures of honor and shame and how they affected women within Mediterranean antiquity. accolade and shame acted as coordinates in an intricate matrix of other societal factors such as kinship, economic control, social networking, and social hierarchy. The honor code derived from gender roles linked to sex, whereby honor can be ascribed to men while shame to women. In this model, the honor of the family resides in its women (women embody the possibility for shame via their sexual conduct) however, men carry the responsibility for protecting women (considered as the