Western Civilization
... her father’s house if her husband is “wayward and disparages her greatly”. Women sexually assaulted were also protected by Hammurabi’s laws. “If a man pins down another man’s virgin wife who is still residing in her father’s house, and they seize him lying with her, that man shall be killed; that woman shall be released.” (Brophy et al. 52). Many times, if a man takes the virginity of a woman, if he lives through it, he is forced to take that woman to be his wife and he can never divorce her. The main career for women, other than being a wife and mother, was the textile industry. For the most part, women of all classes were weavers of textiles. In the History of Western Civilization, it shows a carving of a noble woman being fanned while she weaved. This shows even noble women produced textiles for their family and possibly even for trade. (Coffin et al. 54). It is important to remember that Babylonian law regarded women as property of their husbands. (Coffin et al. 54). She was not allowed to badmouth her husband or sleep around with other men. These offenses resulted in drowning. Even though the Babylonians worshiped several gods, there is no mention of retribution by Marduk. The only mentioned integration of religion in political society is wars waged in the name of Marduk. The laws for the Hebrew women were fairly similar. However, these laws were not made by man. According to the Hebrew religion, these laws were set forth by Yahweh, the Hebrew god. The first laws were the Ten Commandments given to the Hebrews in the barren wilderness of the Sinai Desert. “…these laws were expanded and elaborated on to from the basis of the Torah, the corpus of biblical law.” (Brophy et al. 116). Laws pertaining to slaves, men and women are found in the book of Exodus. If a slave is married and brings his wife and children during his six years of slaver, when he leaves he can take his wife and children with him. However, if the owner gives him a wife during the term of slaver and she bares him children, the wife and children belong to the master and the man must leave alone at the end of this six years. An option for the slave is to stay with his wife and children and become the permanent slave of the master (Brophy et al. 117). A daughter sold into slavery cannot go free after six years like a man can. If she is unpleasing to her master, she can be redeemed or she can be given to his son. If the master takes another woman and does not provide the first with meat, clothes and conjugal rights she can go free without payment. The Hebrew people have a similar law as the Babylonians concerning pregnant women. There is a monetary penalty for the destruction of a fetus but if death is involved than the laws say “you are to give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound” (Brophy et al. 118). The Book of Leviticus spells out severe punishments for incest, bestiality, and sex with a woman during her menstrual cycle. A woman wanting to have relations with an animal is immediately put to death along with the animal. A brother and sister who have sex are to be cut off by their people. The same goes for a man who lies with a woman during her menstrual cycle. Both he and the woman are to be shunned. In the Hebrew culture, if a man is discovered lying with a married woman, both are put to death. In the Babylonian culture, there is a possibility the lives of the man and woman could be spared. There is no possibi...