Women: Patriarchy, Religion, and History

It has been fascinating to learn how important early human history has been to our present-day societies.  Much of the culture that supports us—or burdens us—was developing before humans had the capability to record it in writing.  David Graeber, an anthropologist who specializes in economics, provided a guide to these early times with Debt: The First 5,000 Years.  It provided a major source for the articles Economics: Money, Markets, Debt, and the Barter Myth and Evolution, Economics, Patriarchy, and the Status of Women.  Graeber discussed the social evolution of males and females in early societies and introduced the historian Gerda Lerner. 

Lerner was a fascinating individual who dabbled in many fields.  She was an Austrian who spent some time in prison for her political activities after Anschluss in 1938.  In 1939 she managed to immigrate to the US sponsored by the man she was engaged to marry.  Her activities included writing novels, short stories, poetry, and essays.  She also collaborated on the development of a musical play, and cowrote the screenplay for the 1964 movie Black Like Me (1964) staring James Whitmore.  Her collaborator was Carl Lerner, her husband, who also directed the film.  However, Lerner is best known for her focus on women’s history.  In fact, she is credited with producing the first formal class on women’s history at any university in 1963 while she was still an undergraduate.  It would be her efforts that were critical in establishing the history of women as a formal topic for academic research.  She is best known for her book The Creation of Patriarchy (1986) which was the source for the article Patriarchy, Women, and the Origins of Slavery.

Lerner’s book covers the origins of patriarchy, its effects on society, its incorporation into religion and history, and its effects on women up to our current time.  A survey of what she provided is the subject here.

As humans progressed from a hunter-gatherer existence to a more sedentary agricultural-based economy, the division of responsibilities between the genders changed.  This period would begin the introduction of features of economics and capitalism that encouraged the accumulation of wealth in individuals, the industrialization of production, and the waging of war for conquest or defense.  All of these advantaged a division of labor in which men took the lead while women focused on the female responsibilities of breeding and caring for children.  Writing and the production of historically useful documents date back to about 3000 B.C.  At that time, evidence existed that women played a substantial, though not equal, role to that of men in society.  Over the next 1000 years or so such references disappeared from historical documents and the dominance of men was expressed in the patriarchal family structure.  At its worst, patriarchy provided these characteristics.

“The father had the power of life and death over his children.  He had the power to commit infanticide by exposure or abandonment.  He could give his daughters in marriage in exchange for receiving a bride price even during their childhood, or he could consecrate them to a life of virginity in the temple service.  He could arrange marriages for children of both sexes.  A man could pledge his wife, his concubines and their children as pawns for his debt; if he failed to pay back the debt, these pledges would be turned into debt slaves.”

 “The class difference between a wife living under the patriarchal dominance/protection of her husband and a slave living under the dominance/protection of the master was mainly that the wife could own a slave…”

The fate of women from poor families was worse.

“By the second millennium B.C. in Mesopotamian societies, the daughters of the poor were sold into marriage or prostitution in order to advance the economic interests of their families.”

Women became valuable commodities that could be bought or sold, but men would do the buying and selling.  It became very important to a man of wealth that he have some means of demonstrating that the women of his family were not available for sale and were safely held under his protection.  From this grew the practice of veiling “honorable” women so they could be distinguished from “dishonored” women who were forbidden the veil.

Lerner emphasizes that women must have acquiesced at some point to a division of labor that disadvantaged them, not realizing where it would ultimately lead.  After many generations of this treatment it was inevitable that women, with no other example, would accept this arrangement as natural.  The logic of patriarchy closely follows that of slavery.  If a group such as women can be treated as a lesser class of human being, then they must be a lesser class.  If a group of people can be enslaved, then they must deserve to be enslaved.  The institutionalized slavery of women, mostly captured in war, and their offspring would follow.  It would prove to be a profitable social and economic model that was eventually extended to include men as well.

Patriarchy would become an important part of the social organization.  The king or leader would depend on the allegiance of the wealthy patriarchal families, so laws were created by the state to support or regulate its practices.

“Patriarchy is a historic creation formed by men and women in a process that took nearly 2500 years to its completion.  In its earliest form patriarchy appeared as the archaic state.  The basic unit of its organization was the patriarchal family, which both expressed and constantly generated its rules and values.”

“These conditions were so firmly established by 1750 B.C. that Hammurabic law made a decisive improvement in the lot of debt pawns by limiting their terms of service to three years, where earlier it had been for life.”

The patriarchal subordination of women would become enshrined not only in state laws but also in religious beliefs.  Gods are created to serve the needs of those who have the power to create them.  The earliest societies, recognizing the importance of both creation and procreation, tended to create female gods with powers equal to or greater than that of male gods.  It was inevitable that as females became less influential in human societies that the importance of female gods would fade as well.  Lerner indicates that is exactly what happened, although it would take some time for this transition to occur.

“My thesis is that, just as the development of plow agriculture, coinciding with increased militarism, brought major changes in kinship and in gender relations, so did the development of strong kingships and of archaic states bring changes in religious beliefs and symbols.  The observable pattern is: first, the demotion of the Mother-Goddess figure and the ascendance and the later dominance of her male consort/son; then his merging with a storm-god into a male Creator-God, who heads the pantheon of gods and goddesses.  Wherever such changes occur, the power of creation and of fertility is transferred from the Goddess to the God.”

As kingdoms became larger and kings more powerful, a king would desire co-rule with the an ever more powerful god as his accomplice.  This would culminate in the all-powerful single god produced by the Hebrews in the Book of Genesis.  This and the other sacred Hebrew texts would contribute to the evolution of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and propagate concepts of morality up to the current day.  Much of what is found in the Bible is based on practices common to the peoples who lived in the areas where the Hebrews resided.  Thus, patriarchy would become God’s will, and the covenant that God made with the Hebrews would be made with men alone.  Women, at best, would be little more than a pot in which men could plant their seed.  At worst, they were temptresses who could lead men into sinful behavior, thus justifying control of their sexuality by the patriarch.

“It is by now taken for granted that earlier Sumero-Babylonian, Canaanite, and Egyptian cultural materials were adapted and transformed by the writers and redactors of the Bible and that contemporary practices, laws, and customs of neighboring peoples were reflected in its narrative.  In using the Biblical text as a source for historical analysis, one must be aware of the complexity of its authorship, its purposes, and its sources.”

“…the Bible, whether one wishes to believe it divinely inspired or not, was the work of many hands.  The writing of the Book of Genesis spanned a period of roughly four hundred years, from the tenth century B.C. to the fifth.  It is now generally accepted that there are three main traditions of authorship and that many of the sources represent a far more ancient tradition, which the redactors reinterpreted and incorporated in the narrative.”

The Biblical narratives are not kind to women.  The tale of Adam being created by a presumed male God by a means not requiring a birth process, eliminates any female role in creation.  Woman, in the form of Eve, is subsequently created from a rib of Adam, suggesting a lower status or rank relative to Adam and thus to God himself.  Eve then becomes the temptress that causes the fall from grace and the expulsion from Eden.  What clearer message could there be suggesting that women and their sexuality are dangerous to men and must be strictly controlled by men.

“In the earliest period the patriarch had undisputed authority over the members of his family.  The wife called her husband ‘ba’al’ or ‘master;’ he was similarly referred to as the ‘ba’al’ of his house or field.  In the Decalogue the wife is listed among a man’s possessions, along with his servants, his ox, and his ass (Ex.20:17).  In this period the father also could sell his daughter into slavery or prostitution, which was later forbidden him.  By the time of the monarchy, the father’s power of life and death over his family members was no longer unlimited and unrestrained.  In this respect we note an improvement in the position of daughters over the earlier period.”

The foundational event in the Hebrew religion was the covenant God was said to have made with Abraham.

“The decisive change in the relationship of man to God occurs in the story of the covenant, and it is defined in such a way as to marginalize women.”

Abraham was delivered this message from God.

“’Unto thy seed I have given this land’ (Gen.15:18).  The male seed thus acquires the power and blessing of the procreativity which lodges in Yahweh.  The metaphor of the male seed planted in the female womb, the furrow, the earth, is older than the period of the writing of the Old Testament.”

And what was asked of Abraham?

“He asks acceptance that He will be the God of Israel, He alone and no other.  And He demands that His people which worship Him will be set apart from other people by a bodily sign, a clearly identifiable token…”

The token will be the required circumcision of males.

“We must take note of the fact that Yahweh makes the covenant with Abraham alone, not including [his wife] Sarah, and that in so doing He gives divine sanction to the leadership of the patriarch over his family and tribe…the covenant relationship is only with males—first with Abraham, then explicitly with Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac, who is referred to only as Abraham’s son.  Moreover, the community of the covenant is divinely defined as a male community, as can be seen by the selection of the symbol chosen as ‘token of the covenant’.”

“For females, the Book of Genesis represented their definition as creatures essentially different from males; a redefinition of their sexuality as beneficial and redemptive only within the boundaries of patriarchal dominance; and finally the recognition that they were excluded from directly being able to represent the divine principle.  The weight of the Biblical narrative seemed to decree that by the will of God women were included in His covenant only through the mediation of men.”

One might ask why women remained in this subordinate state for so long.  Lerner provides this perspective on that matter.

The tyranny of the religions men created in order to propagate their dominance held women back for many centuries—and still does in some regions and cultures.

“…All males, whether enslaved or economically or racially oppressed, could still identify with those like them—other males—who represented mastery of the symbol system.  No matter how degraded, each male slave or peasant was like to the master in his relationship to God.  This was not the case for women.  Up to the time of the Protestant Reformation the vast majority of women could not confirm and strengthen their humanity by reference to other females in positions of intellectual authority and religious leadership.”

“Where there is no precedent, one cannot imagine alternatives to existing conditions.  It is this feature of male hegemony which has been the most damaging to women and has ensured their subordinate status for millennia.  The denial to women of their history has reinforced their acceptance of the ideology of patriarchy and has undermined the individual woman’s sense of self-worth.”

“The system of patriarchy can function only with the cooperation of women.  This cooperation is secured by a variety of means: gender indoctrination; educational deprivation; the denial to women of knowledge of their history; the dividing of women, one from the other, by defining ‘respectability’ and ‘deviance’ according to women’s sexual activities; by restraints and outright coercion; by discrimination in access to economic resources and political power; and by awarding class privileges to conforming women.”

Lerner made this prediction.

“The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end.  Its time seems to have nearly run its course—it no longer serves the needs of men or women and in its inextricable linkage to militarism, hierarchy, and racism it threatens the very existence of life on earth.”

Gerda Lerner wrote this in 1986.  She died in 2013.  One hopes that by that time she could feel confident that the long struggle for women’s rights had an end in the foreseeable future.

And for those men who continue to believe in their superiority, beware, the women are acting as if they have a lot of time to make up.  Women are now the majority of college students, a majority of those graduating with a degree, the majority of those being awarded doctorates, the majority of those earning law degrees, and the majority of those becoming medical doctors.  And they also have their sights set on political power.  One had best negotiate a truce with the women.  The momentum is not on your side.