Gender Relations Based on Hammurabi s Essay

Michael Chen
March 3, 2013
7-3
Gender Relations Based on Hammurabi's Code

1, 2, 8, 14, 15, 21, 195, 196, 200, 201, 202, 203, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 218, 229, 230, 250, 251: Male pronouns are used for sorcerers, robbers, people who convict others of criminality, burglars, helpers of slaves, kidnappers, assailants, doctors, builders, and owners of oxen, with no indication that females could also be those people. This fact could imply that these criminals can only be male. However, this could just be because of how old the translation is, being from a time period when he was often used for expressing indeterminate gender.
23: “the man who has been despoiled” The description of this rule implies that possessions are owned only by men.
109: Wine merchants are assumed to be female. Drinking wine or selling wine is probably something that is not righteous, as nuns shouldn't even open the door of a wine shop. Check for parallels of not immediately arresting outlaws.
110: Check for parallels of burning religious people who enter a wine shop.
117: Men are permitted to loan their children or wives (or themselves) for three years as payment for debt. This implies that men have ownership and superiority over their wives.
129: A wife is capable of drowning her husband (in addition to herself.) She can ruin everything.
131, 132: Incorrectly accusing a wife of lying with another male does not punish the accuser. This contrasts rules 2 and 143.
133: Wives cannot enter the house of

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