Early Greek marriage and Homeric Society Flashcards
Homeric society is structured in households made of these things
- Houses and its fireplace
- Its content (food, objects)
- Land
- Cattle
-An oikos is also a human group that uses these things and is represented by them
Wealth of the household
house and land: status and identity - can’t be given or purchased
content and cattle: circulate between households, wealth establishes relationships
Succession and relationship between houses
- Oikos is founded on legit weddings (there are many slaves and concubines but only 1 wife- who gives birth to legit sons = only ones who can receive inheritance)
- Oikoi do not really connect with each other.
- The sons of the masters stay in the oikos, as heirs
- Daughters are given away to other households
Exchange and social relationships
- Groom gives gifts (cattle) to father of the bride and gifts (objects) to the bride
- The chosen groom (one who gives more) is given to the bride and the wife is “owned” by the husband as an object – valuable part of his house
- Father of bride and husband = allies (but not relatives)
Succession and concubines
- Concubines are ‘bought’ – their fathers do not give gifts but receives them
- They are not part of the house – sons excluded from inheritance
- Sons are free men who can receive a house and wealth but no land
Succession and “bought groom”
- If a father wants to add a man to his house (has no sons?) he gives the bride not only objects but land
- Husband does not give anything and accepts to be a part of the house
- Moves to the house of his wife
- Sons will be next generation of the house of the father-in-law
Next generation of the House
- Legit sons or ‘bought’ son-in-law, inherit the house and land
- The land can be equally divided and new houses built if necessary
- # of households can increase – each one is independent
Symbolic kinships - Homeric
- Wife is integral part of the house
- Relationship between husband and wife represented as one between “relatives by birth”
Homeric wedding vs. Classical
SAME:
-Bride is given with gifts
-Main purpose is to ensure survival of husbands oikos
DIFFERENT:
Homeric -Dowry becomes procession of husband
Classical - **Dowry remains possession of wife until passed to her sons
Homeric - Oikoi are independent units
Classical - **Oikoi are connected by a kinship –network of relationships connects oikoi of a community
Aristotle on male/female
Aristotle, Politics
Adult male: head of oikos, active in place of politics
Rules over
Minor sons: don’t have rational thinking yet, not fully developed in decision-making
Wife: doesn’t have rational thinking, but can make small decisions
Servants: don’t have rational thinking, cant make decisions
*all have their seat in the house
Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics
- Adult male rules as an aristocrat and is the best in his field
- Women can deal with less important things
- Female field of power and female virtue
- Man should not rule over every aspect, leave women to control field
- Worse is the women who rules in field of men
Plato’s revolutionary ideas
- Higher classes in charge of politics and common interests
- Family and private interest are strictly tied
- THUS oikos should be abolished*
- Reproduction is a duty
- To improve the city, privilege should be given to the best men and women
Men and Women - 2 different races?
2 concepts that they could use to build a classification system:
a. genos “birth”, “race”
b. eidos “visible form”, “species”
Plato and his changing ideas 2 races
The statesman: humankind is a race divided into 2 species: men and women
Republic: men and women share the same nature, but equality of men and women is different
- Men almost always better - Principle of quality is not a statement of the value of women
Timaeus: Beginning, humans were all male, living among gods – no gender difference
- Later genos of women appeared because men who had been coward had been reincarnated as women - Women is therefore a by-product of the loss of original perfection
Aristotle and the problem of sexual difference
- Sexual difference is connected with reproduction – genos
- He thought genos is the reproduction of individuals having the same form (species)
- Can be just one form to reproduce, but there are 2 genders = problem
- Aristotle: in the human race (genos) only one form (eidos) is reproduced, that of the father
Physicians of Cos
- Practical approach, physicians have a different point of view on the role of females:
- Female body gives an active contribution to generation
- Female and male generative power
- Combination produces a male child if the male side wins and a female if the female is stronger
- Male principle is stronger, but if the female one is by far majority, it will prevail
