The family is the basic unit of society, and examining the way the family is treated in law, in literature, and in various aspects of a given culture can tell much about both the family as it is constituted in that culture and about the culture itself. An examination of the family in the ancient regions of Mesopotamia and Homeric Greece will illustrate the connection between culture and the family.
One of the most important documents of Mesopotamian civilization was the Code of Hammurabi, a document of laws that reveals much about the society that produced those laws. This was a society with a system of strict justice, calling for severe penalties for criminal offenses, and also punishments that varied by class. The Code demonstrates that the society took a serious view of the responsibilities of public officials. Hammurabi was the leader of a strong group that unified the Near East and united the independent city-states of the Akkadian Dynasty. The family is clearly an important division in society as a number of important provisions in the Code address issues of marriage and the family. Hammurabi first of all provided for a form of marriage contract that would be necessary for a man and woman to be married. The marriage union is protected by law so that a man can end a marriage under certain circumstances. The various rulings are directed largely at protecting the husband from a wayward wife, and there is a clear sexual bias in the way the laws are written and applied. At the same time, women are also given some protection, as in the following provision:
If a woman hates her husband and says, "You may not possess me," the city council shall inquire into her case, and if she has been careful and without reproach and her husband has been going about and greatly belittling her, that woman has no blame. She may take her dowry and go to her father's house (Hammurabi 6).
Many of the provisions related to property as ...