Research On The Status Of Women's Marriage In The Ancient Mesopotamia Code

Mesopotamian river basin plays an important role in the early development of human beings.In this land,the pioneers of early human civilization live.It can be seen from a large number of mud-plate documents and cultural relics unearthed that the economy,politics and culture of the ancient Mesopotamia were highly developed,which provides us with a large number of materials for studying the development of early human society.Ancient Mesopotamia was a typical patriarchal society.Under this social structure,male citizens were the representatives of the whole family and had the absolute authority of the family.In this social environment,women are regarded as the appendage of men,and their social activity space is very narrow.In the whole society,they are positioned as the permanent public roles in line with the interests of patriarchal society,namely,mother and wife.After men took the lead in social development.women were bound within the established framework represented by law.This paper will start with three representative laws of ancient Mesopotamia basin to study the social survival of married women in ancient Mesopotamia basin.From the ancient Mesopotamian law code related to women,most of the provisions are about women's marriage,which also explains the social orientation of women.Throughout the history of the development of Mesopotamia,women are undoubtedly in a state of dependency and low social status.Marriageable women do not have the right to choose their own marriage,and parents monopolize the right of their daughters as the parties to the marriage.Married women play the roles of wife and mother in the family,and once women deviate from these roles,the whole society will correct their "mistakes" in various ways.Moreover,the law penetrates the bondage of women into every aspect of marriage life through various regulations.Through the analysis of legal provisions,it can be seen that even if a woman fails to play the role of good wife and mother in marriage due to some force majeure factors,her family status is very passive and awkward.From the perspective of law,this paper takes the marriage life of women as the main line,shows the whole picture of marriage life in ancient Mesopotamia through the three stages of preparation before the marriage relationship is concluded,the family life after marriage and the breakdown of marriage relationship under certain reasons,so as to analyze the status and image of women in marriage.Due to the differences of times and regions,laws in different periods have different regulations on women in marriage.But on the whole,as time goes by,the restrictions on women in the whole society become more and more strict,and more and more restrictions on women rise from social habits to legal regulations,which are characterized by rigor and systematization.Especially in the middle Assyrian period,restrictions on women reached a peak,and the whole female living space was dull and suffocating.