Dealing with AP Documents

1. Dealing with AP Documents Remember the question from yesterday’s documents? What is the question for todays? Comparing the role of women in various societies from the ancient to the classical

2. Build a framework

3. Work those documents • Author • Place and Time • Prior knowledge • Audience • Reason • The main idea • Significance

4. Additional document/Missing Voice • Whose voice is not represented amongst the documents? How relevant are they to the comparative attitudes toward women? What view of women from the classical age might help identify a unique perspective?

5. Role of women in Classical Greece • Status • Greek women did not have citizenship and had • no independent legal rights. A Greek woman was • considered to be the property and sole • responsibility of her husband or eldest male • relative. The highest status she could attain was • to be the wife of a citizen. Spartan women had • greater standing. They could own and inherit • property and were more highly respected, • especially if they were the mother of a son. • Spartan women did not, however, have • citizenship or political influence.

6. Role of Women in Classical Rome • Status • Roman women did not have citizenship and, • during the republic, they had virtually no legal • rights. They were the legal responsibility of their • fathers or husbands. If a woman’s father or • husband died, a guardian (usually the eldest • male relative) was appointed by the state to look • after the family’s affairs. During the empire (from • 27 BCE), the guardian’s role became mostly • ceremonial and wealthy Roman women • controlled their own financial and legal affairs • later in life.

7. Role of Women in Classical China • Women’s Duties • according to Confucius  women did not participate in public life • duties • cook • look after her parents-in-law • make clothes • follow the “three submissions”: her parents, husband and son • Marriages arranged • She left her home to go to her future husband’s home  had to prove herself • Dissension common between wife and in-laws • Competed for influence and power in the family • During the Han Dynasty • Several authors began to write about the role of women • Ban Zhao, sister to a court historian, wrote Admonitions for Women a text of advice on the appropriate virtues for aristocratic women • Humility • Resignation • Subservience • Self-abasement • Obedience • Cleanliness • Industry • Throughout Han times (but not after) women could: • inherit property • divorce • remarry after divorce or widowhood

8. Role of Women in Classical India • Women in the Caste System • Dominance of Males • Dominance of husbands and fathers was very strong • One Indian code of law even recommended that a wife worship her husband as a god • Limits on Women • arranged marriages  contracted unions at a very early age • goal of arranged marriages  ensure solid economic links • result of these marriages  women came into a new family in which they had absolutely no voice • Husband and wife were to provide mutual emotional and loving support as the marriage developed • family  an important part of society • In the Gupta Empire, women’s status declined • Lost right to own or inherit property • Barred from studying sacred texts • Treated as the lowest class, the Shudras • Expected to obey their father, husband, and sons • Married at very early ages (6 or 7)  to be sure they were virgins • Sati  a ritual in which a woman was expected to cremate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre • If declined  she is forbidden to marry and is shunned

9. Role of Women in classical Maya • 8th ruler of Palenque was a woman • Mostly weavers and harvesters • Arranged marriages • Separations of gender at young age (girls with mothers boys with fathers) • There existed many Mayan Goddesses

10. Breaking it down • Grouping suggested two ways but here are some others: • Ancient Middle East, Mediterranean, Asia • Early, middle, later • Good,bad,neutral • Political, economic, cultural • Thesis: The rise of the earliest civilizations gave rise to patriarchal institutions where women were viewed as personal possessions and property limiting their rights. During the Greco-Roman reforms, however, women were viewed as important partners but still deferred to men while the patriarchy in Asia became increasingly codified through religious laws and bureaucratic decree. An additional document from a Spartan women would allow for a greater understanding of the elevated status of women and how this was a unique feature in an era dominated by men. • Politically, laws served to subjugate a women’s role in the ancient and classical world, economically, the wife was generally reliant upon her husband and mostly served him being denied property, however, women were looked as domestic partners in the Mediterranean world while in the Middle East and Asia, they maintained their obedience to their husbands. Although we hear from a woman like Ban Zhou, she is clearly writing for the Emperor, it would be important to hear from a Chinese mother to view her reaction to the three submissions first as daughter, then as wife and , finally as mother. While these were her duties she might have felt restricted in this submissive society