The Oriental, the Ancient and the Primitive Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 The nature of the enterprise
- PART I CHINA
- PART II INDIA
- PART III THE NEAR EAST
- PART IV GREECE AND ROME, YESTERDAY AND TODAY
- 13 The heiress in ancient Greece
- 14 Monogamy, property and control in Rome
- 15 Dowry, continuity and change in the eastern Mediterranean
- 16 Asia and Europe
- Notes
- References
- Index
13 - The heiress in ancient Greece
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 The nature of the enterprise
- PART I CHINA
- PART II INDIA
- PART III THE NEAR EAST
- PART IV GREECE AND ROME, YESTERDAY AND TODAY
- 13 The heiress in ancient Greece
- 14 Monogamy, property and control in Rome
- 15 Dowry, continuity and change in the eastern Mediterranean
- 16 Asia and Europe
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
From a consideration of Arab and Hebrew marriage and property I turn to that of ancient Greece, partly to make the link with Europe, but also because these institutions display some striking similarities and at the same time have undergone similar misinterpretations, especially regarding the position of women with regard to property and kinship. While some writers have claimed a priority for matrilineal descent in early Greece (e.g. Thomson 1949), most have seen the kinship system as firmly patrilineal. Fustel de Coulanges' study of La Cité Antique (1864) takes a strong stand upon this issue. For him, as for Maine, religion was the key to early institutions and the domestic cult was transmitted from male to male.
This was owing, no doubt, to the idea that generation was due entirely to the males. The belief of primitive ages, as we find it in the Vedas, and as we find vestiges of it in all Greek and Roman law, was that the reproductive power resided exclusively in the father. The father alone possessed the mysterious principle of existence, and transmitted the spark of life. From this old notion it followed that the domestic worship always passed from male to male; that a woman participated in it only through her father or her husband; and, finally, that after death women had not the same part as men in the worship and the ceremonies of the funeral meal. […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Oriental, the Ancient and the PrimitiveSystems of Marriage and the Family in the Pre-Industrial Societies of Eurasia, pp. 386 - 396Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990