[198] It is an entirely mistaken view, founded on insufficient knowledge, that in early civilisations women were a source of weakness to the men of the tribe or group, and, thus, liable to oppression. The very reverse is the truth. Fison and Howit, who discuss the question, say of the Australian women, "In time of peace they are the hardest workers and the most useful members of the community." In time of war, "they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves at all times, and so far from being an encumbrance on the warriors, they will fight, if need be, as bravely as the men, and with even greater ferocity" (Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 133-147, 358). This is no exceptional case, and is confirmed by the reports of investigators of widely different peoples. I may mention the ancient Iberian women of Northern Spain, whose bravery in battle is testified to by Strabo: the descendants of these women still carry on the greater part of the active labour connected with agriculture (Spain Revisited, pp. 191-292). In our own day we have the witness to the same truth in the heroic part taken by women in the Balkan army.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER VII
WOMAN'S POSITION IN THE GREAT CIVILISATIONS OF ANTIQUITY
I.—In Egypt
The importance of estimating woman's position in the great civilisations of the ancient world—The Egyptian civilisation—Women more free and more honoured than in any country to-day—The account given by Herodotus—The Egyptian woman never confined to the home—No restraint upon her actions—She entered into commerce in her own right and made contracts for her own benefit—Abundant material in proof of the high status of Egyptian women—Marriage contracts—Their importance and interest—Numerous examples—The proprietary rights of the wife—An early period of mother-rule—Property originally in the hands of women—The marriage contracts a development of the early system—The Egyptians solved the difficult problem of the fusion of mother-right with father-right—The statement of Dioderus that among the Egyptians the woman rules over the man—The conditions of marriage dependent on the birth of children—M. Paturet's view the Egyptian woman the equal of man—The high status of woman proved by the fact that her child was never illegitimate—The position of the mother secure in every relationship between the sexes—This made possible by the free conditions of the marriage contracts—Polygamy allowed—This practice in Egypt very different from polygamy in a patriarchal society—The husband a privileged guest in the home of the wife—The high ideal of the domestic relationship—Illustrations from the inscriptions of the monuments—Reasons which explain this civilised and human organisation—The Egyptians an agricultural and a conservative people—They were also a pacific race—The significance of the Maxims of the Moralists—Honour to the wife and the mother strongly insisted on—The health and character of the Egyptian mother—Some reflections in the Egyptian Galleries of the British Museum.
II.—In Babylon
Traces of mother-right in primitive Babylon—The honour paid to women—The position of women in later Babylonian history, though still at an early period—Their rights more circumscribed—The marriage code of Hammurabi—Polygamy permitted, though restricted, by the code—The exacting conditions of divorce—The position of the wife as subject to her husband—The later Neo-Babylonian periods—The position of women continuously improving—They obtain a position equal in law with their husbands—Their freedom in all social relations—They conduct business transactions in their own right—Illustrations from the contract tablets—Remarks and conclusion.