[224] Cf. Burton, Sindh Revisited, i. 293; Urquhart, Spirit of the East, ii. 265 sq.; Doughty, Arabia Deserta, i. 239; Westermarck, ‘Position of Woman in Early Civilisation,’ in Sociological Papers, [1.] p. 160.
It has often been said that the position of women and the degree of their dependence among a certain people are largely influenced by economic conditions. Thus Mr. Hale maintains that the condition of women is “a question of physical comfort, and mainly of the abundance or lack of food…. When men in their full strength suffer from lack of the necessaries of existence, and are themselves slaves to the rigours of the elements, their better feelings are benumbed or perverted, like those of shipwrecked people famishing on a raft. Under such circumstances the weaker members of the community—women, children, the old, the sick—are naturally the chief sufferers.”[225] With reference to the North American Indians the observation has been made that, where the women can aid in procuring subsistence for the tribe, they are treated with more equality, and their importance is proportioned to the share which they take in that labour; whereas in places where subsistence is chiefly procured by the exertions of the men, the women are considered and treated as burdens. Thus, the position of women is exceptionally good in tribes living upon fish and roots, which the women procure with the same expertness as the men, whereas it is among tribes living by the chase, or by other means in which women can be of little service, that we find the sex most oppressed.[226] Dr. Grosse, again, emphasises the low status of women not only among hunters, but among pastoral tribes as well. “The women,” he says, “not being permitted to take part in the rearing of cattle, and not being able to take part in war, possess nothing which could command respect with the rude shepherd and robber.”[227] Among the lower agricultural tribes, on the other hand, Dr. Grosse adds, the position of the female sex is often higher. The cultivation of the ground mostly devolves on the woman, and among peoples who chiefly subsist by agriculture it is not an occupation which is looked down upon, as it is among nomadic tribes. This gives the woman a certain standing, owing to her importance as a food-provider.[228]
[225] Hale, ‘Language as a Test of Mental Capacity,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxi. 427.
[226] Lewis and Clarke, Travels to the Source of the Missouri River, p. 441. Waitz, op. cit. iii. 343. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, i. 242 sq.
[227] Grosse, op. cit. pp. 48, 49, 74, 75, 109 sqq.
[228] Ibid. p. 182.
In these generalisations there is no doubt a great deal of truth; but they do not hold good universally or without modifications. Among several peoples who subsist chiefly by the chase or the rearing of cattle, the position of women is exceedingly good. To mention only one instance out of many, Professor Vámbéry observes that among the nomadic Kara-Kirghiz the female sex is treated with greater respect than among those Turks who lead a stationary life and practise agriculture.[229] Indeed, the general theory that women are more oppressed in proportion as they are less useful, is open to doubt. Commonly they are said to be oppressed by their savage husbands just by being compelled to work too hard; and that work does not necessarily give authority is obvious from the institution of slavery. But at the same time the notion, prevalent in early civilisation, that the one sex must not in any way interfere with the pursuits of the other sex, may certainly, especially when applied to an occupation of such importance as agriculture, increase the influence of those who are engaged in it. Considering further that the cultivated soil is not infrequently regarded as the property of the women who till it,[230] it is probable that, in certain cases at least, the agricultural habits of a people have had a favourable effect upon the general condition of the female sex, and at the same time on the wife’s position in the family.
[229] Vámbéry, Das Türkenvolk, p. 268.
[230] Grosse, op. cit. p. 159 sq.
The status of wives is in various respects connected with the ideas held about the female sex in general. Woman is commonly looked upon as a slight, dainty, and relatively feeble creature, destitute of all nobler qualities.[231] Especially among nations more advanced in culture she is regarded as intellectually and morally vastly inferior to man. In Greece, in the historic age, the latter recognised in her no other end than to minister to his pleasure or to become the mother of his children. There was also a general notion that she was naturally more vicious, more addicted to envy, discontent, evil-speaking, and wantonness, than the man.[232] Plato classes women together with children and servants,[233] and states generally that in all the pursuits of mankind the female sex is inferior to the male.[234] Euripides puts into the mouth of his Medea the remark that “women are impotent for good, but clever contrivers of all evil.”[235] According to the Vedic singer, again, “woman’s mind is hard to direct aright, and her judgment is small.”[236] To the Buddhist, women are of all the snares which the tempter has spread for men the most dangerous; in women are embodied all the powers of infatuation which bind the mind of the world.[237] The Chinese have a saying to the effect that the best girls are not equal to the worst boys.[238] Islam pronounces the general depravity of women to be much greater than that of men.[239] According to Muhammedan tradition, the Prophet said:—“I have not left any calamity more hurtful to man than woman…. O assembly of women, give alms, although it be of your gold and silver ornaments; for verily ye are mostly of Hell on the Day of Resurrection.”[240] The Hebrews represented woman as the source of evil and death on earth:—“Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die.”[241] This notion passed into Christianity. Says St. Paul, “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”[242] Tertullian maintains that a woman should go about in humble garb, mourning and repentant, in order to expiate that which she derives from Eve, the ignominy of the first sin, and the odium attaching to her as the cause of human perdition. “Do you not know,” he exclaims, “that you are each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age; the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway; you are the unsealer of that [forbidden] tree; you are the first deserter of the divine law; you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even the Son of God had to die.”[243] At the Council of Mâcon, towards the end of the sixth century, a bishop even raised the question whether woman really was a human being. He answered the question in the negative; but the majority of the assembly considered it to be proved by Scripture that woman, in spite of all her defects, yet was a member of the human race.[244] However, some of the Fathers of the Church were careful to emphasise that womanhood only belongs to this earthly existence, and that on the day of resurrection all women will appear in the shape of sexless beings.[245]