Women at Work in the Deuteronomistic History - International Voices ...

SOCIETY’S CONDITIONS AFFECTING WOMEN’S LIVES IN ANCIENT ISRAEL | 91
Not all characteristics of an agrarian society are perceivable in the available
sources. However, a model is not a detailed description that fits every society,
but an organization of available material in an imaginable, coherent, picture.
With this model as background, the discussion can move on to labor conditions
for unfree people in the ANE.
UNFREE LABOR IN THE ANE
It is clear that not every family could maintain the biblical ideal of having their
own inheritance and live freely out of its produce. There were people who were
free to work their own land; people who had to sell themselves or their land for a
time (indentured- or debt-slaves) and people who either had had land and lost it
or never met the requirements to be a member of “the people.” And there were
those who had too many older brothers and got no inheritance. These all needed
to survive. This means that the first distinction to be made is between labor for
oneself and labor for others, the latter implying “not only that ‘others’ take some
of the fruits but also that they customarily control, in direct ways, the work that
is done and the manner of its doing, whether in person or through agents and
managers.” 40
In his classical work on the institution of slavery, sociologist Orlando
Patterson defines it as “the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated
and generally dishonored persons.” 41 This is a useful definition, as “natally
alienated” does not necessarily mean slave-born. Natally alienated means,
according to his study, that slaves have lost their claim to birth origins, both
their own ancestry and to offspring. The often emphasized biblical theme of
being “son of” or “daughter of” takes on new light when one sees who would
have been associated with its deprivation, and how would that have affected, for
instance, a young woman. Corroboration for this assertion is found in Wilcke.
He supposes sources attest to people sold because of debts “in cases where the
person sold (so far all are male) is qualified by his patronymic indicating that a
free person is sold into slavery and where a profession is mentioned.” 42 In other
as they are non-written. A few remain, such as bowing down to a superior, and golden clothing as a
sign of royalty.
40
M. Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (New York: Penguin, 1983), 67.
41
Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, 13.
42
Claus Wilcke, Early Ancient Near Eastern Law: A History of Its Beginnings: The Early Dynastic
and Sargonic Periods. Rev. & enlarged version. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2007 [2003]), 57. It has
been only partially available to me online. Cited 8 November 2012. Online: http://books.google.com.
ar/books?hl=es&lr=&id=nwlbg0MqmYoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=claus+wilcke,+Sargonic&ots=wf
2Zj6sMm5&sig=iW3iU4h2uk2YPPvDUS3V2Pm9nS8#v=onepage&q=slave&f=false.