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

40 | WOMEN AT WORK IN THE DTRH
put them in contact with men and women not belonging to their immediate
family.
Yet a more serious concern, raised by many anthropologists, is the pairing
of honor and shame as comparable categories. This second concern bares
stronger weight on our study. “If shame and honour are indeed a pair, shame
should provide as good a starting point as honour,” reasons Unni Wikan. 54 A
perusal of works that use these categories affirms her conclusion. In any of the
languages heard around the Mediterranean, including the Middle East, “shame”
has multiple meanings, going from faulty behavior to serious breach of custom,
and it is widely used in every-day speech. Honor is used by anthropologists but
not by the people they study, at least in colloquial. Finally, while shame refers to
an act and does not automatically disgrace a person, “honor” connotes an
essence, hardly perceivable in everyday behavior. 55 Thus honor and shame are
not a suitable pair, and while both terms connote important elements and will
thus be kept in this study, they are not intended as mirror images, especially not
with the meaning anthropologists have ascribed to them: increasing honor for
men, increasing shame for women.
Honor, Shame, and Class. Two important issues are raised by this gender
division in matters of honor. First, if male honor concerns the material support
of the family, how does one account for the numerous women who worked
outside the home? One could argue that they are all shamed because of their
notoriety, or in turn that only the ones whose sexuality was improperly used
were shamed. One may suppose they sought an extra income because their male
relatives failed to provide for their families; or because they were rebellious
enough to seek an occupation outside; or they were forced because they became
war captives, and so on. Considering all these possibilities, males immediately
related to them should lose as much of their honor for “allowing” their women
to go public or for not being able to provide for their sustenance. 56 These
concerns point to the need to further study how social values work for different
social classes and legal situations.
54 Uni Wikan, “Shame and Honour,” Man 19 (1984): 636.
55 See Wikan, “Shame and Honour,” 635–39 (theory), and 639–49 (field work in Oman); Sally Cole,
Women of the Praia: Work and Lives in a Portuguese Coastal Community (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1991), especially 77–86 (discussed below). I thank Carolyn Osiek for reference to
the latter.
56 This perception that the male has failed in his obligation when the female has to go out to work
ran strong till recently among lower middle-class and traditional groups here at home. Both men and
women were brought up to marry and live on the man’s salary, but the country’s economic situation
has obliged them otherwise. On the other hand, lower-class people have always known what it
means to work outside home.