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

ON THE SHOULDERS OF OUR PREDECESSORS | 69
variety of conditions and of possibilities. It is well-known amongst students of
these societies that several ancient social categories have proven very difficult to
understand and to be translated into modern concepts: “slave,” “free,” and
“citizen” are notorious, although by no means unique (many terms referring to
social status, especially those for women, are currently under discussion). From
our perspective, Muhammad Dandamaev’s main contribution lies in his detailed
study and recording of hundreds of contracts from the Neo-Babylonian period, a
period more in accordance with DtrH’s final redaction than with the monarchy
Dtr reflects upon. His analysis provides a broad basis upon which one can draw
conclusions and make informed guesses about Israel, especially since biblical
witnesses from this period retain only a particular focus on the theological
reflection of the exiled Jewish community and do not expand on its impact on
those fallen into poverty, slavery or war.
Applying Marxist categories to the Mesopotamian sources, Igor Diakonoff
concluded that there were three social classes, which roughly coincide with the
groups contemplated in the Codex Hammurabi. These are those “sharing
property rights in the means of production but not partaking in any process of
production” (citizens); those “sharing property rights in the means of production
and partaking in the process of production in their own interests” (semi-free
peasants or helots); and those “devoid of property in means of production and
taking part in the process of production in the interest of others” (slaves). 38
However, other scholars do not find these categories so clear-cut:
The last category [wardum, slave] is uncontroversial, but the first two have
proved extremely hard to define precisely, it is possible that by awīlum, a free
citizen was meant, as opposed to muškēnum, “royal retainer/palace dependant”
(Diakonoff 1971) ... Chattel slaves, by contrast, pose no problem of definition:
they were marked either by a special hairstyle or some kind of tattoo which it
was a crime to change or remove. 39
Moses Mendelsohn’s book is widely quoted, because he compares slavery in
Israel and in the ANE and provides a basic platform from which to proceed
reflecting on the phenomenon of slavery, the type of analysis missing in
Dandamaev. 40 Less well-known are Mendelsohn’s articles on particular legal
38
Diakonoff, “Slave-Labour vs. Non-Slave Labour: The Problem of Definition,” 3.
39
Amélie Kuhrt, The Ancient Near East, c.3000–330 BC (2 volumes; London: Routledge, 1997
[repr. 2003]), 1:114.
40
Mendelsohn, Slavery in the ANE, quoted above; see also his “The Conditional Sale into Slavery of
Free-Born Daughters in Nuzi and in the Law of Ex 21, 7–11,” JAOS 55 (1935) 190–195; “The
Canaanite term for ‘Free Proletarian,’” BASOR 83 (1941): 36–38; “State Slavery in Ancient Israel,”
BASOR 85 (1942): 14–17; and his “The Family in the ANE,” BA 11 (1948): 24–40.