Статьи

Male-Gendered Women in the Cuneiform World— When and Why?

русская версия

DOI https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.31696/2618-7043-2024-7-2-356-382
Authors
Affiliation: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Magazine
Sections ИСТОРИЯ ВОСТОКА Историография, источниковедение, методы исторического исследования
Pages 356 - 382
Annotation The paper investigates linguistic means of male-gendering women in ancient Mesopotamia, i.e. the use of grammatical male gender, male personal determinatives, as well as syntax and semantics, in order to present women as men. Male-gendering starts in the Old Babylonian period with copying texts of Enḫeduana, daughter of Sargon of Akkade, the ?irst high priestess of the moon god of Ur and the ?irst known author in history. Enḫeduana’s texts were written in Sumerian in the Old Akkadian period when grammatical gender in Sumerian was not yet indicated. Old Babylonian texts “imitating” Enḫeduana’s compositions start to present high priestesses as “sons” and “brothers” of the kings. A number of other means of male-gendering, which continued in the later periods, emerged in the Old Babylonian period as well. Later in the second millennium, adoptions of daughters as sons and appointment of wives as heads of households occur in peripheral Nuzi, Arappḫa and Emar. In Babylonia itself family names derived from female occupational terms appear starting with the beginning of use of family names in general. In periphery as well as in Babylonia male personal determinatives can be used with names of women to assign them a status of a male. The phenomenon of matronymic surnames written with male personal determinatives continues into the Neo-Babylonian period. The article discusses rare occurrences of grammatical male-gendering at the Neo-Assyrian court and in cuneiform literature, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well. Reason for male gendering women was apparently to assign them a status equal to men, but purposes could differ.
Keywords:
Download JATS Download PDF