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Annotation
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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.
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