Abstract

OLIVER, María Rosa. Inquiry on the construction of femenine spaces in the interstices of the masculine power in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia. Aljaba [online]. 2007, vol.11, pp.79-100. ISSN 1669-5704.

Inquiry on the construction of femenine spaces in the interstices of the masculine power in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia. The analysis considers a matter that has been traditionally silenced in the historical studies: the construction of feminine identity taking into account the social fabric where it developes. This is, the gender inequality within the social inequality. My goal is to reconstruct the spaces assigned to women and those that were occupied/appropriated by them in the interstices of society. The scene is the Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, during Hammurabi's reign (1792-1750 a.C.) and his sons' reign, Samsu-iluna (1749-1712 a.C). The choice is based on the changes that occurred in these reigns, that made deeper the processes of the period. I think that the exceptional nature of some women makes possible the understanding of the femenine group. So, I consider the nadītus in their double belonging -to their families and to the gagum-temple- and what these belongings generated: an overlaping of the preexisting kinship relations with a network woven in the gagum where women were the protagonists. These "special" women interacted with other women in situations that help me to think on the construction of femenine spaces. Those who were "daughters of a man" versus those who were "not daughters of a man" interlaced in gender identity processes.

Keywords : Gender identity processes; Women; Gender inequality [Social inequality].

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