Female infanticide and polygamy
One of the strangest things mentioned in the reforms of King - Urkagina - ruler of the first Sumerian Lagash dynasty 2365-2357 BC - is the prohibition of a woman marrying more than a man, as this trait was prevalent and widespread in the southern part of ancient Iraq during the Sumerian era during the historical eras that preceded the rule of King - Urkagina. Whoever violates this prohibition is punished by stoning to death - The King’s Reforms - Orcagina - confirms that during the period of marriage, the woman had the initiative to marry in her hand, and the punishment fell on her and not on the man, and it was possible for a woman to marry more than one man.
- During the time of this reformist Sumerian king, this trait became a hybrid custom that people did not like at the time. Therefore, the king - Orcagina - decided to abolish it and counted his work as one of the reforms he carried out within the first Sumerian dynasty of Lagash. And if this fact indicates something bad, it only indicates that this trait It was so narrow in its scope of use that the majority of people were against it and wished it would be abolished, which is why the king - Orcagina - abolished it in response to the desires of most of the inhabitants of the Lagash dynasty. A question that arises in this area is - where did this trait come from to the southern part of Iraq and why did it spread? During the eras that preceded the rule of King Orkagina - and why did people hate it so much that it was completely abolished? - The answer
- The ancient Iraqi civilization appeared for the first time in the northern and northeastern parts of Iraq, those sections where rain falls in sufficient quantity for the growth of crops. These sections are suitable for permanent agriculture because they have limited areas. When the population increases in them, it is necessary to reduce the numbers surplus to need by moving to Other areas with fluctuating rainfall, that is, areas where the amount of rain is not guaranteed to fall annually in sufficient quantity for the growth of crops, meaning that in quite a few years the rain is insufficient for the growth of crops. These areas are represented by the lands located south of the rain line, i.e. south of the Baiji region currently, and such as These areas cannot bear a high population density as long as food is not guaranteed annually in sufficient quantity for people’s need for it
Therefore, it has become a duty for the residents of these areas to excel at storing food for a long period of time in anticipation of the years of scarce rain, and they must find an effective means of reducing the population. In the past, there was no possible means to reduce the population except the process of female infanticide, but why did they not also practice the process of female infanticide? Infanticide - they previously believed the following
- It is the number of females that controls reproduction, not the number of males. - Due to the practice of female infanticide by residents of the southern regions, the number of women has become much less than the number of men. For this reason, the necessity has emerged for women to marry more than one man, and this phenomenon, i.e. a woman’s marriage to more than one man, did not appear in In ancient Iraq, they only appeared in food-scarce areas
- In Britain at the time of the Roman Emperor - Julius Caesar - 59-44 BC, women were married to twelve men, and in the Chinese region - Tibet - their marriage system was a system of polyandry - and in the southern part of ancient Iraq, the pattern of women marrying more than one man appeared. The borders of the fifth millennium BC, seven thousand years ago, due to the sediments of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Karun River, the surplus population in areas with fluctuating rains began to fall by migrating to the newly formed southern part of Iraq, and this number migrating to the aforementioned section brought with it the custom of women marrying more than one man. Usually, the initiative of marriage is in the hands of the woman, since as long as the number of women is less than the number of men, the initiative of marriage is in their hands due to the large demand for them. As long as the southern part of Iraq is newly formed and its land is very fertile
In addition to that, agriculture in it depends on irrigation and not on rain. Its food was abundant and exceeded the needs of the people migrating to it. Therefore, the habit of female infanticide began to gradually disappear due to the disappearance of the reason that prompted people to practice it. The disappearance of the custom of female infanticide led to an increase in the number of females, and this greatly reduced the number of females. One-woman marriages - When the custom of female infanticide ended completely, the number of women became close to the number of men, so that a woman’s marriage to one man became the prevailing custom, and whoever marries more than one man became an undesirable situation and is inevitably limited to a small number of beautiful, singing, or influential women, so that The vast majority of the population hates her and finds in her a departure from the principles followed in marriage, and therefore the king - Orcagina – proposed To abolish it and impose a harsh punishment on women who practice it, which is the death penalty by stoning, and this harsh punishment is what shows us how much people hated it at the time of this Sumerian king - Okagina - and that its abolition was considered by the aforementioned king as one of the reforms that he implemented within the Sumerian Lagash dynasty -
Sources
The Book of King Arukagina - pp. 54 - 55 - 56 - 57 - Dr. Fawzi Rasheed
Sumer Magazine - Incest of girls and the polygamy system in prehistoric times - a quote from the research of Dr. Fawzi Rasheed