Scarcity

[Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema]

Kelley's point here makes much sense. It's interesting to note how relatively late
in European society the strict prohibition on female adultery became really
effective. This was in the late rather than in the early middle ages, and among
the feudal élites and royalty. John Boswell and David Herlihy show this well. Part
of the same development was a change in the relative ages of men and women at the
time of marriage, with men coming to be much older. Still another was the
introduction of celibacy for the priesthood, so as to prevent the sons of priests
from inheriting church property and privatizing it. Still yet another was the
first reforms of the church, with christianity definitely supplanting
pre-christian observances among the élites. The peasantry, who were the great
majority did not directly share in these developments until they began to become
members of classes like the bourgeoisie and, still later, the working class.


> but it was the domestication of animals that made the role of males
> evident. and, the argument goes, you see a corresponding shift in religious
> worship. from worship of goddesses to worship of gods and goddesses and the
> act of copulation as giving life.  yadda.  man, embarrassing, i used to be
> soooooo into the When God was a Woman stuff. :)
>
> but once people found out that men played a role, then passing wealth thru
> the mother was no longer acceptable since she could have affairs, right?
> and if she did, then other men had a claim on her offspring and, therefore,
> the wealth that this child inherited by virtue of birth to _her_.
> liquidation of one's empire of wealth if she liked to get it on. :)

All these changes tended to place a value on male control of women's reproductive
function. This led to much more explicit, ideologically focussed, and thorough
male dominance.

Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema