The Adoption Papyrus is, however, the clearest act of emancipa-
tion.^318 A woman frees three children of her slave by declaring them
“free-persons (nm ̇) of the land of the pharaoh.” The woman further
makes them her heirs, together with her younger brother, who mar-
ries one of them (see 5.3 below). An oath includes an exclusion clause
preventing others from contending with them. This exclusion clause
is enforced by a curse and not, as often, by a legal penalty.
It is just possible that a slave might undertake to free himself on
his own initiative. Some suggest, at any rate, that a slave could leave
a master and take refuge with a third party, if justifiable cause
existed.^319- F^320
In the Nauri Decree women and children are punished for the infrac-
tions of the head of the household, suggesting that a family could
be considered a juristic entity.^321 It has been proposed that the author-
ity of the father was not absolute.^322 Parents of persons involved in
legal transactions sometimes declare their agreement within the body
of the document.^323 If not legally mandated, there was evidently a
sense of moral responsibility for caring for the elderly parents, a sit-
uation which found legal form or expression in the so-called “staff
of old age.”^3245.1 Marriage
5.1.1 Legal Nature
It is difficult to determine the legal framework of marriage.^325 Through
marriage presumably the man acquired sole sexual rights to the(^318) Bakir, Slavery.. ., 123; Pestman, Marriage..., 8.
(^319) Cruz-Uribe, “Slavery.. .,” 54–55, quoting Glanville (on the basis of New
Kingdom letter P. BM 10107), “Letters.. .,” 305.
(^320) See Allam, “Familie, soziale Funktion,” cols. 101–103, and “Familie (Struktur),”
cols. 104–13.
(^321) Allam, “Familie (Struktur), col. 109. He notes that the family could be held
responsible for the obligations of individual members (“Familie.. .,” 27–29). See
also Janssen, “Structure.. .,” 64 (on family responsibility); Eyre, Employment...,
158.
(^322) Allam, “Familie.. .,” 24–25.
(^323) Allam, “Obligations.. .,” 94.
(^324) See McDowell, “Legal Aspects.. .,” 201–3; Théodoridès, “L’art...”
(^325) See Allam, “Quenebete.. .”; Eyre, “Adoption.. .,” 209–10. Some scholars dis-
cern a legal distinction between those cases in which a woman is said to be explic-
322
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