of a woman was considered the domestic sphere, where she
gave birth and raised children; cooked, baked, and brewed;
made textiles by spinning, weaving, and sewing; laundered
and cleaned; and kept the household running. While women
were certainly not restricted to the house and were free to go
about in the city, as best illustrated by several biblical narra-
tives in which women fetch water at the well or at the river, a
woman traveling beyond the city limits was always an excep-
tion and considered in need of a male protector, as described
in the relevant rules and regulations found in the Middle As-
syrian Law Code (ca. 1100 b.c.e.).
In general, ancient Near Eastern gender roles are defi ned
by a set of mutually exclusive classifi cations: sex (male ver-
sus female), gender (masculine versus feminine), sexuality
(penetration versus receptivity), and hierarchy (domination
versus subordination). Male sexuality was equaled with pen-
etration and domination, and to be penetrated corresponded
with female sexuality. Being the receiving partner in a ho-
mosexual union between men or ceding the dominant role
in a sexual encounter to a woman was seen as unmanly, as is
clear from a Babylonian collection of omens—or rather, as in
these specifi c cases, moral guidelines that at least in part date
back to the early second millennium b.c.e. and continued to
be popular throughout the fi rst millennium b.c.e.—“If a man
has sexual relations with a male house slave, hardship will
seize him”; “If a woman mounts a man, that woman will take
his vigor.”
With the man socially expected to be the dominant, ac-
tive sexual partner, unions between older men and younger
women were very common, while the reverse situation was
possible but not considered ideal. Th is is again made clear
in the already mentioned Babylonian omen collection: “If a
man has sexual relations with an old woman he will quarrel
daily.” Th is attitude bears especially on the options available
to widows. Married women who were fortunate to survive the
birth of their children had a good chance of outliving their
husbands and were theoretically able to enter a second mar-
riage, yet ancient Near East law codes and legal documents
from all periods show a clear interest in encouraging wealthy
widows to remain unmarried in order to protect the family’s
fi nancial assets against outsiders. Th e same concern lies at the
root of the practice to marry one’s brother’s widow, as related
in the Bible.
While sexuality is not exclusive to humanity, it is exactly
its controlled practice—adhering to the allowed and disal-
lowed customs defi ned by society—that was seen to set hu-
mankind apart from animals and to work as an instrument
of civilization. Th is attitude is best illustrated by the Epic of
Gilgamesh, popular in the entire ancient Near East from the
second millennium b.c.e. onward: When the savage animal-
like Enkidu consorts with a prostitute, he becomes “human”
and is rejected by his previous companions, the wild beasts;
he leaves the steppe for an urban and civilized life.
Mutually exclusive extremes are at the core of ancient
Near Eastern gender roles, and yet one of the most important
Sumerian deities transcends these polarities: Inanna, or to
use her Akkadian name, Ishtar, incorporates within herself
the opposites of male and female. She is androgynous and
ambiguous, as is her heavenly representation, the planet Ve-
nus, which the Sumerians referred to as the masculine eve-
ning star and the feminine morning star. Inanna/Ishtar was,
therefore, closely associated with all those who fell outside
the binary system of male and female, including eunuchs. Far
from being social outcasts, as might be expected in a culture
that valued family and children over all, eunuchs had an im-
portant role in the state organization of the Neo-Assyrian
Empire (ninth century b.c.e.–seventh century b.c.e.). Having
been made sterile at an early age and forsaken the chance to
sire children, their loyalty belonged exclusively to the royal
family, and they were oft en chosen to act as the king’s local
representative as provincial governors. In contemporary art
eunuchs are shown as beardless yet are otherwise dressed like
men, and their legal rights were not diff erent from men. But
Inanna/Ishtar played a key role in the lives of all people, men
and women alike, as the carnivalesque festivals organized in
her honor off ered the participants an opportunity to digress
from the rigorous gender roles, thereby stabilizing what may
otherwise have been a regulated and stifl ing society.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY AMY HACKNEY BLACKWELL
Th roughout ancient Asia women were generally regarded as
subservient to men, and their lives were controlled by their
male relatives. Despite these circumstances, women received
some honor and respect for performing their roles well, es-
pecially as they grew older and their sons married. Sexuality
was considered an important part of life throughout the re-
gion, with males and females both playing a key part in rela-
tions.
In the Chinese Daoist philosophy of the fi rst millennium
b.c.e. the sexes were characterized as yin and yang. Yin, the
feminine principle, was said to be soft , yielding, dark, and
passive and was symbolized by water. Yang, the male prin-
ciple, was considered rigid, active, and bright and was repre-
sented by fi re or wind. Women were believed to possess large
amounts of yin, while men were fi lled with yang. Chinese
people thought that it was important for men and women to
exchange energy types by engaging in extended sexual play
with multiple female orgasms. It was believed to be especially
unhealthy for men to exhaust their yang essence by ejaculat-
ing too quickly, before they absorbed the necessary yin from
women. During the later Zhou Dynasty (770–256 b.c.e.) men
were encouraged to visit prostitutes for the purpose of in-
creasing their yin.
During the period between about 220 b.c.e. and 25 c.e.
Confucianism became the prevailing philosophy in China.
In Confucian doctrine women were considered inferior to
men and were expected to be subservient to them. Th e Con-
fucian writings say very little about women, which mostgender structures and roles: Asia and the Pacific 497