DBQ - Treatment of Women in the Postclassical Era

In the post classical period, women were treated differently depending on the region in which they lived, the religious views of the region and the way they ran their society. There were parts of the world where they were treated positively and parts where they were treated negatively. A set of five articles were given as examples of the treatment of women throughout time. Each aritcle represented the attitude towards women from different parts of the world. Following are some furthered explanations of the previously explained.
Two out of five documents were explicitly aimed toward the religious view of an Islam and Jewish region. Even though they were in opposite favors, both felt that religion played a big part in the role of women. One was saying that women could have a say in how their body is used; that they could decide whether or not to have sex with their husbands. It was also said they could have some property rights (document 1). It's assumable that the rights that are spoke of are related to inheritance because throughout history it has been an issue in some countries. Here the view of women is more positive. The other religious document was of a more negative perspective. It said that women were a lower class than even ignoramus' because they couldn't understand the grace said at dinner (document 2). This was also an assumed fact because men were the ones were mainly educated in Hebrew. Women weren't educated therefore unable to understand therefore not worthy of saying grace. Both articles are written from a religious standpoint and both give insight to the status of women in two different parts of the world.
The next two articles were written from a society standpoint. They also had both positive and negative veiws on women that varied depending on their location. The first soceity aimed article was negative. It was speaking from a legal angle about women testifying in court and how it was dishonorable because it was looked down upon for women to be seen in front of men because of social status (document 3). A reasonale explanation for this kind of custom could be a man's fear of his wife cheating because if his wife was being seen in front of other men, the chance of her cheating was increased. Second was a Chinese look at the educational abilities of women. The main message of the article was to emphasize the fact that women were capable of reading and arithmetic (document 4). They could run their household, even if they had unsatisfying husbands, because of these atributes. This implicates that women were held high in value in China and because of this they were educated in literature and math. Both articles share the social point of view of women in two different parts of the postclassical world.
In the final article the soceity aspect was positive but the religious aspect was negative. Women were allowed to have multiple partners and didn't have to be veiled in public. Slavewomen and children were allowed to work naked because of climate conditions in Mali (document 5). While this was socially acceptable in Mali, it was not morally acceptable in the Muslim world. Ibn Battuta was a Muslim traveler who was morally disgusted by the practices of women in Mali because being from another part of the world, he was used to certain customs which he didn't see while traveling. The article itself was strange because it gave a two-sided view of women and their rights in Mali. It was fun to be able to decipher what was going on in this particular article because it was giving the positives of Mali society while still giving a negative point of view.
In conclusion, it can be determined that civilizations had their own way of treating women within their societies. It can also be determined that these variations depended on location in the world. China; the fact that they developed independently as a civilization may have had something to do with the way they didn't undermine the abilities of women. They didn't have another civilization to build from or take ideas from. They just went from their own beliefs and what they felt was right. However, in places like Rome ideas had been shifted around and blended together forming new beliefs and morals about women that resulted in a negative attitude. Overall, its predictable that no matter where an article is pulled, the treatment of women is unpredictable. The criteria is too hard to pinpoint what exactly will show what kind of treatment that was given, meaning that a direct article is necessary. Another article that might be helpful to more pinpoint the criteria for treatment of women in the postclassical era would be from the Olmec civilization in the Americas because it would give another insight to what the treatment of women was within an independently developed civilization.

Primary Document from Japan

The Tale of Genji

Summary- This primary document is a series of stories written by Murasaki Shikibu around 1011ce. It was the very first novel ever written and is still very valued today. It tells about daily like during the Heian period of Japan. In the stories, different aspects of life were addressed; from the royal lives to the love lives of people. There are 54 chapters total in which Genji travels throughout the land of Japan experiencing everything there is to experience during this time period. Most of the stories relate to nature in some way and a majority involve more than one person much unlike ancient Chinese poetry and paintings. Overall, The Tale of Genji is a great example of life during the Heian period of Japan.

Relation- The way this text relates to what we discussed in class on Thursday is pretty simple. We talked about Heian period in Japan and that is what The Tale of Genji is all about. We talked about politics, samurai, the Book of Five Rings, etc. This tale is a continuation of some of the things we talked about. It gives good insight to what life was like back in that period.