A VIEW OF THE FAMILY IN THE ANCIENT AND THE MODERN CULTURE

The family was considered the core in ancient Egypt; some gods were predestined to take care of that group. In marriage, the women held stronger social positions. Marriage was purely a social arrangement that regulated property. Once an adolescent man was mature enough, it was appropriate for him to look for a partner and begin his own family; on the other hand it was thought that the females were ready for marriage after their first menses. Due to the lack of contraceptives of that age, people used to have a large family, but that was traditional and accepted for the society.

Nowadays people get married more often when they have a definite economical situation and a job, thus they have the means to support a family. Also companies and health centers make plans to prevent and help families with a lack of means to avoid pregnancy or have more then two or three kids; they have to recognize their situation and know that if they don’t use contraceptives methods the end result will bring them more poverty.

Once the couples were married in Egypt it was to be expected that they were totally faithful to each other. Therefore if the women of the men were unfaithful then they received a punishment that could sometimes be death. Nonetheless, in Egypt divorce was common, despite of the fact that sometimes people would remarry. However, there were some “rules” for the divorce that involved the marital joint property; when a woman chose to divorce, she could leave with what she had brought into the marriage plus a share (about one third to two thirds) of the marital joint property. But in case a woman abandoned her sick husband, in the resulting judgment she was forced to renounce all their joint property. Nevertheless, if the husband left the marriage he was liable to a fine or payment of support (analogous to alimony), and in many cases he forfeited his share of the joint property.

That is similar to modern life, because now it is common to hear or see couples divorcing as a result of their troubles; after a divorce those persons can get married again. However, the law makes them divide the shared property in half for each one. In case the couple has kids, the father is forced to pay a certain amount destined to serve as alimony support for his children.

Egyptian women had greater freedom of choice and more equality under social and civil law than their contemporaries and in some cases even that of the women in our time, because nowadays there are still women who submit for their husband.

In summary, there are some similarities and differences in how ancient Egypt and our civilization consider marriage, but the only thing that is known is that in spite of any circumstances the family had and still has to be the center of the society.