Pre-Classical Era 10 000 b.c.e - 1000 b.c.e. *

Introduction *

The Spirit of the Time *

Gender and Sexuality *

Children *

Treatment of Children as a Burden *

Treatment of Children as Disposable *

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice *

China *

Treatment of Children as a Burden *

Treatment of Children as Disposable *

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice *

Babylon *

Treatment of Children as a Burden *

Treatment of Children as Disposable *

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice *

Egypt *

Treatment of Children as a Burden *

Treatment of Children as Disposable *

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice *

Judaic Society *

Treatment of Children as a Burden *

Treatment of Children as Disposable *

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice *

Bodily Functional Difference *

Bodily Functional Difference as Supernatural *

Bodily Functional Difference as Excusable and Laudable *

Bodily Functional Difference as Happenstance *

Bodily Functional Difference as Just Deserts *

Bodily Functional Difference as Treatable *

Babylon *

Existence of Bodily Functional Difference *

Bodily Functional Difference as Supernatural *

Bodily Functional Difference as Excusable and Laudable *

Bodily Functional Difference as Happenstance *

Bodily Functional Difference as Just Deserts *

Bodily Functional Difference as Treatable *

Egypt *

Existence of Bodily Functional Difference *

Bodily Functional Difference as Supernatural *

Bodily Functional Difference as Excusable and Laudable *

Bodily Functional Difference as Happenstance *

Bodily Functional Difference as Just Deserts *

Bodily Functional Difference as Treatable *

Jewish Civilization *

Existence of Bodily Functional Difference *

Bodily Functional Difference as Supernatural *

Bodily Functional Difference as Excusable and Laudable *

Bodily Functional Difference as Happenstance *

Bodily Functional Difference as Just Deserts *

Bodily Functional Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference- Mental Disorder and Mental Impairment *

Existence of Mental Difference *

Mental Difference as Supernatural *

Mental Difference as Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference as Just Deserts *

Persian Civilization *

Mental Difference as Supernatural *

Mental Difference as Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference as Just Deserts *

Pre-Classical Greece *

Existence of Mental Difference *

Mental Difference as Supernatural *

Mental Difference as Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference as Just Deserts *

Mesopotamian Civilization *

Existence of Mental Difference *

Mental Difference as Supernatural *

Mental Difference as Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference as Just Deserts *

Ancient Indian Civilizations *

Existence of Mental Difference *

Mental Difference as Supernatural *

Mental Difference as Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference as Just Deserts *

Ancient Egypt: *

Existence of Mental Difference *

Mental Difference as Supernatural *

Mental Difference as Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference as Just Deserts *

Mental Difference as Protected or Valued *

Ancient Judaic Society *

Existence of Mental Difference *

Mental Difference as Supernatural *

Mental Difference as Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference as Just Deserts *

Ancient China: *

Existence of Mental Difference *

Mental Difference as Supernatural *

Mental Difference as Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function *

Mental Difference as Treatable *

Mental Difference as Just Deserts *

Belief Difference *

Forensic Difference *

Ancient world generally: *

Ancient Egypt: *

Mesopotamia *

Assyrian *

Early Japan *

Ancient China *

Ancient India *

Persians *

Early Judaic Society *

Other *

Social Difference *

Ethnic Difference *

Financial Difference *

The Aged *

Pre-Classical Era 10 000 b.c.e - 1000 b.c.e.

NOTE

Introduction

Winzer in her article Disability and Society Before the Eighteenth Century: Dread and Despair notes that the level of physical and mental conditions in ancient times was great - poor prenatal care, poor maternal nutrition, disease etc.. My note- it is not clear whether this refers to prevalence or incidence- it says nothing directly about survival rates)

‘No doubt throughout pre-modern history the disabled population formed a small though resilient minority, not only because they could not partake of normal life, but also because they represented evil or were seen as public threats’.

The Spirit of the Time

Settlements became towns and even cities.

Stratification became more obvious and financial disparities became greater than ever.

Increased specialisation on trades and activities would have led to the need for greater specific abilities, thus increasing the likelihood of potential failure by the crippled, mad or stupid.

Increased urbanisation would ensure greater criminality.

Gender and Sexuality

ADD

Children

After a preliminary review of the subject matter on childhood in antiquity, it appears that there are three main negative categories for children- Burden (financial or social), Disposable (not fully human) or Sacrifice.

Treatment of Children as a Burden

In marginal societies, each additional mouth to feed may have put the rest of the family at risk. It would have been easy to see children as a burden.

Treatment of Children as Disposable

Children may have been seen to not achieve personhood until certain actions had been performed or a certain time had passed. Until that time they may have only possessed object status and would have been seen as disposable.

Bakan :

‘In numerous places in history the child was not considered to have a claim on life until certain ceremonies were performed- with baptism still remaining with us as an affirmation of the child’s right to life. …

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice

There is some evidence that children were particularly suitable for sacrifice to the gods- either because they were especially valued, or possibly because they were not of great value.

China

Treatment of Children as a Burden

Treatment of Children as Disposable

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice

Babylon

Treatment of Children as a Burden

Treatment of Children as Disposable

Bakan suggests that: ‘…the Babylonian child did not have the right to life until the father acquiesced.

A biblical reference book (Who’s Who in the Bible, Richard Coggins B.T.Batsford Ltd, London 1981) suggests that similar earlier myths to the abandonment of Moses are found in Babylonian writings about Sargon, King of Akkad.

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice

Egypt

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that in an attempt to counteract child killing:

‘Egyptians… sentenced parents who killed their child to hug the corpse for seventy-two hours, thinking that it was not fit for those who gave life to the child to die but that they should be punished in a way which would arouse repentance and deter them from further life-taking attempts.’

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that:

‘Langer, in his article ‘Infanticide: A Historical Survey’ writes ‘Infanticide has, from time immemorial, been the accepted procedure for disposing not only of the sickly infant, but of all newborns who might strain the resources of the individual family or the larger community.’’

TO INTRODUCTION

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that:

‘The earliest evidence consists of the remains of infants interred in building walls at the city of Jericho in 7000BC.’

TO JUDAIC

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that:

‘Diodorus Siculus, Greek historian during the late first century BC, reported that the Ceylonese put to death weak or infirm children and discarded those that had no courage or could not endure hardship.’

TO INDUS

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that:

‘Aristotle said ‘The justice of a master or a father is a different thing from that of a citizen, for a son or a slave is property, and there can be no injustice to one’s own property.’’

TO GREEK

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that:

‘The oldest and most extreme form of abandonment was the outright selling of children by their parents into slavery. This was legal in societies such as those of Babylon ….

TO BABYLON

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that:

‘The oldest and most extreme form of abandonment was the outright selling of children by their parents into slavery. This was legal in societies such as those of … Greece.

TO GREECE

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that:

The Early Christian church attempted to control abandonment. In the seventh century, Theodore, the archbishop of Canterbury, ruled that a man could not sell his son into slavery until the boy was seven years old.

TO MEDIEVAL

ten Bensel, Rheinberger and Radbill note that:

‘Selling Children into slavery also occurred in Russia and in the Americas up to the mid-nineteenth century. Children were also used as political hostages and as security for debts.

TO MODERN

Treatment of Children as a Burden

Treatment of Children as Disposable

Bakan implies that there was an element of choice in the entering of a soul into a child.

The biblical story of the birth of Moses shows that in some circumstances it was not unthinkable for children to be treated as disposable

Moses was reputed to have been abandoned in a basket to avoid infanticide ordered by Pharaoh. The likely date of his birth is c. 1260bce. However it should be noted that the recording of this was at a much later date (DATE OF BOOK OF EXODUS).

Bakan discusses the myth of Moses’ birth and notes that the mother at least partially accords with the demand of Pharaoh to slay the children by placing Moses in the river.

We may doubt whether this is historical fact, but myths often indicate the beliefs and oral histories of cultures.

The biblical text is given in the endnotes.

ALL TO JUDAIC

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice

Judaic Society

Bakan :

‘The interpretation of the Bible as a historical record may be debated by scholars. But the Bible can certainly be read as a record of what has concerned man without the benefit of detailed historical scholarship. Allusions to infanticide in the bible are numerous, suggesting both the existence of a horrible reality as well as an effort on the part of the authors of the Bible and sponsors of the biblical message to counteract it.’

Treatment of Children as a Burden

Treatment of Children as Disposable

Bakan notes:

‘The numerous other references to the killing of children in the Bible indicate, at the very least, that it concerned the writers who composed the biblical record. The prophets often preached against the killing of children and most surely were not addressing themselves idly to the issue.’

Treatment of Children as Sacrifice

Bakan mentions Abraham and his son Isaac DATE OF RECORDING AND OCCURRENCE where God demanded that Abraham should sacrifice his only son. Although, again, this is myth, it indicates a mind-set of acceptability of child killing in Ancient Judaic society. Although the sacrifice was avoided, it shows that it was at least thinkable. The Biblical text is given in the footnotes.

Bakan: DATE

‘The immurement of children in the foundations of erected structures has an ancient history. Joshua’s curse against anyone who would rebuild Jericho was "he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set the gates of it." (Josh 6:26) And this curse is fulfilled some time later, if we take the biblical account as historical. "In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abirem, his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son, Segub, according to the work of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun. (1 Kings 16:34) Archaeological finds have revealed many jars among the Canaanites with bones of newborn infants. The jars had been buried under house corners, thresholds, and floors. ( pp522-524)’

Bodily Functional Difference

A preliminary review of bodily functional difference in antiquity suggests that there are

WHAT CATEGORIES

Garland notes:

‘No ancient author ever attempted to describe what it was like to be disabled.’

Bodily Functional Difference as Supernatural

Rosen points out that there was a cultural belief that supernatural forces affected mankind directly:

‘To the primitive mind, men are surrounded by a swarm of unknown and unseen forces that affect them for good or ill. These forces are not conceived of as personifications or abstractions, but as actual beings, as demons or spirits that have real existence. Thus illness is thought of as a maleficent spirit which enters into and takes possession of an afflicted person, that is, the ailment is the possessing spirit.’

Bodily Functional Difference as Excusable and Laudable

Early assistance to people with bodily functional difference may have been limited to those injured in war. REFERENCE IN BOOK ON DISABILITY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

Bodily Functional Difference as Happenstance

Bodily Functional Difference as Just Deserts

WRITE

Bodily Functional Difference as Treatable

Scheerenberger notes:

‘The ancient cultures of the Near East – Egypt, Mesopotamia and Babylonia, and Palestine – laid the foundations for the development of much of Western civilization and thought, including certain attitudes toward the disabled members of society.’

Scheerenberger notes

Scheerenberger notes

Babylon

Scheerenberger notes:

‘In ancient Mesopotamia, treatment of the mentally retarded may have been influenced by the famed Code of Hammurabi. … Though this code … made no specific reference to handicapped or other disabled individuals, neither did the provisions exclude them nor indicate that they could be harmed or abandoned.’

Existence of Bodily Functional Difference

Bodily Functional Difference as Supernatural

Bodily Functional Difference as Excusable and Laudable

Bodily Functional Difference as Happenstance

Bodily Functional Difference as Just Deserts

Bodily Functional Difference as Treatable

Egypt

Existence of Bodily Functional Difference

Scheerenberger notes:

‘In 2850 BC, Menes became the founding king of the first Egyptian dynasty. The stability of the society that followed over the next several centuries was in part due to the stability of the Egyptian family. Children were treated with love and affection. Infanticide persisted, but was apparently not widely practiced. Those few parents who did kill their offspring were condemned to hug the infant continually in their arms for three days and three nights in order to experience their "full desserts of horror and remorese" (Abt I, History of Pediatrics, Philadelphia: WB Saunders 1965)’

Baasher notes:

‘One of the interesting psychotherapeutic mehods of ancient Egypt was the "incubation" or "temple sleep". This method was associated with the name of Imhotep, the earliest known physician in history. I-em-hotep (he who comes in peace) was the physician vizier of the Pharaoh Zoser (2980-2900 BC). Later he became a patron saint and a god of medicine. He was worshipped at Memphis and a temple was constructed in his honor on th eisland of Philae. The temples of Imhotep were busy centres for incubation or sleep-therapy, and "shrine sleep" is still encountered in some parts of Africa and the Middle East.’

Much evidence about disability in ancient Egypt comes from what is known as the Ebers Papyrus. This dates from c. 1550 b.c.e. though probably based on earlier scripts. It was discovered in 1873 by George Moritz Ebers.

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The two most important Egyptian medical papyri now in existence are called the Ebers papyrus and the Edward Smith papyrus, both of which were set down at approximately the same time, about 1550 BC. The Ebers papyrus deals exclusively with internal medicine and pharmacology, whereas the Smith papyrus describes wounds and surgical management. Successful surgery is a matter of rational procedure, so it is not surprising that the Smith papyrus contains little in the way of religious incantation or magic ritual. The Ebers papyrus, on the other hand, abounds in incantations and occult explanations for diseases whose real etiology was unknown. The Smith papyrus is also important because in it the brain is described for the first time in history, and it shows "clearly that it was recognized as the site of mental functions. (Castiglioni, A, A History of Medicine, New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1947)’

Haj notes that ear diseases are referred to in the Ebers Papyrus. This implies potential deafness.

Haj notes that the Ebers papyrus also refers to leprosy and trachoma.

Winzer notes: Egyptian Ebers Papyrus referring to Imhotep, the Egyptian physician, refers to many human ailments and gives prescriptions for abortions and tumours among other things. There is a reference to epilepsy and the first recorded reference to deafness. (Harms 1976, Scheerenberger 1982)

Bodily Functional Difference as Supernatural

Bodily Functional Difference as Excusable and Laudable

Bodily Functional Difference as Happenstance

Bodily Functional Difference as Just Deserts

Bodily Functional Difference as Treatable

WL Jones: ‘Imhotep (He who comes in peace) was vizier to the Pharaoh about 2900BC. He is credited with being the architect of the Step Pyramid of Sakkara, but his name is chiefly connected with incubation sleep or temple sleep. Having washed and purified himself, the sick person slept overnight in the temple. After that the priest-physicians would perform religious rituals and interpret the patient’s dreams. Imhotep was later deified and temples of his cult were built at Memphis, Thebes, and Philae.’

Jewish Civilization

Existence of Bodily Functional Difference

There is evidence from the earlier books of the bible about treatment of people with Bodily Functional Difference in this era, but most of it is thought to have been written post 1000 B.C.E.. Most details of this are included in the next section as it is not always certain whether the stories recorded were intended as historically accurate descriptions or later interpretations.

Bodily Functional Difference as Supernatural

Bodily Functional Difference as Excusable and Laudable

Bodily Functional Difference as Happenstance

Bodily Functional Difference as Just Deserts

Bodily Functional Difference as Treatable

THERE SEEMS TO BE VERY LITTLE SOURCE INFORMATION GATHERED FOR THIS SECTION-WHY? LOOK AT NEXT SECTION AND CONSIDER WHAT IS APPROPRIATE TO MOVE TO HERE.

Mental Difference- Mental Disorder and Mental Impairment

NOTE TAKE FROM WHITWELL WHEN IT ARRIVES- ORDERED 000811. WHITWELL UNAVAILABLE AT BRITISH LIBRARY.

An initial review of the category of Mental Difference in antiquity suggests that there are various sub-categories-

Mental Difference as Supernatural – mediated by the Gods

Mental Difference as Bodily Function – a natural result of bodily change

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

Mental Difference as Treatable

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

ADD OTHERS FROM BELOW

Existence of Mental Difference

Many texts record behaviour that would now be seen as mental illness or learning difficulties.

Mental Difference as Supernatural

Rosen notes that supernatural causes of mental difference was a common explanation in the ancient world.

Rosen points out that this is not specific to Madness, but is part of a cultural belief about how the world around them is constructed.

Mental Difference as Bodily Function

This indicates that there was a view that Physical intervention could result in Mental changes.

Walter Bromberg gives a review of issues in early medicine and reactions to madness in The Mind of Man: A History of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

NOTE TAKE FROM BROMBERG ON PHYSICAL RESPONSE

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

Of course it is also possible to see difference as jointly caused- that the Gods cause, but the body responds then continues to malfunction.

Mental Difference as Treatable

This heading will cross over with others, but the essential point is that people believed that it was possible to intervene in these cases, whether the problem was of supernatural or bodily origin.

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

There is an underlying belief in many societies that Negative Difference occurs as justified punishment- usually of supernatural origin.

Persian Civilization

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The first great period of Persian medicine began about the middle of the first millennium BC and flourished under the rule of Darius the Great, when Persian influence was widespread over the whole Middle East. The primary source of our information about ancient Persian philosophy is the Zendavesta, a volume of which, the Venidad, has several chapters devoted to medicine. The Venidad says there are 99,999 diseases that afflict mankind, all of which are caused by demons. In fact, "Venidad" literally means "the law against demons".

Alexander and Selesnick notes that the Persians in the mid second millennium BC had a dualistic religion with good and bad forces ranged against each other.

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘Perpetual exorcism was the road toward the good life and the way to defeat the evil influence of Ahriman. Consequently tremendous demands were made on the ancient Persians to be virtuous, courageous, humble, and charitable.’

Mental Difference as Supernatural

Mental Difference as Bodily Function

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

Mental Difference as Treatable

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

Pre-Classical Greece

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘In Homer’s hexametric poems, written about 1000 BC, people suffering from insanity were thought to have offended the gods, who punished them by causing them to behave strangely. Thus, when deranged, Ulysses plowed sand instead of fields and Ajax killed sheep instead of his enemies.’

Existence of Mental Difference

Mental Difference as Supernatural

Mental Difference as Bodily Function

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

Mental Difference as Treatable

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

Mesopotamian Civilization

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The earliest Babylonians probably emigrated from the mountains of Persia. They were finally conquered, as were their neighbors, by the Semitic chieftain named Sargon (about 2750 BC), whose nation was conquered in turn by Hammurabi about 2100 BC. The Code of the great Hammurabi, who created a centralized government, was written into law and is preserved in cuneiform clay tablets. These are the earliest laws to come down in systematized form.’

MOVE UP TO GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The first Babylonian physicians were priests who taught at the cities of Babylon and Nineveh and were called Assipu priests. Later there were lay physicians, who were called Asu (A-zu). The priest-doctors dealt with internal illnesses and especially with mental afflictions, which were attributed to demonic possession and cured by magico-religious methods; the lay physicians dealt with external pathological abnormalities usually caused by injury, and used more natural means of treatment.’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘Magical procedures were aided by astrologic and oracular practices. The Babylonians believed that the stars were divine and possessed superior intelligence and that everything in nature had a plan and an intelligence.’

Alexander and Selesnick note about Babylonian treatment of mental difference:

‘Drugs were used, but the most effective treatment was believed to be incubation. The large Babylonian pharmacopoeia has been preserved in the cuneiform tablets; the incantations were not codified, much as a patient’s silent prayers are not part of the modern medical textbooks, although the patient may feel that they are as important as his medicine. In fact, the incantation was a powerful psychological tool…’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The spiritual world of the Babylonians was populated by many demons who battled an even greater number of benign spirits or gods. … The gods had seven enemies, the evil demons, … Each disease had its specific demon. Insanity was caused by the demon Idta.’

Existence of Mental Difference

Clarke notes:

‘Wilson (JVK Wilson Mental Diseases of Ancient Mesopotamia, Ch56 in Brothwell and Sandison- D Brothwell and AT Sandison (eds) Disease in Antiquity Springfield 1967), drawing on what he called textbooks of Babylonian psychiatry, including ‘verbatim utterances of schizophrenic patients’, described a number of conditions which he identified with illnesses in modern textbooks; ideas of reference and persecution figured largely. It cannot be said that the interpretation (as certainly psychiatric) of the partial, involved and highly allusive texts is convincing, as presented.’

The story of Melampus records Mental Difference in Mesopotamia. This is referred to by Jones. The full text from Jones is included in the Endnotes.

Mental Difference as Supernatural

The story of Melampus records the fact that mental disorder could be caused by failing to worship particular gods.

Mental Difference as Bodily Function

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

Mental Difference as Treatable

The story of Melampus indicates that there was a belief in treatment with herbs and religious rites.

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

Ancient Indian Civilizations

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘Ancient Hindu medicine as described in the holy books of the Vedas, a collection of hymns and prayers, comprises the Vedic medical period (to 800BC). Living in the valleys of the Ganges River, where Aryan tribes settled, was indeed arduous. Petty satraps ruled over small divided principalities. The poverty-stricken populace found comfort in mystical beliefs, especially the transmigration of the soul, which promised a better lot in the next life. The possibility of redemption through renunciation of worldly pleasures was more highly developed in ancient India than in other ancient lands.’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘Witchcraft and demonology flourished and ascetic hermits and reformers traveled the countryside offering salvation. Ancient Hindu medicine was similar to that of the Persian and Chinese in that its basis is a struggle of the forces of evil (Siva) with the forces of restoration (Vishnu). Since angry demons were purported to inhabit the body, animistic and exorcistic practices were offered to the gods, especially the great one. Brahma, by Vedic priests.’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The philosophy of Gautama Buddha (568-488 BC), a Hindu prince, stemmed from his shock discovery of the effects of age, sickness, and death.’

Venkoba Rao notes:

‘The history of psychiatry in India dates back to the prehistoric period and the period preceding the Indus Valley civilization. The art and science of psychiatry have been the accumulated result of contributions from such sources as folklore, Vedas, Upanishads, many philosophical systems of India, the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata and a number of ancient medical schools, among which the Ayurveda is of great importance. All these factors are relevant to the development of psychiatric and psychological thought in India. It is interesting that there was no Sanskrit equivalent for the terms "psychology" and "psychiatry", although the words manas and unmad were freely used to indicate mind and insanity respectively.’

Venkoba Rao notes of the pre-Vedic era:

‘This period extends from the paleolithic and neolithic age through the Indus Valley civilization to the time of the Aryan invasion of India (Harappa civilization), i.e. up to 1500 B.C.. During these centuries, the inhabitants of the subcontinent of India were guided by animistic religion, worship of animals, trees, and snakes, reverence for the deified souls of departed ancestors, and a strong belief in the supernatural. To them, disease, physical or mental, was an act of possession by a demon or divine agents, or revenge by the spirit of the dead. Remedy lay in prayers, incantations, amulets, and talismans. Such magico-religious notions about disease and its cure in ancient India were consistent with those of contemporary Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Cretan civilizations.’

TO PRE-HISTORY

Venkoba Rao notes on the psychiatry of the Vedic period:

‘The Vedas are four in number: Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva. … The main contribution to medicine and psychiatry during this age comes from the Atharva Veda, although some material is also found in the Rig Veda. Atharva Veda, also called the Brahma Veda, deals exclusively with "goblins and ghosts, magic and sorcery, spells and curses, diseases and cures" (Ramachandra Rao SK 1962 Development of Psychological thought in India, Mysore, India: Kavyalaya Publishers). It is a massive compendium on demonology. "When a man falls ill, a magician and not the physician is sent for. The wizard is greater than the gods. His herbs and amulets are sovereign remedies." (Radhakrishnan S 1923 Indian Philosophy Vol 1 p119 London: Allen and Unwin Ltd.).’

Venkoba Rao notes:

‘Although several drugs are mentioned in Vedic writings, their chemical actions were not clear and it was thought that they depended for their benefit upon the supernatural powers. The "drug acted as an internal amulet" (Kutumbiah P 1969 Ancient Indian Medicine Madras: Orient Longmans).’

Venkoba Rao notes:

‘At the time of the Atharva Veda, rational medicine was also gradually but definitely emerging.’

Existence of Mental Difference

Mental Difference as Supernatural

Mental Difference as Bodily Function

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

Mental Difference as Treatable

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

Bromberg quotes Whitwell:

‘Ancient Hindu physicians (1400BC) described the forms of insanity and prescribed ‘kindness and consideration’ as treatment.’

Clarke notes:

‘The Aryan people in north India left indications that ideas of possession were important among their explanations of illness. These were in circulation towards the latter part of the second millennium, B.C., some centuries after the end of the first urban cultures in the north. Apart from evidence elsewhere of some empirical knowledge of therapies… the Artharva-veda contains details of many prayers, charms and amulets, invocations and incantations. Some of these are hostile to others, but many were directed to demons of disease or to tutelary gods.’

Ancient Egypt:

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘Imhotep, the first Egyptian healer of whom we have actual knowledge, lived about 2850 BC, at the time of the third dynasty. He was the physician to King Djoserin and renowned as a great architect, sage, astronomer, and priest.

Alexander and Selesnick note of Imhotep:

Eventually in 525 BC when Egypt had become a Persian province, Imhotep was deified as the special god of medicine, replacing in importance the other healing gods in the Egyptian hierarchy. His temple at Memphis became a medical school and hospital where a form of incubation sleep – a form of psychotherapy that was developed further by Aesculapian priests – was practiced. Long before the Greeks, the Egyptians in their temples established the type of milieu which in certain respects was most modern. For Example, patients were encouraged to occupy themselves with recreational activities such as excursions on the Nile, concerts, dances, painting and drawing, and other constructive uses of their spare time. These activities must have had therapeutic results, just as they do in our modern hospital settings, where occupational therapy is prescribed. However, the need for supernatural explanations was so great that when cures were achieved they were attributed to the patron saint of the particular temple where the patient resided.’

TO CLASSICAL PERIOD

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The Egyptians had recognized the emotional disorder that the Greeks later called "hysteria" (hysteron = uterus). They believed that the symptoms were caused by malposition of the uterus and therefore fumigated the vagina, hoping to lure the vagrant uterus back to its natural position.’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

The Egyptians had recognized the emotional disorder that the Greeks later called "hysteria" (hysteron = uterus). They believed that the symptoms were caused by malposition of the uterus and therefore fumigated the vagina, hoping to lure the vagrant uterus back to its natural position. Fumigation was also a well-known treatment in Greece, where Hippocrates and Plato recommended it without reservation.’

TO GREECE

Alexander and Selesnick note:

The Egyptians had recognized the emotional disorder that the Greeks later called "hysteria" (hysteron = uterus). They believed that the symptoms were caused by malposition of the uterus and therefore fumigated the vagina, hoping to lure the vagrant uterus back to its natural position. …. Even Galen, who opposed many Egyptian ideas, followed uterine-fumigation therapy.’

TO ROME

Alexander and Selesnick note:

Whether the physicians were priests, laymen, magicians, or combinations thereof, by and large Egyptian medicine was predominantly magical and religious.’

Existence of Mental Difference

Clarke notes the Ebers Papyrus indicates the existence of mental difference and summarises this.

Winzer notes that the Ebers Papyrus has oblique references to mental retardation and specific references to epilepsy.

Mental Difference as Supernatural

Clarke notes that the Ebers Papyrus refers to mental difference being caused by god-spirits, the dead and enemies- implying causation by gods and by witchcraft.

Bromberg notes that the Ebers Papyrus contains detailed measures for driving out demons.

Mental Difference as Bodily Function

Clarke notes that the Ebers Papyrus describes a humoral system based on blood, air and mucous as an explanation for mental difference

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

The Ebers papyrus is a complete mixture of physical and supernatural explanations of mental difference.

Mental Difference as Treatable

Clarke notes that the Ebers Papyrus contains drug recipes although he does not say whether any of these were specific to mental difference.

Jones notes that Homer (c. 1000 b.c.e.) referred to the specific Nepenthes being used for mental difference.

includes prescriptions for the use of opium and olive oil for mental difference.

GO BACK TO TEXT AND FIND OUT WHAT THIS WAS A SPECIFIC FOR

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

Mental Difference as Protected or Valued

Winzer notes:

‘Mentally retarded and other disabled children may have been protected by the followers of Osiris, the most revered of all Egyptian Gods (Harms 1976, Scheerenberger 1982)’

This is evidence of retardation and disability being seen as especially close to the major god and thus a positive role.

Ancient Judaic Society

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The medicine of the people of Israel was greatly influenced by that of their neighbors the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Unlike them, the Hebrews did not have systematic medical texts or inscriptions, but the Talmud – the codification of what originally were oral laws – is full of stories that evidence psychological wisdom.’

Alexander and Selesnick note of the Talmud:

‘The psychological mechanism of blaming others for one’s own sins or sinful ideas, which we call "projection" or "scapegoating", is described anecdotally in Megillah 25, which tells the story of the anti-vice crusader who accused the people of Jerusalem of committing precisely those crimes of which in fact he himself was guilty.’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘…Rabbi Abi recommended diversion as a treatment for mental disorder, and Rabbi Asi advocated that the troubled patient should talk freelyabout his worries.’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The fundamental point of view that characterized early Hebraic medicine and distinguished it from the ancient medicine of Babylon and Egypt was the belief that one God was the source of health and disease. "For I am the Lord that healeth thee" (Exodus xv: 26); "I kill and I make alive" (Deuteronomy xxxxii: 39). Cure of disease therefore was an attribute of the Divine, and the purpose of disease, including madness, was to punish man for his sins.’

Alexander and Selesnick notes of ancient Judaic society:

‘Malignant demons were considered the cause of insanity, asthma, and other obscure conditions in biblical accounts; in the Talmud, however, supernatural powers are of less account, and the influence of the Talmud made Hebraic medicine less magical than was the medicine of ancient Babylon and Egypt.’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘In Deuteronomy (vi:5) it is written, "The Lord will smite thee with madness," which indicates that although demons were considered the precipitating agents of insanity, the supreme controlling force was considered to be Divine. Saul’s mental illness, which is carefully described in the first book of Samuel, was thought to have been caused by an evil spirit sent from the Lord. Overcome with depression, Saul tried to persuade his servant to kill him; when the man refused, Saul committed suicide (I Samuel xxxi:4). There are also several biblical descriptions of catatonic excitement and epileptic fits.’

Alexander and Selesnick note:

‘The Hebraic concern for the sick has always been an important influence on the humanitarian aspects of medicine and psychiatry, and as early as AD 490 there was a hospital in Jerusalem solely for the mentally ill. (Whitwell 1936)’

TO MEDIEVAL

Existence of Mental Difference

Mental Difference as Supernatural

Mental Difference as Bodily Function

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

Mental Difference as Treatable

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

Masters in his book Bedlam considers the early history of psychiatry and notes:

‘…in the ancient Israelite Society, apart from political biases for and against certain prophets, and providing there was no threat to their society, the so-called insane were left to their own devices. If they had no family or belonged to the lower classes they wandered about the country are were ridiculed. If they were of a higher class they were kept at home and in some cases looked after by a servant. The violent were also kept at home unless a time came when they were physical menace either to themselves or their families. If this occurred they would be restrained, which meant they were either placed in restraint or bound’

Bromberg quotes Whitwell’s paper Historical Notes on Psychiatry (Early Times-end of 16th century)

‘The Judaic rules of personal and social hygiene indirectly tended to affect man’s mental and physical health.’

These should indicate likely social reaction to mental and physical impairment in ancient Jewish society. INVESTIGATE

Ancient China:

Veith notes:

‘There is relatively little mention of insanity, although it undoubtedly existed as is indicated by a number of ideographs denoting mental alienations.

‘One ideograph was tien k’uang, which may be translated in various ways as "mad, deranged, infatuated, insane, delirious, or simply crazy"’

Veith notes:

‘According to the oldest Chinese medical writings any disease, but particularly mental disease, was caused by an imbalance of the two primary forces in man: the yin and the yang. These two forces which stood for the negative and the positive, the dark and the light, the moon and the sun, the noxious and the beneficial, also denote female and male elements, both of which are ever-present in man and woman alike. Disease arises when the proportions of the two elements begin to vary from the normal.’

Veith notes of Taoism:

‘Of [great] significance is the alleged cause for the imbalance of yin and yang. This imbalance, it was believed, was caused by the patient himself, who had committed a transgression by deviating from the prescribed way of nature and society. It was this concept of the "way", known in Chinese as the Tao, which provided the guiding principle of all human conduct.

‘By means of these seemingly abstract theories, the ancient Chinese arrived at two extremely important conclusions: first, that disease is rarely localized but generally affects the entire human being; and second, that disease is often associated with behaviour, i.e. guilt about the infringement of a natural law.’

Veith notes:

‘Without the concept of sin and without the tradition of vengeful deities smiting mortals with the curse of madness, mental disease was never associated with religious guilt (Duyvendak JJl 1951 Review of Henri Maspero’s "Melanges posthumes" T’oung Pao 40, 374-), nor was it apt to be the cause of family disgrace. Indeed, the Chinese, failing to observe the frequent hereditary factor of this illness, often recommended marriage for therapeutic reasons…. Thus, unlike his Western counterpart, the Chinese mental patient was never set apart from his accustomed surroundings. These old practices which are rooted in the concept of filial piety and reinforced by the demands of "face" prevailed even after the opening of Western-type mental institutions; they account for the reluctance of the Chinese to commit family members to institutional care. Actually, filial piety imposes a dual obligation upon the family; above all, the literal one, where children feel obliged to honor their parents and to care for them, even if senile dementia or general paresis have transformed the patriarch into a burdensome and foolish old man. But the filial piety which is lavished on the head of the household also protects and shelters the youngest and most distant member of the family. This was, of course, made easier by the fact that traditional Chinese society was more tolerant than the Western world of mental borderline cases, idiocy, or various neurotic manifestations. It could afford this tolerance because the sprawling, one-storied architecture of a Chinese country house permitted easy seclusion of a disturbed family member, and the agricultural society was able to find work even for the retarded and the deficient.’

Veith notes:

‘With the first indication of illness, however, especially when it strangely affected the mind, or rather, the patient’s behaviour, specific rituals came into play that had gradually developed for just such occasions. They were carried out by certain priests whose preeminent function it was to counteract and defeat the noxious powers that had caused the illness. It is noteworthy that in their apparent irrational rites there was a faint connecting link between the popular and scholarly views of mental alienation.’

Veith notes:

‘Another cause of mental derangement was the ability attributed to the dead to steal the souls of the living.’

I NEED MORE ON CHINESE PSYCHIATRY- ? SOURCES

Existence of Mental Difference

Mental Difference as Supernatural

Mental Difference as Bodily Function

Mental Difference as a Mixture of the Supernatural and Bodily Function

Mental Difference as Treatable

Mental Difference as Just Deserts

Bromberg quotes Whitwell:

‘’As early as 1140 BC, the Chinese maintained institutions for the insane, who were cared for until recovery took place.’

Belief Difference

Forensic Difference

Culpin notes:

‘When humans lived in small groups, as wandering hunters or even as small farmers, they did not need many laws. Everyone knew how you were supposed to behave and disputes were few. Any disputes were settled, either by force, with the strongest people getting their own way, or by agreement, with the older and wiser members of the group making a judgement according to their customs.

‘The first sets of laws were needed when more people began to live in the first cities. This happened earliest in the great river valleys: in Egypt, Mesopotamia, in India and in China. With more people living close together, not everyone knew each other so well; land was valuable, so clear boundaries had to be drawn and decisions made about who owned what.

‘Crimes were committed. Some people took to solving their disputes themselves, often violently, driven by revenge. Feuds grew up between families and tribes, sometimes lasting for years. Many people were killed. Chaos and fear threatened the new civilisations. The powerful rulers of these areas, the Pharaohs of Egypt, or the kings of Assyria or Babylon, had to keep the peace. They drew up laws, or collected customs people were used to.’

Culpin quotes the Laws of Hammurabi c. 1700bce:

‘If a man has caused the loss of a man’s eye, his own eye shall be lost. If he has broken a man’s limb, one shall break his limb.

‘If he has caused a poor man to lose an eye, he shall pay one ‘mina’ of silver.

These brief quotes of two (out of 282) laws show that retribution was accepted within limits, and also that reparation was accepted if one was rich enough.

Culpin quotes Deuteronomy 19:21:

‘Deuteronomy 19:21 And thine eye shall not pity; [but] life [shall go] for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.’

Showing limitation of retribution.

Culpin notes that certain of the ten commandments would be seen as forensic statements in different times and cultures:

Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (HERESY- Present day Iran, Afghanistan)

Exodus 20:4 and 5 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: … Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; (IDOLATRY- Commonwealth England, Modern Islam)

Exodus 20:6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (BLASPHEMY- Still technically illegal in Britain today)

Exodus 20:8, 9, 10 and 11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Exodus 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy. For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (SHABBAT/SUNDAY OBSERVANCE- Shabbat in Israel, Sunday opening in Britain)

Exodus 20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (PATRIMONIAL RESPECT- Paterfamilias in Rome, Right of parents to inflict discipline without sanction- many modern societies)

Exodus 20:13 Thou shalt not kill. (MURDER- universal for some killings but not others- just wars)

Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. (ADULTERY- still illegal in some US states and much of Islam)

Exodus 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.(THEFT AND BURGLARY- universal)

Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (PERJURY, LIBEL, SLANDER- universal)

Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's. (COVETOUSNESS- no examples)

Culpin notes that the first six books of the Bible- the Torah include 613 laws about how the Jewish people should live, covering not only things that would still be seen as criminal laws, but also rules of diet, dress, hospitality and social structure.

CHECK BIBLE FOR PUNISHMENTS REQUIRED

Winzer notes:

‘Legal mandates are more telling: legislators did not enact laws to control the orderly but to sanction divisive elements and others who were a focus of concern. Fragments remaining from the writings of the great jurists of the ancient world imply that careful consideration was directed toward the disabled population’

Imprisonment as a punishment for criminality was a much rarer experience in ancient and medieval times. Morris and Rothman in the introduction to their edited collection of papers on punishment in The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society state:

‘The idea of the prison is a modern invention. Most ancient, medieval and more recent societies used other methods to discipline and punish people judged to deserve social and legal sanctions for their behaviour.’

Ancient world generally:

In the ancient world punishments for wrongdoing included:

Public sale into slavery

Publicly imposed forced labour

Exhibition of Offenders for Public Shame- Stocks and Pillory

Exile

Deportation

Abandonment of the individual

Left to starve to death

Punishment of the body by:

Death

Mutilation

Beating

Imprisonment was used to detain a person until trial of punishment was carried out, but not usually as punishment in itself.

Ancient Egypt:

Drapkin notes:

‘From the limited information available, the vizier, as chief magistrate, and his deputies administered the pharaoh’s justice.’

Drapkin notes:

‘During the fourth and fifth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, there is evidence of important legal developments and reforms. There are mentions of lawbooks or codes and archives for recording judgements and punishments – such as forced labor, mutilations, and other corporal penalties; hanging for serious crime, and so forth. … People sentenced to forced labor were held in fetters in specific areas of the cities or even in private homes. Their sentences were served in the building of temples, palaces, tombs, and pyramids, or in the gold and copper mines.’

Drapkin notes:

‘Documentation regarding criminal procedure is almost non-existent. Archaeologists have discovered only a fragmentary, poorly preserved penal statute from the time of Haremhab, an army general who took the throne in approximately 1320 B.C., at the end of the eighteenth century.’

Drapkin notes:

‘What could be the explanation for the relative paucity of material regarding the development of legal concepts in ancient Egypt? Papyrus sheets, ostraca, and limestone laminae have been discovered that include tax receipts and related records of Egypt’s economy. However, almost nothing has been discovered that would give a clear picture of Egypt’s legal system. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the study of law did not have the importance it had in Mesopotamia, nor did it develop to the extent that it did under the Hebrews.’

Peters makes the following points. Record of prisons being used for punishments in Egypt in Middle Kingdom (2050-1786 bce). Genesis 39:20-40:5 confinement of the Hebrew slave Joseph by the Egyptian royal official Potiphar. Prison was granary used for confining foreign offenders. Forced labour whilst in confinement. Query 12 years duration for Joseph according to some rabbinical authorities. When Samson was captured by the Philistines Judges 16:22 he was put in prison and made to grind corn. My note: imprsionment used as a method of extracting useful labour, not as punishment in itself. Execution used.

Drapkin notes:

‘…we know that the written word was born at approximately the same time in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, toward the end of the fourth millennium B.C.. Egyptian hieroglyphics may have developed from prehistoric rock painting or "picture writing"…[t]he Egyptians never developed an alphabet as we know it, but their rebus style of writing was nevertheless an efficient means of communication for those days; it served both rulers and poets.

Mesopotamia

(3000-400 bce)

Code of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE)- little use of prisons but may have been used for debt, theft and bribery and for rebellious slaves. (my note- slaves were property, so execution or severe mutilation would punish their owners- ? hence imprisonment as an option.) Execution, mutilation.

Drapkin notes:

‘It was during the 1,500 years of Sumerian rule, all of them within the Bronze Age, that the written word became an institution, a fact of life. Society became dependent on documentation; and the complexities of man’s social behaviour were recorded and defined. The written law – beginning with the earliest known code of the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu – became indispensible to the rulers of the early city states of Sumer and Akkad.’

Drapkin notes:

‘…we know that the written word was born at approximately the same time in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, toward the end of the fourth millennium B.C.. … Excavation at Nippur, the Sumerian religious center in Southern Mesopotamia, have unearthed the oldest known evidence of writing in the form of tablets with pictographic script, which date from 3100 to 2800 B.C..’

Drapkin notes:

‘Legal institutions derived from sociological needs: when one of society’s members behaved in a manner contrary to prescribed norms, he was punished. Ancient legal codes were actually no more than a collection of precedents – lists of actual cases, including the verdict given in each specific case. These specific cases became the basis of a general view, as opposed to modern-day general rulings, which are applied to specific cases.’

TO GENERAL FORENSIC

Drapkin notes:

‘The central role of written law in Sumerian society was a direct consequence of the Sumerians’ high regard for private property. As early as 2500 B.C., man began to inscribe private transactions on clay tablets. The popularly held conception that the oldest code of law is that of Hammurabi has been refuted by archaeological evidence. Today … the oldest code in our possession is that of Ur-Nammu who founded the Third Dynasty of Ur in approximately 2050 B.C.; his reign preceded that of Hammurabi by 300 to 400 years. However, the first references to written law are found even earlier, in about 2400 B.C., when Ur-Engur, king of Ur stated that he had administered justice "following the law of the gods." Urukagina, king of Lagash in approximately 2350 B.C., claimed to have compiled all existing ordinances into one code, although only records of administrative reforms have been discovered till now.

Drapkin notes:

‘The Urukagina reform document is in itself of great significance for the history of legal development. This document determines that the entire population has the right to know the justification behind each conviction and punishment. Both the thief and the woman convicted of adultery were to be stoned to death with stones inscribed with their infractions.’

Drapkin notes:

‘The seriousness with which female adultery was considered was due to the introduction of strange elements within the family, and the cult of ancestors could be tainted with sacrilege. In the Hammurabi Code, the old Hebrew law, and even classical Greece, the adulterous wife received the death penalty.’

TO HEBREW AND GREEK AS WELL

Drapkin notes:

‘The tablet containing Ur-Nammu’s Code … is not the original, or even a contemporary copy, buta poorly preserved clay tablet inscribed several hundred years later. … The tablet is so badly damaged that only five of the laws could be deciphered with any degree of certainty. One refers to a kind of trial by water ordeal and another to returning a slave to his rightful owner.’

The other three show financial compensation for physical injury.

Drapkin notes:

‘Although the [Ur-Nammu] Code itself is in poor condition, hundreds of tablets unearthed in the ruins of Nippur, in the area where the temple scribes lived, paint a clear picture of the administration of justice during this period. … The phenomenon of juvenile delinquency is often regarded as peculiar to modern society, but it has existed from ancient times. One of the oldest cases is perhaps found on a tablet entitled "A father and His Perverse Son."’

Drapkin notes that in 1850 B.C. a clay tablet from Nippur of about 1850 B.C. shows the administration of the death penalty for murder.

Drapkin notes of the Code of Lipit-Ishtar:

‘About one century after Ur-Nammu, the Amorite Semitic king of Isin, Lipit-Ishtar, compiled a code in the Sumerian language. The discovery of this code, which is almost certainly rooted in the cultural and judicial heritage of Sumer, dates to approximately 1900 to 1800 B.C.. The code – clearly related to that of Hammurabi, which it precedes by some two centuries – provides material for studying the developing legal concept in Southern Mesopotamia. … Only three of the laws that could be deciphered have a particular penal and criminological significance.’

The penalties for stealing and damage to trees was financial; for slave stealing it is replacement of the slave or compensation.

Drapkin notes of the Laws of Eshnunna:

‘After the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, a number of cities in the Sumerian world were established beyond the original boundaries. One of these was the city state of Eshnunna, located some fifty kilometers north of Baghdad. … Two clay tablets with the Laws of Eshnunna … were discovered in 1945 and 1949.’

Unlawful entry (preceding theft) is punished by compensation for action in the day, and death for such action at night. For forcibly seizing a slave and killing him, the slave should be replaced with two others. For forcibly seizing a free woman should be put to death. Other punishments are all financial compensation.

Drapkin notes:

‘The Laws of Eshnunna deal only with injuries inflicted by freemen upon freemen; they do not deal with slaves. There are no references to mens rea (intention to cause harm) or to premeditation. There is no reference to subjective guilt, in contrast to direct responsibility for actual consequences. … Similarly, there is no distinction between crime (as part of public law) and tort (concerned only with the parties involved). Delicts necessarily resulted in penal measures. Sanctions were of a relatively simple nature: for bodily injuries, the majority were of a pecuniary nature, … but more serious offences were punishable by death. Specific modes of execution are not mentioned. In some cases the death penalty was mandatory; in others, it was applied when compensation was impossible because the guilty party could not meet the demands of his victim. Death was the only form of corporal punishment. No other forms of physical punishment were sanctioned.

NOTE THAT SLAVES WERE NOT PROTECTED – property.

Drapkin notes:

‘In all three of these early codes, the concept of talio is noticeable by its absence. These codes fixed a system of pecuniary rather than talionic compensation. It was not until the Code of Hammurabi, and later in the Hebrew Laws, that talionic compensations first appear. Modern man tends to recoil from the dictum "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," egarding it as primitive and barbaric. It is therefore worthwhile to remember that this "barbaric" notion was preceded by a more humane one – one that established a monetary compensation for damages rather than putting vengeance in the hands of the state.’

The Code of Hammurabi:

Drapkin notes:

‘Over the [period 1720-1710 B.C.] Hammurabi gradually achieved control over Assyria, until his domain included virtually all of Mesopotamia. In … about 1700 B.C., Hammurabi issued his famous code of law. Like the early Sumerian codes, it was not a systematic collection of laws on a given subject, nor was it a complete collection of existing laws.’

Drapkin notes of Hammurabi’s Code:

‘Perhaps the most interesting development was the institution of the talionic principle. The state’s reaction to deviant behaviour was essentially one of vengeance: death for death. The code also introduced the principle of expressive or sympathetic punishment, a form of corporal punishment in which the part of the body that had committed the crime was either amputated or mutilated.’

Drapkin notes of Hammurabi’s Code:

‘Twenty-seven clauses apply capital punishment in a variety of cases; others sentence the offender to suffer talionic or sympathetic punishments. If a person took something belonging to another, his fingers or hand were amputated (the other hand could be cut off if the crime was repeated); he would lose his lower lip if he kissed a married woman (also mentioned in the Middle Assyrian laws) and one or more fingers in cases of indecent assault; emasculation was the punishment in cases of rape, and the removal of the tongue for calumny. An ordeal by water was also inflicted in certain cases.’

Drapkin notes of Hammurabi’s Code:

‘In cases where it was impossible to exact punishment from the offender himself, various punishments could be inflicted upon a member of his family in his stead (later prohibited by the ancient Hebraic Law). Homicide was a capital offense, which could never be punished by compensation. The offender was to suffer the death penalty.’ However, he could obtain at least temporary asylum by fleeing to a temple, a shrine, or a site on the community’s borders, or by leaving the country.’

Drapkin notes of Hammurabi’s Code:

‘Punishment was also determined according to the social class of the victim. For example: "If a man puts out the eye of an awilum, they shall put out his eye. If he breaks a bone, they shall break his bone"(section 196). "If he puts out the eye of a muskenum or breaks his bone, he shall pay one mina of silver.’ (Awilum were the ruling class, Muskenum were the workers, Uardu were slaves.)

Drapkin notes of Hammurabi’s Code:

‘"If a builder has built a house for a man and has not made it strong enough, and the house he has built collapses and causes death of the householder, the builder shall be put to death" (section 229). "If it causes the death of the son of the owner of the house, they shall put to death the builder’d son" (section 230)’

Middle Eastern Laws after Hammurabi: Hittites

Drapkin notes:

‘The Hittite Laws, discovered in a number of cuneiform clay tablets, date from approximately the fifteenth century B.C. They contain some 200 clauses relating to civil and penal matters. Offenses are clearly defined, with sanctions ranging from payment of fines to the death penalty, forced labor, and mutilation (to which only slaves were subject). There is no evidence of the talionic principle that appeared in Hammurabi’s code. ’

Drapkin notes:

‘The Hittites were only one of a long list of would-be conquerors who preyed on the weakened Amorite dynasty of Babylon. The Kassites ruled for some four centuries and were finally ousted by the Elamites, who in turn were conquered by the Assyrians.’

Drapkin notes:

‘The Old Assyrian Laws, also known as the Cappadocian Tablets, date approximately from the fifteenth century B.C., and relate mainly to commercial disputes. The more important Middle Assyrian Laws, from about the twelfth century B.C., consist of fifty-nine sections that deal in detail with offenses against the wives of freemen. Two badly damaged tablets from the same period seem to refer to cases of theft, for which thieves could either be fined, flogged, or required to give a number of days of service to the king.

Assyrian

Successor to Mesopotamian civilization

Early Japan

NOTE TAKE FROM DRAPKIN PAGES 327- 362

Ancient China

NOTE TAKE FROM DRAPKIN PAGES 135-159

Ancient India

NOTE TAKE FROM DRAPKIN PAGES 99-133

Persians

NOTE TAKE FROM DRAPKIN PAGES 85-97

Early Judaic Society

Psalm 137: 5-6

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

TO PHYSICAL DISABILITY

Distribute Drapkin notes to Classical and Medieval dark Ages as necessary

Drapkin notes of the Habiru (original Hebrews)who were nomads originating in Mesopotamia and serving as mercenaries to Babbylonians, Assyruans, Hittites and Hurrians:

‘As early as 1500 B.C., these archetypal ancestors of the "Wandering Jew" began the conquest of Palestine.’

Drapkin notes that in 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried its inhabitants into Babylonian captivity:

‘When the exiles later returned to their homeland to create the Judean state, they carried with them a number of Mesopotamian liturgical, educational, and legal practices. Some of these were carried over into Christianity and, through the Judeo-Christian tradition, reached Western civilization as a whole.’

Drapkin notes:

‘The great Hebrew literature surviving in the Old Testament contains much that relates to Jewish law, especially in the Pentateuch, possibly compiled about the beginning of the fourth century B.C. out of documents of earlier centuries. The Hebrew code, though brief, is a little less advanced than that of Hammurabi and is perhaps nearer, in its degree of development, to the laws of Eshnunna than to any other of the earlier codes. That the Biblical laws and the long-known Code of Hammurabi show numerous similarities in context, terminology, and even basic arrangement is recognized by practically all students of the Bible.’

Drapkin notes:

‘In contrast to the lack of documentation regarding the ancient criminal codes of the Near east, there is an almost dizzying richness of sources regarding the ancient Hebrew law.’

Drapkin notes:

‘The legal tenets within the Pentateuch were complemented bythe interpretations of the Mishnah (the oral law) and the Talmud, which is not a sacred text but an encyclopedic, rambling, and sometimes humorous collection of folk tales, proverbs, philosophical debates, legal arguments, historical comments, and much more.’

Drapkin notes:

‘The [Mishnah was] revised and edited by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, by the end of the second century B.C..’

Drapkin notes:

‘The Talmudic and Mishnaic interpretations reflect the discussions of the Tannaism and Amoraim, scholars who elucidated and commented upon them. The Tannaic period refers to the time in which the Mishnah was nearly completed , until about 220 B.C.. The Amoraim participated in completing the Mishnah and prepared the Talmud, from approximately 220 B.C. to 470 A.D.. Later contributions illuminating Mishnaic and Talmudic text were made by Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, 1040-1105); Maimonides (born in Cordoba, Spain, I 1135 and died in Fostat, Egypt, in 1204), known in rabbinical literature as Rambam (acronym of rabbi Moses ben Maimon) and considered the most illustrious figure of the post-Talmudic era; and Joseph ben Ephraim Caro, perhaps the last great codifier of the rabbinical law and an outstanding talmudic authority of the sixteenth century (1488-1575).’

Drapkin notes:

‘According to the biblical concept, law is no more than a statement of God’s will. The laws are referred to as the "Words of God" – never of man. God is the only legislator; righteousness, and the observance of his law, assures the well-being and prosperity of the individual, and of the community as a whole. The divine authorship of the biblical laws transforms "crimes" into "sins" – violations of the will of God. Offenses are regarded as absolute wrongs, transcending man’s power to punish.’

Drapkin notes regarding adultery:

‘In biblical law …the adulteress and her companion have sinned against God, and must be put to death, as stated in Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22-23.’

Drapkin notes of biblical law on property (in contrast to Assyrian and Babylonian laws):

‘…no property offense is punishable by death.’

Drapkin notes:

‘Vicarious punishment – applying the penalty to a person other than the culprit – was adopted by many cuneiform laws but was repudiated by biblical law-makers. … Vicarious punishment is replaced in biblical law by the principle of individual responsibility. Secular offenses such as murder, negligent homicide, seduction, and the like, are never collectively or vicariously punished.’

Drapkin notes:

‘…Hitite law compels the slayer to deliver a number of kinsmen to the kinsmen of the victim, whereas Assyrian law allows for the substitution of a son, brother, wife, or slave (depending on the specific situation), instead of vengeance. The members of a family and is dependents have no separate identity; they belong to the pater familias, and he may dispose of them at his discretion.’

TO HITTITES AND ASSYRIANS

Drapkin notes:

‘…women have no legal status in the Bible.’

TO GENDER

Drapkin notes:

‘The biblical laws determine seven categories of crimes, each with a corresponding punishment. The punishments were karet ("extirpation" or "excision"), banishment, flagellation, lex talionis, fines, and penal slavery. …

When the Persian ruler of Babylon, Arataxerxes, authorized the scribe Ezra to return to Judea, he provided him with an official document that indicated only four types of punishment: death, banishment, confiscation of property, and imprisonment. The last two were unknown in biblical law and were probably the types of punishment practiced in Babylon. Talmudic jurisprudence adds three punishments to the seven mentioned, which are undoubtedly of postbiblical origin: Imprisonment, death at the hand of heaven, and death at the hand of the people.’

Drapkin notes:

‘In the Jewish system of jurisprudence, punishment is of three distinctive characters: (1) retributive – punishing the criminal for his wrongdoing; (2) deterrent – a punishment so severe as to intimidate others from committing similar crimes; and (3) expiatory – an attempt to obtaon forgiveness of the deity, whose wrath had been incurred by the commission of the crime.’

Drapkin notes:

‘From the philosophical point of view, one of the most decisive elements in penology is the distinction of an act of punishment from an act of vengeance. The first and most important measure to be introduced was likeness "an eye for an eye, and tooth for tooth" (Exod. 21:23-25), Deut. 19:21). At first, such a principle – demanding that the punishment be commensurate to the crime – makes it look like a codification of vengeance. In reality, it seeks to restrain human’s insatiable thirst for retaliation: Take a tooth and be done with it!’

Drapkin notes of capital punishments – stoning, burning, decapitation, strangulation

Drapkin notes that hanging was not a method of execution, but that the body could be hung after death as posthumous punishment (Deut. 21:22)

Drapkin notes:

‘Crucifixion was not among the capital punishments applied by the Israelites. It was mainly used by the Romans during the period they ruled in Palestine. Many thousands died on the cross in the Roman period, but the nails were extracted before the body was buried. They were treasured amongst Jews, for their alleged healing properties.’

Drapkin notes:

‘Imprisonment was indicated in only three cases, two related to the incorrigible offender and one to the willful murderer who has twice been convicted and commits the same crime a third time or who has been warned three times and has disregarded the warnings. Broadly speaking, he would be what is understood today as a recidivist.’

Drapkin notes:

‘According to Maimonides, imprisonment was reserved for cases in which the offender had committed a capital crime but the punishment could not be carried out.’

Drapkin notes:

‘Whether incarceration was ever practiced is not known, since in the Scriptures there is no mention of penal institutions. In biblical times, there was a place of detention for the accused before he was brought to justice (mentioned in Num. 15:32-36 and Lev. 24: 10-23). During the first commonwealth, imprisonment seems to have been an established leal punishment, used by several kings of Judah and Israel, although whether these prisons were solely for political prisoners or other violators of the law is unknown.’

Drapkin notes:

‘Penal servitude was not adopted by the Jews as a legal punishment for crime until very late in the development of their criminal law. When an offender was unable to make restitution for stolen property, he was sold into slavery by the court for as long as deemed necessary, but in no event for more than six years (Exod. 22:2).’

Prins notes:

‘… minors, ‘imbeciles’, and deaf mutes were often singled out for less harsh treatment (the phenomenon of Shoteh described in the Talmud.’

QUERY DATE OF TALMUDIC SOURCE – CLASSICAL PROBABLY – IF SO THEN TRANSFER.

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Other

Social Difference

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Ethnic Difference

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Financial Difference

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The Aged

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