However it is not right that we take this difference as...

However it is not right that we take this difference as being the most fitting expression of the matrimonial system. Indeed, this synopsis does not hold true for all areas of the nature of the family, so we will concern ourselves to the areas upon which peoples have been in agreement from the earliest times as civilisations and peoples. This will no doubt fulfil our purpose. Particularly regarding marriage and childbearing, libertinism, and the system of rights.

In the following pages, we will deal with matrimonial laws from the earliest times until the present day. 1. The Civilisation of the Mesopotamia Matrimony was deemed to be greatly important in the Sumerian civilisation where they promoted marriage and repudiated celibacy. Marital infidelity was regarded by them as a crime punishable in detailed laws by death.

The two adulterers if there were witnesses to the crime would be bound and thrown into water to drown, and if there were no witnesses then the woman could exonerate herself by an oath. Amongst the Assyrians, the matter was much the same where marital fidelity was compulsory and infidelity was punishable either by death to both parties by drowning, or by them being whipped, or by their hair being torn out, or by the amputation of the ears.

The Assyrians also called for a high birth rate in moral laws in which they considered abortion a serious crime punishable by execution. They considered a beating, which led to abortion as a crime punishable by fifty lashes, forced labour and in some cases execution. The Babylonians specified more than sixty rules regarding the preservation of the family and stressed the seriousness of adultery and the implementation of punishment by drowning for the perpetrator.14 2.

Ancient Egyptian Civilisation Ancient Egyptian texts afforded marriage a high importance. Adultery was forbidden and its perpetrator was threatened with the most violent punishments, according to historians. The unfaithful husband would be subjected to flogging and the unfaithful wife would be subjected to the amputation of the nose. Adultery was one of the pretexts for divorce among them without distinction between the man and the woman.

In the civilisation of Osiris, dead persons used to bear with them to their graves a document testifying to their probity and fidelity in order to obtain mercy in the afterlife. 3.