Gender Roles In The Garden Of Eden

When Eve took that bite of the Forbidden Fruit, she had no idea what she had gotten women-kind into. Whether or not you believe in the story of creation, the perception of women as corrupting and sinful had shaped women's social roles in Western Society for thousands of years. Augustine was one of the first to write about the wickedness of women, and the acceptance of this doctrine is evident in the Letters of Abelard and Heloise through their disdain toward marriage. Along with mass death of the Black Plague, came an opportunity for women to change the ways in which society viewed them. The great number of deaths in Europe often resulted in the situation where no male heirs remained which led to the legal ability of women to inherit

She even tempted Adam at some point in the story to try and eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge thus showing the sexist views on how men are to be considered as more powerful than women. Of course, her actions did get her and Adam into trouble and into an unfriendly confrontation with their creator and even though they tried begging for forgiveness, they still were forced leave their

Gender roles in ancient Mesopotamia were clearly defined (teachmiddleeast.edu). Generally, men worked outside of the home and women stayed inside of the home while focusing on raising their children and keeping up with work that took place in the home. However, there were exceptions; we know of women who were “bartenders” and even women who were priestesses, but with limited responsibility. Due to the fact that some were from socially higher families and owned large amounts of property, those women were not allowed to marry. Women at the time were given much less freedom than men, however, women were more protected than men, which is seen in Hammurabi’s Code of Law, specifically in his 130th law:

Different cultures and societies have their story of how the world began. These stories vary in the process, but they all share one common theme. All of the stories begin with nothing or chaos, that is until one being creates light, time, earth and its occupants. One common thing all myths share is the role and status of women and men. In the Greek myth women were less dominant, Hindu myth women are not even mentioned, and in Cherokee myth women are shown to be inferior.

Periodization 1 and its many events fits into 5 different groups Social, Political, Interactive, Cultural, economical, or SPICE. The first category, Social can be further divided into gender roles and relationships, family structure, and class structures. Gender roles during the Paleolithic era honored women. Venus statues were all the rage, and in cave paintings, you can see the females painted larger that the males. However, once you get to the Neolithic era and the agriculture revolution, women faded to the background, doing menial jobs and having kids. That also affected the family structure. The class structure, which was non existent during the the Paleolithic era, popped up in most societies individual. For example, in Egypt, a class system was set up which had the pharaoh on top, can be compared to the Indians caste system with the Brahmins as the top there.

In the Hebrew Bible, a significant section where this idea can be seen is in the beginning with the story of Adam and Eve, specifically in Genesis 4. When Eve is manipulated to eat the forbidden fruit, it poses the idea that the suffering of humankind was caused by a woman, showing the idea that woman react without consideration or senselessly, when really Eve was only acting on a very human trait, curiosity. When Eve convinces Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, one of gods punishment to Eve is “Your man shall be your longing, and rule over you” (p.97). Or when God describes Eve as “his woman”, God is essentially saying she is not her own independent person and is meant to be owned by men. This passage alone shows that women are viewed as people that were meant to be controlled; that men were always meant to be above them.

Eve has been a powerful female figure throughout history and provoked so many female authors because she is depicted as the first woman, made from the rib of the first man, Adam. Since Eve was the first, and mother to all women, she was preserved to have passed on an evil nature to all women after tasting the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and asking Adam to as well. Women have invested their time in Eve’s defense by arguing that it was not the fault of Eve alone, and that if Adam was supposed the be a symbol of strength, and wisdom, then he should been able to see through Eve’s fruit and the trickery of the serpent. The story bible has been used as a symbol of oppression for women by the word of God being law in the Christian

For the past two-thousand years, the Book of Genesis has served as work of literature to the western civilization. Whether people believed in the Bible or not, the Book of Genesis tell stories they talk about having good morals, teaching live-learned lessons and overall it gives a glimpse of how the first human being acted when the world was developing and how they handle problems and situations. However, even though the book of Genesis shows a tone of life long morals, Genesis also shows the different sides of humans. Genesis shows how human can be deceitful, evil, and disobedient to authority figures. But these traits with humans were rarely displayed by man, but mostly by woman. In

Firstly, it will be the introduction to the author and the book; Secondly, literature review both at home and aboard; Thirdly, the biblical archetype used in this work, which is divided into three parts, that is the archetype of the Garden of Eden/ the house of Harper, which is place model; Then the archetype of Adam and Eve/ Hester and Katherine, that is character model; Finally, the archetype of Satan/forbidden love between the two women character, which can be seen as the traditional conflicts model; Lastly, it is the conclusion part. The question that needs to be discussed here is that why Hester and Katherine are marginalized, they are driven out from Harper’s House to a old stone cottage by the Bordens, this family symbolizes the sexual reproduction of heterosexuality, while the roles of Hester and Katherine symbolizes homosexual and infertile.

The discussion of gender relations as it pertained to the household in ancient times varied amongst cultures. These relations or systems carried a large number of laws that shaped the family dynamic. This debate about gender relations is often part of larger discussions about whether Paleolithic society and by implication, “human nature” - was primarily peaceful and nurturing or violent and brutal, and whether these qualities are gender related (McKay 12). During the Paleolithic era, the man’s role was to hunt and be in control of his family. Males back then assumed that they were the only species built for foraging and hunting while women gathered plant based foods.

From prehistory to 1450 CE, in many different and complex civilizations, religion has influenced the gender roles of many societies. From prehistory to 600 BCE, in Mesopotamia, women could own property, maintain their dowry, and even trade. However, from 600 BCE to 600 CE, in Rome, women were completely under the control of their paterfamilias. Than, from 600 to 1450 CE, in the Byzantine Empire, women were constrained to their homes, and when they went out, they had to wear veils over their faces. Religion influenced the gender roles of many societies and civilizations from prehistory to 1450 CE.

Most of the gender expectations stemmed from the Church and biblical history. There were many anti-feminist feelings due to Eve causing the fall of Man. Women were perceived to be responsible for most of the suffering to man, and

The Holy Bible is full of advice on every issue known to humanity. This advice varies in topics from society's functions to foreign policy and even gender roles. Today's western culture is very confused when it comes to gender roles, swinging over the last over 50 years from a male-dominated society to a large portion of the feminist society fighting for female dominance and the disappearance of chivalry. Society is always searching for answers from science and philosophy but constantly fails to look in the right places. The Bible is the foundation of truth and it requires the ultimate amount of attention if any community plans to be successful for any length of time. The education of modern society on what the Bible says about gender roles is necessary to achieve mutual understanding of beliefs.

Adam and Eve were the first man and woman to ever be created by God’s image. In the story of Adam and Eve is to believe that God created two human beings to live in a Paradise on earth, called the Garden of Eden, although they had fell from that state it said to be in history that they began humanity, and the loss of innocence.

The Bible is controversial on the matter of gender equality. There are numerous contradictions about the status of women in Christian society. Historically, the most prominent interpretation has been rather negative toward women. The Christian Church, with principally male authority, emphasizes the idea that women are inferior to man. They focus on Eve’s sin leading to a punishment that “her husband will have authority over her.” (Drury, 34)