Marriage in Mesopotamia

In my history class we touched a little bit on the history of Mesopotamia and it made me interested in what their culture was like. I found a book on Ancient Mesopotamia’s everyday life. I learned a lot about women’s rights and about marriage rituals. I surprised to see how different things were in Mesopotamia then how things are run in the US today. In today’s society most things are paid by the woman’s family and there is a big ceremony to represent the bride becoming part of the groom’s family, but things in Ancient Mesopotamia were really different.

When a woman in Mesopotamia gets married, she becomes a part of the groom’s family and the new husband is in charge of the woman. He is responsible for his new wife and the husband’s family is in charge of planning the ceremony. Instead of having a wedding ceremony at a church, they have a huge feast at the new couple’s home. The man’s family is in charge of paying for the feast and they even give the family of the woman some money for allowing them to welcome her to the family.

This tradition came from a story about the Enlil who fell in love with a pretty daughter of the gods. He had made a mistake on what she wanted and realized she wanted marriage, he went to her parents and asked her father for permission to marry his daughter. He then sent her family herds of animals and he sent his future wife a lot of jewels and gems. It is believed that by sharing a feast made/retrieved by the husband’s family makes the wife part of the family. This feast was not just to rejoice about the new marriage, but to incorporate the woman into her new family. After the feast the new wife was treated as every other member of the husband’s family.

More Infomation about this can be found in Everday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. By Jean Bottero