Adoption in the Laws of Hammurabi

Pamela Barmash · 2020

This chapter explores how the statutes on adoption, a prominent institution in Mesopotamian society, in the Laws of Hammurabi illustrate a number of the compositional techniques the scribe employed to demonstrate his flair for legal reasoning and conceptualization.

Type:
Book Chapter
Author:
Pamela Barmash
Published:
2020
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

This chapter explores how the statutes on adoption, a prominent institution in Mesopotamian society, in the Laws of Hammurabi illustrate a number of the compositional techniques the scribe employed to demonstrate his flair for legal reasoning and conceptualization. Among these methods of composition are the use of incremental variants, the incorporation of explanation, and the designation of specific types of punishment. Legal records demonstrate the artificiality of the statutes because the extant records are about the adoption of adults. By contrast, the statutes are about the adoption of minor children, a sampling that does not accord with the historical reality of adoption in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia.

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What is "Adoption in the Laws of Hammurabi" about?
This chapter explores how the statutes on adoption, a prominent institution in Mesopotamian society, in the Laws of Hammurabi illustrate a number of the compositional techniques the scribe employed to demonstrate his flair for legal reasoning and conceptualization.
Who wrote "Adoption in the Laws of Hammurabi"?
Pamela Barmash