Family

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, in a
medieval ivory carving

Most children lived with their mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters at first, but often they lost one or both of their parents before they grew up, because people died younger then. They had more brothers and sisters than most people do today, but more kids had a young brother or sister who died, too. They sometimes lived with their grandparents if they were still alive, and often with their uncles and aunts and cousins as well. Some people lived with their slaves.

When your parents died, you might inherit their land or their cattle or sheep. Inheritance was a lot more important in ancient and medieval times than it is today, because most people were farmers, and they needed land to farm.

But not all the families of the ancient world were the same. In West Asia, in the days of the Sumerians and Assyrians, people lived in big families, and often women took a big role in business and making money for the family. In Egypt at about the same time, women also had an important role outside the house. Children mostly helped their parents with the family business.

In Classical Greece, on the other hand, women almost never left their houses if they could help it, and men did not say women's names in public: instead, they said "wife of Alcibiades" or "mother of Pericles" (the way we say "Mrs. Garcia" or "Mrs. Goldstein"). Some boys went out to school, and might do different things than their fathers had done.

In the Roman Empire, women again had a stronger role outside the house, but boys continued to go to school. Slaves became more and more important in families. Adoption was very common.

After the fall of Rome, religion gradually became more important in how families were put together. In the part of Europe and West Asia that was Christian, divorce became much more difficult, and infanticide became illegal. Marriage slowly became a more formal, religious ritual than it had been before.

In the Islamic world, at the same time, divorce remained pretty easy. Islamic law limited the power of a man to beat his wife, while Christian countries did not. The Koran allowed rich men to have as many as four wives, although most men still only really had one. Women mainly stayed inside their houses.

Egyptian families
West Asian families
Chinese families
Greek families
Roman families
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