Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/783

 THE LA WS OF HAMMURABI 753

the disrupting influence of private revenge and group-feud. The code discloses clearly the dominant power of the state. A strong, centralized, awe-inspiring authority was a vital necessity.

Babylonian society was pyramidal. The king was the apex, and the broad base rested upon a foundation of slaves. Social control was mediated from class to class. Caste and status are embedded in the code. In precise tariffs human values are set forth. This system served the political and economic needs of the time. It did its work of subordinating groups and trans- mitting a unifying authority.

The economic activity of Babylonia was stimulated by indi- vidual ownership and the careful definition and protection of property rights. The code makes one see vividly the dominance of economic interests. One can fancy the pressure by which countless conflicts were consolidated into this body of laws. If the code was well enforced, Babylon must have been popular with men of wealth. Yet there is always danger that protection for property will be pushed to the point where the industrially weak will be impoverished, discouraged, made less productive, or driven into revolt. The code of Hammurabi guards against this tendency by several provisions designed to protect the poor and unfortunate. Justice from the standpoint of social control is the psychological means of reconciling the individual to his status and stirring him to his social tasks. The code of Hammurabi gropes toward a justice which shall stimulate the accumulation of wealth without impairing the stability or diminishing the pro- ductive power of the nation.

The laws also reveal the family at a certain stage of develop- ment. Primitive polygyny has yielded to a tentative and partial monogamy in which the wife gets a higher status and enjoys meager but actual property rights. The code enforces upon both husband and wife, although in far from equal degrees, duties and responsibilities which make for mutual regard and family unity. Under such conditions a better kind of training is provided for the children a training demanded by the more disciplined activities of a complex civilization. In short, the relatively high level of Babylonian life records itself in a type of