What is the difference between classical slavery and patriarchal slavery? Patriarchal slavery is ...

Everyone knows that slavery is a system of relationships in a society where one person has the right to own other people. At the same time, not everyone knows that there are different types of this phenomenon. For example, patriarchal and classical slavery. Each species has its own conceptual differences. Let's find out what distinguishes classical slavery from the patriarchal, and learn the essence of these concepts.

Definition of slavery

It is necessary to understand what this term in general means before we proceed to the nuances that distinguish classical and patriarchal slavery. Definition of the concept will try to give the widest possible.

As mentioned above, slavery is the most rigid form of subordination of one person to another, when he becomes private property to a person called a slaveholder. However, there were also state forms of slavery. By and large, the legal status of slaves, even in this case, remains unchanged. Only the owner of the slave is not the person, but the state. But the state power often also represents an individual: the tsar, the emperor or another ruler. A similar form of slavery flourished in the Ancient East.

The position of Marxism

According to the class theory of Karl Marx, slavery is the very first form of exploitation of one person by another. In fact, the slave was a means of production. It is production relations based on exploitation by slave owners that served as the fundamental basis for the slave system, which dominated the world until the middle of the first century of our era.

Although at present Marx's economic theory lends itself to criticism by many scientists, nevertheless, most of them agree that the concept of slavery in the author of "Capital" is uncovered fairly accurately and thoroughly.

Sources of slavery

There are a number of sources through which the slave-holders were slaves. The most common of these are:

• War;
• piracy;
• Debt bondage;
• Selling themselves or family members into slavery;
• The transformation of free peasants into state slaves;
• Birth in slavery.

A detailed description of the ways of circulation free in slaves

Wars are probably the source of slavery that arose before the rest. However, prisoners of war turned into slaves throughout the history of the Ancient World, and also partly in the Middle Ages and even in the New Times. Wars between different tribes happened before the emergence of statehood. First, the prisoners were simply killed, because when using them as labor, at best it was hoped that they could only feed themselves. But when the process of production and processing of the land reached a new technical level, conditions were created for the creation of a surplus product, and therefore the prerequisites for the exploitation by one person of another. Although slavery developed considerably only after the formation of states and the creation of a powerful coercive apparatus that could control slaves and suppress insurrections.

Piracy and kidnapping also belong to one of the first sources of slavery. However, in some regions of the world this form of treatment of free people in slaves exists until today.

Debt slavery arose already during the existence of states. If a person could not pay off his obligations, then he and his family turned into slaves. Functions of control over this process were assigned to the state.

There were also cases when a person was not able to feed himself or his family. Thus, he was forced to voluntarily sell himself in bondage. He could have done this with any member of the family in which he was the head. Patriarchal slavery is the completely dependent state of all members of the family from its head.

Also, the state could legislatively turn free peasants into slaves. Especially widespread is a similar form of conversion to slavery in the Ancient East.

Origin of patriarchal slavery

The patriarchal form of slavery, according to the data available to historians, originated in the Ancient East. It was there, on the lands of the so-called Fertile Crescent, for the first time conditions were created for the production of surplus product, and hence for the development of a slave-owning form of exploitation.

Patriarchal slavery is a form of slavery, in which the slave lived together with a family entitled to him. He performed the most difficult and difficult work, and in some regions he worked on a par with everyone. There were even cases when such a person was taken into the bosom of a family. Full ownership of the slave belonged to the head of the family, which in later sources is called the patriarch, which from the Greek translates as "the power of the father." Hence the term "patriarchal slavery".

But do not forget that patriarchal slavery is also the full dependence of children on their father. Legally, the patriarch had the same power over his own children, as well as over the slaves. He could force them to do various jobs, sell and even kill. Most clearly, the power of the father over children in the patriarchal family is demonstrated in one of the books of the Bible, which tells how Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac. However, in most cases, the attitude of parents towards children was, of course, softer than to slaves, but at the same time there were some cases of selling into slavery and even killing their own offspring.

Further development of slavery in the Ancient East

With the emergence of states in the Ancient East, in particular, between the Euphrates and the Tigris, as well as in Egypt, prerequisites were created for the further development and strengthening of slavery. The state apparatus helped slave owners control slaves, suppress their insurrections, which contributed to an even more severe form of exploitation of dependent people.

However, the state itself, in the person of the tsar, became the largest slave owner. It transformed thousands of free peasants, as well as prisoners of war, into slaves. Especially vividly this form of slavery was manifested in Babylon. The tsar of this state, Hammurabi, legislated the situation of slaves, including state ones, and also established penalties for disobedience.

However, patriarchal slavery in Babylon was also quite widespread and did not cease to play a significant, albeit not leading role in the economy of the state until its fall. Although in a much later period this form of slavery was widespread in the East, and in some regions it actually exists to this day.

Classical form of slavery

Classical slavery in its traditional form arose much later than the patriarchal in ancient Greece, but the greatest development reached in the Ancient Roman state. This form of exploitation was even more rigid. According to the concept of slavery in Ancient Rome, the slave was considered just a talking thing, while in the East he was, although inferior, but still almost a member of the family.

In addition, it should be noted that the labor of slaves in Ancient Rome was the basis of the state economy. At the same time, in the East, slavery, although it played a significant role in the creation of the product, was inferior in this respect to the labor of the peasants. Ancient Rome is known for its latifundia - estates, in which thousands of dependent people worked. Therefore it is not surprising that the slave-owner, often even in person, could not know his own slaves and, accordingly, absolutely do not have any feelings for them.

But patriarchal slavery in Rome existed only at the initial stage of the birth of the state. Later it was completely superseded by the so-called classical.

The main differences between forms of slavery

So, summing up all of the above, we can conclude that patriarchal slavery - it's still a milder form of exploitation than the classical. If in the first case slavery was only an additional way of production, then in the era of classical slavery it became the main driving mechanism of the economy.

At present, all forms of slavery are considered illegal and economically ineffective.