Thursday, September 19, 2013

Is This a Coincidence?

Looking through P. Mil. Vogl. III today, I noticed a series of demotic contracts from Ptolemaic Egypt where various women appear to be selling themselves into slavery. In every single case the name of the woman's father is listed as "I don't know."

In modern times there is a clear connection between a lack of fathers and poverty. Is this ancient evidence for that same phenomenon?