Body as Property

<i>The Body As Property</i> indicates that physical disfigurement functioned in biblical law to verify legal property acquisition when changes in the status of dependents were formalized. It is based on the reality the cuneiform script in particular was developed in Sumer and Mesopotamia for the purpose of record keeping: to provide legal proof of ownership where the inscription of a tablet evidenced the sale or transfer of property. Legitimate property acquisition was as important in biblical law where physical disfigurements marked dependents in a similar way that the veil or the head covering identified a wife or concubine in ancient Assyrian and Judean societies. <br/><br/>This is primarily substantiated in the accounts of prescriptive disfigurements: namely circumcision and the piercing of a slave's ear both of which were required only when a son or slave was acquired permanently. It is further argued that legal entitlement was relevant also to the punitive disfigurements recorded in Exodus 21:22-24 and Deuteronomy 25:11-12 where the physical violation of women was of concern solely as an infringement of male property rights.