Excerpt from :

......Because researchers have largely been able to eliminate biological determinism as a source for gender role stereotyping, context can be especially important. The reality is that life in ancient Israel was demanding and tough. Israeli society was agrarian, though the land was not particularly well-suited for farming or other agricultural endeavors. The soils in the mountainous areas are rather poor. Perennial sources of water are virtually nonexistent except for a few relatively minor springs. The greatest obstacle to settlement was probably the difficult topography: an irregular configuration of hills and valleys. (Meyers, p.51). That is why the area was relatively uninhabited during the Bronze Age, making ancient Israeli settlers into pioneers. This meant that, prior to farming, land had to be cleared. The clearing of land has been a traditionally male domain, which meant that men created and participated in, perhaps, the most meaningful act of settlement. However, that meant that, in addition to reproduction, women had to take a greater role in other crucial component of group survival: the production of subsistence goods. This added labor would have, in turn, had an impact on family structure and dynamics. Agrarian societies tend to dictate larger family structures, which has the

Need this essay? If it's not quite what you're looking for there are over 50,000 more to search from, so you can find the term paper or essay that meets your needs.