User:Tewdar/sandbox/Proto-Indo-European law

PIE law partially reconstructed hypothetical legal system of Proto-Indo-Europeans.

Uses ling. comparative method cognates in descendent attested ie langs reconstr. pie legal tetms and hence institutions, and comparative law compare attested laws to adduce plausible pie legal system.

Focus on order & restitution

social religious context

survival in ancient/modern legal systems

reconstr
PIE one of only two lang fams (other== Afroasiatic "semitic") allow reconstr prehist legal system

Based on comparative study of ancient Greek, Roman, Hindu, Germanic, Celtic, Slavonic, Iranian, Albanian, & Hittite legal texts

large corpus of legal texts from Irish, Hittite, scandanavian, roman, greek,

Fortson notes problems reconstr. incl. texts subject to external influence from non IE langs, and txts are later than time of PIE & represent evolution of law from original form

genetic relationships vs generics/universals

ling. reconstr. of legal terms from var. cognate langs reconstructs etyma, and also part of material cult. of speakers of proto language


 * ...and archaeology

PIE context
Archaeological culture associated w PIE still unsettled. blah blah Pontic–Caspian steppe pastoralists vs early agriculturalists from Anatolia. Genetics suggests core IE langs from Pontic-Caspian steppe assoc. w yam cult... Genetics evidence has mainly restricted homeland debate to either s. Caucasus or Iran (CHG) or steppe n of caucasus and black/casp sea (EHG). 'southern arc' blah blah


 * c. 3500-3000 BCE, steppe/forest steppe s. russia "somewhere on edge of highly dev. civilizations"


 * seminomadic pastoralistm w/ some agriculture.


 * no towns, few villages?


 * undeveloped social hierarchy based on family units (clans), with a chief and perhaps a king of clan chiefs

Maykop(!) }}pp 159++

Dumézil's tripartite model (religious, sovereign, military) PIE society of priests, warriors, farmers applicable to IE law

Legal terms
Studies in Indo-European Legal Language, Institutions, and Mythology (Watkins)

Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, 345

Reconstr of pie legal terminology provides evidence for legal system's actual features.

In IE langs, various words meaning law, confined to individual langs, "However, the chief terms concerned are connected with elements of the common vocabulary and may be evidence for special legal terms going back to Indo-European times."

probably cannot be reconstructed to pie on basis of Latin lex etc.

archaising/conservative etc.

often legal texts from various ie langs are among oldest extant, stylistically archaic or pseudo arcgaic comp. with other non legal contemporary law texts

Relationship between PIE legal and ritual terminology > "law was inseparable from the ritual concep­tions that determined the legal norms of the ancient Indo-Europeans. The legal norms of the society were part of the ritual system, controlled by priests who combined the functions of directing spiritual activity and regulating basic societal norms."

'fitting, order'

'order'

'what is established, law'

'what is established'

'± commit a crime'

'blame, reproach'

'a going; oath'

'compensation'

'pay,compensate'

'make restitution'

'design ,predestination ,indication, direction, law'

'bind, swear oath, swear, bind in obligation'

Overview
Dictionary of indo-european concepts and society (Benveniste), 385++

Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, 345

Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans (Gamkrelidze&Ivanov) 701++

the Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (276)

fortson indo-european language and culture 23-24

Mallory/Adams argue that purpose of law in IE society was to maintain social order and harmony

Order of central importance to pie legal sysyem

slave/non-slace opposition found throughout pie legal system

vs w - divine vs man-made laws

family vs interfamily laws

Codification
Indo-European Poetry and Myth (West), 70

Institutions
Studies in Indo-European Legal Language, Institutions, and Mythology (Watkins)

Restitution
Sick-Maintenance in Anglo-Saxon Law

Sick-maintenance in Indo-European (Watkins)

Substant. agreement of Hitt. & OIr law, and cognate terms in other IE leg syss allows conclude sick maintenance was component of IE customary law

Crimes are punished, revenge is taken, and compensation is given

noxality, Lat. sarcīre, Hitt. šarnikzi 'make restitution (specifically within system of noxality)' (also in Greek/Slavic law)

"the institution of noxality in Indo-European society ... belongs to the common Indo-European period."

Father / master pay for damage by son/ slave

Marriage/ Divorce
Celtic and Germanic Light on Hittite Divorce Law (Eska)

On the interpretation of the 37 of the Hittite laws in the light of other indo-european traditions (Ivanov)

Legal/illegal marriage by abduction (West argues 'Graeco-Aryan', rather than Indo-European)

Roman law virginem rapere,   Hindu law Rākṣasa rite, Irish law lánamus foxail(?) Hittite law 'wolf-marriage'

Theft/robbery
artefacts/foodstuffs/chattels primary targets of theft in early ie society

theft/robbery opposition (+/- secrecy) prob dates to indo-euro

var. oppositions day/night enclosed/unenclosed violence /non-violence etc

"[this set of features] of the law of theft may be attributed to the common legal system that obtained in the society of speakers of Indo-European itself"

ritual house search in Greek roman German slavic law

'outcry'

Determination of guilt

 * ordeal by water (WITCHCRAFT MYTHOLOGIES AND PERSECUTIONS)

Administration of justice
PUBLIC ORDER IN ANCIENT ROME (NIPPEL)

No public enforcement

Judge, witness etc. p56

'proclaim solemnly', censeo, auctoritas etc p423

Suretyship
Private Prosecution and Enforcement in Roman Law (Friedman) in Roman Law and Economics Volume II

Celtic suretyship: a fossilized Indo-European institution? (Binchy)

The General Features of Archaic European Suretyship (Walters)

Fortson p=24

Socs w/out state apparatus to enforce law may develop other mechs eg suretyship. Early Irish + perh. Roman law evidence that suretyship in these societies may date back common indo euro origin.

enforcer surety & hostage surety

Bees
Comparative perspectives on bee law in Indo-European (Joseph)

Irish Bechbretha, Albanian Kanun

Justice&fertility
Indo-European Poetry and Myth (West), 422

Outlawry
wolves etc p100, p301, also West

Hunger strike
"This legal institution—the last recourse of the weak against the strong—is itself of Indo-European provenience and, as well as in Greece, is attested in India from the Dharmasutras to Mahatma Gandhi and in Ireland from the Senchas Mar to Bobbie Sands"