This talk will investigate the questions of gender in the performance of the cult in the religious sphere in ancient Mesopotamia in the third and early second millennia B.C.E. In this period in southern Babylonia, the focus of our attention, resided a pluralistic society. It was the homeland of both the Sumerians and the Akkadians, the former ethnic group of unknown origin and the latter a Semitic people. To serve this mixed population, there were large temple institutions. It has been said that they were staffed with about fifteen classes of officiating priests. While these many classes of priests are known, there is no temple where all the members of the various priestly classes served together. We observe, however, a system of mutual exclusiveness among several of these priestly classes and particular deities. This allows the establishment of certain general patterns of ritual officiants attached to a temple.
This functionally differentiated sacerdotal priesthood was composed of members of both genders. However, certain cultic offices were restricted in regards to the gender of its holders and others were not. Hence, this talk will attempt to answer questions such as: What religious roles and rituals do women fulfill and from which are they excluded? What roles do men have? Same or different? What religious authority and power have women held and how has their spiritually empowered authority been expressed and transmitted to others? Are both men or women accorded equally a high spiritual and moral authority?