Oikos

Oikos ( altgr. οἶκος; plural: οἶκοι ) in ancient Greece was the home and business community, which was the center of life. The terms economy and ecology are derived from it.

"Only once a farmstead ( oikos ), a woman, an ox for plowing. "

Description

The Oikos included the family and servants and slaves, the land, buildings and all movable inventory - similar to the Roman Villa. The head of the family was the master of the house ( Despotes; compare with the Roman paterfamilias, though not his absolute power over life and limb of the family members), the patriarchal about his wife and children, often on the population living in the Oikos adult sons with their wives prevailed.

The husband stayed primarily to the fact that ownership, wealth and prestige of his oikos remained preserved and enlarged itself, this included, for example, the closure of advantageous connections by marriage or hospitality. The estate settlement was in the legislation of antiquity always a particular problem: Due to the inheritance (equal parts to all sons ) the Oikoi (plural ) were so small that they no longer yielded enough for the livelihood of the family. Hesiod therefore pleaded for a few children entitled to inherit to the size of the Oikos and to secure the preservation of the family: " Only one son was there " to get the Father's house.

In the center of Oikos was the farmyard, where the was processed in the country of earned and stored for times of need. Besides the cultivation of cereals and olive trees cattle were bred (cattle, pigs, sheep and goats). During field work and animal breeding was primarily by men ( householder, children, slaves, servants ) operated, the women completed ( the housewife, daughters, servants and slaves ) to work in the house: food were further processed materials have been spun and woven, clothing, shoes and other items of daily necessities made ​​. The economy of the oikos was focused primarily on self-sufficiency - which was not always possible, however, if one thinks of metal processing, for example. The economic prosperity of the Oikos also secured the social position of the family. Aristotle excluded Oikos opposite the Greek Polis - clearly from which he disagreed with his teacher Plato. Plato saw no difference between a large and a small Polis Oikos.

Bautypologisch with Oikos is also commonly called the Versammlungsbau a community, which may consist of a family or sacral level.

In a family or tribal community, the term stands for the part of the ancient Greek house, in which the hearth was found and what was mostly used by women. It is the center of the private Greek house, in contrast to the Andron as the public part of the house in which to receive guests, the symposia were held.

In the sacral area and the Versammlungsbau a cult community is called with Oikos (see Naxians - Oikos on Delos ). In this sanctuary of the Community consumption of the sacrificial feast was held; the hearth served as a sacrificial altar. Such Oikoi were often extended in the Archaic period to temples, such as Yria on Naxos.

Feminist Theory

Given the functional division of the Greek house in Oikos and Andron feminist theory has emerged that the interpersonal life in the oikos, as well as all economic concerns in the life of the Greeks, especially of the women had been determined. Their job was as it were invisible, consisted in taking care of the proper functioning and maintenance of the Oikos. So they kept the family from substantive deficiency. The sphere of men was more theoretical; whose role had existed for instance in philosophizing and debating in the Agora.