ABSTRACT

After finishing this chapter students should understand and be able to discuss:

The evolution of the civil law tradition

The impact of monotheistic religion on criminal justice and make some conclusions about its parallel impact today

The persistence of the death penalty over the millennia

The continued application of an “eye for an eye,” or the literal view of accountability

The continued relevance of the Ten Commandments

Why certain capital crimes in the past are no longer considered so

Parallels between punishment and criminal behavior in the ancient world and today

One of the most intriguing questions facing anthropologists, criminologists, sociologists, and other scholars is how the earliest preliterate societies managed to not only survive but also maintain peace and order without written law codes. There is little argument that the earliest laws were derived from folk customs, evolving from loose but unquestionable rules to fixed but more specific practices. Until relatively recently, many anthropologists scoffed at the notion of legal life in preliterate cultures but instead saw “custom as king.” Thus, every society has developed rules for governing and regulating behavior. Without rules to maintain order, anarchy threatens the very existence of a community.