adultery, sexual relations between a married person and someone other than the spouse. Written or customary prohibitions or taboos against adultery constitute part of the marriage code of virtually every society. Indeed, adultery seems to be as universal and, in some instances, as common as marriage.
The Code of Hammurabi (18th century BC) in Babylonia provided a punishment of death by drowning for adultery. In ancient Greece and in Roman law, an offending female spouse could be killed, but men were not severely punished. The Jewish, Islamic,
and Christian traditions are all unequivocal in their condemnation of adultery. The culpability of both men and women is more explicitly expressed in the New Testament and the Talmud than in the Old Testament or the Qurʾān. In strict interpretations of Islamic law, or Sharīʿah, men and
women are equally liable to harsh punishments for adultery (Arabic: zināʾ; properly, any extramarital sexual intercourse), including death by stoning—a punishment still applied in the early 21st century in some countries, including Iran and Afghanistan.
Because the term adultery implies distinctively Judeo-Christian and Islamic attitudes toward marriage, many contemporary anthropologists are cautious about using it in comparative contexts. There are many societies in which marriage is considered a less-permanent arrangement and in which extramarital sex is less sternly condemned. In other words, attitudes toward adultery vary widely between cultures.
