Well, it's actually the Bronze Age, but close enough to the Stone Age. LOL. That's the archaeological era covered by the Mosaic law period up until the era of the Israelite kings.
The Bronze Age was one of the most brutal and uncivlized periods in human history. The EurAsian continent was swept by one conquering Indo European tribe after another, and there was little peace. Humans warred constantly. It's estimated by one noted anthropologist, Jared Diamond, that up to 40% of adult males in tribal cultures of this time died violently, usually in warfare with neighboring tribes, or in disputes over land, women or property.
This is the era that the Hebrews accepted the Mosaic law. It was a civilizing influence, to be sure, but it's still the harsh and inflexible law of a brutal time.
It's not even binding on Christians anyway... but I guess that even in the time of the apostles, men were still big chauvanists, including the apostles.
Remember when they wouldn't listen to the women who said they saw Christ risen form and talked to him? That's because women were never taken as a legal witness to anything under Jewish law. There's nothing in the actual law that says the testimony of a woman is to be disregarded, but that was just the custom of the time. The apostles were still influenced by their misogynistic culture. They wouldn't believe a mere woman, even if she was a fellow worshipper in Christ!
Can you imagine how hard it was for these patriarchal, chauvanistic Jews to regard women as their fellow inheritors of the Kingdom? Not to mention Gentiles.
I really think that the Bible restrictions on women then were mainly for the fragile male egos. They had a long way to go in accepting women as spiritual equals in the sight of God.
But, do we need to copy the deficiencies of first century Christians to be pleasing to God? I doubt it. Not everything the Hebrews or the first century Christians did was written down to imitate, you know...some of was terribly stupid and peculiar to that time and place.
