“The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies” - Interim Thoughts

I mentioned recently that a friend had given the husband and me a book entitled “The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies” which looks at the existence and role of homosexuality and bisexuality throughout history.  I am still reading the book, but the main take away so far is that homosexuality and bisexuality were recognized and accepted throughout the world and throughout diverse cultures.  All of that changed when European Christians launched their global colonial conquest and with it their imposition of sexual mores derived from Church fathers who could be describes as neurotic at best and perhaps more correctly outright mentally ill.

Illustrative of the sexual freedom that seemingly existed is a  papyrus which is believed to be the oldest known depiction of sex on record. The papyrus, painted sometime in the Ramesside Period (1292-1075 B.C.E.), is known as the “Turin Erotic Papyrus” because of their “discovery” in the Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italy.  One article notes the ancients' approach to sex:

The number of sexual positions the papyrus illustrates—twelve in all—“fall somewhere between impressively acrobatic and unnervingly ambitious,” one even involving a chariot. Apart from its obvious fertility symbols, writes archaeology blog Ancient Peoples, the papyrus also has a “humorous and/or satirical” purpose, and probably a male audience—evidenced, perhaps, by its resemblance to 70’s porn: “the men are mostly unkept, unshaven, and balding […], whereas the women are the ideal of beauty in Egypt.”

[T]he culture reveled in a stylized ritual sexuality quite different from our own limited mores. Sacred temple prostitutes held a privileged position and mythological narratives incorporated unbiased descriptions of homosexuality and transgenderism. Ancient Egyptians even expected to have sex after death, attaching fabricated organs to their mummies. The above applies mainly to a certain class of Egyptian. As archaeologist David O’Connor points out, the Turin Erotic Papyrus’ high “artistic merit” marks it as within the provenance of “an elite owner and audience.”

The inscriptions are also an important part of the papyrus because they indicate us that it is not just the men that are enjoying themselves; 

So what changed?  The Catholic Church's bizarre abhorrence of all things sexual that developed in the Middle Ages.  Who was behind this bizarre obsession?  Leading Church fathers who were disturbed to say the least.  Here are some examples of how these very sick, bizarre men viewed sex:

". . . .the reformers as a group considered sex and other pleasurable experiences tainted by evil and a potent source of sin.  They were not merely suspicious of sex, but hostile to any sexual activity at all save for marital relations undertaken expressly and consciously to conceive a child.  . . . . were determined to limit marital sex to the absolute minimum, and on penalizing extra-marital sex as harshly as possible."

" . . .  married couples were allowed sexual intercourse under only three conditions: 1) for the explicit purpose of conceiving a child; 2) to prevent the temptation of marital infidelity; and 3) to yield to the unrelenting demands -  most likely sinful - of their partner. Even then the sexual intercourse could not be performed in the daytime, had to be in the "missionary position', could not be performed on Sundays, Wednesdays or Fridays - removing the equivalent of five months of the year - and was not to be performed during Lent or other forbidden times. . . All other sexual activity was categorically condemned."

"To assist the couple in their performance of intercourse with as little pleasure as possible, therefore, a device, chemise cagoule, was invented a heavy nightshirt with a hole strategically placed to allow the husband to impregnate his wife with as little bodily contact possible."

"In [St. Peter] Damian's mind, sex was a "violation, sacrilege, profanition, contagion, or corruption. Sex is never the product of love, only of animal lust"  Damian's hatred of sex extended even to loathing of the human body which he called "hideous putrefaction and filth," and consumed by lust.  . . . as clerical reform progressed in the 12th and 13th centuries, Peter Damian's  attitude to sex was to set the tone for the writings on sexual morality of the Church's most influential moral leaders."

I will provide other thoughts as I move through the portion of the book aptly entitled"Sexual Neurosis in Western Society."  These Church fathers belonged in mental wards, not in positions to dictate morality to others.