“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.

The History of Homosexual Acceptance

The professional Christians repeatedly make the claim that societies and cultures have never accepted homosexuality and that marriage of one man and one woman has been the norm for "5,000 years of human history." Like so much of what these theocratic hate merchants say, these claims are simply not true. The truth is that homosexuality has been a feature of human culture since earliest history. Generally and most famously in ancient Greece, certain forms of erotic attraction and sexual pleasure between males were often an ingrained, accepted part of the cultural norm. The love spoken of by Socrates and Plato among others involved same sex love, not heterosexual love.

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Moreover, many historical figures, including Socrates, Lord Byron, Edward II, Hadrian, Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, and Christopher Marlowe had romantic or sexual relationships with people of their own sex. Here's a sampling of the history of homosexuality through the ages and in different parts of the world and examples of how Jewish tribalism continued into the Christian anti-gay obsession ran headlong into practices in other parts of the world.

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AFRICA: Though often ignored or suppressed by European explorers and colonialists, homosexual expression in native Africa was also present and took a variety of forms. Anthropologists Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe reported that women in Lesotho engaged in socially sanctioned "long term, erotic relationships," named motsoalle. E. E. Evans-Pritchard also recorded that male Azande warriors (in the northern Congo) routinely took on boy-wives between the ages of twelve and twenty, who helped with household tasks and participated in sex with their older husbands. The practice had died out by the early 20th century, after Europeans had gained control of African countries, but was recounted to Evans-Pritchard by the elders to whom he spoke.

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THE AMERICAS: Among indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to European colonization, the most common form of same-sex sexuality seems to center around the figure of the Two-Spirit individual. Typically the two-spirit individual was recognized early in life, was given a choice by the parents to follow the path, and if the child accepted the role then the child was raised in the appropriate manner, learning the customs of the gender it had chosen. Two-spirit individuals were commonly shamans and were revered as having powers beyond those of ordinary shamans.

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Homosexual and transgender individuals were also common among other pre-conquest civilizations in Latin America, such as the Aztecs, Mayans, Quechas, Moches, Zapotecs, and the Tupinaba of Brazil. The Spanish conquerors were horrified to discover "sodomy" openly practiced among native peoples, and attempted to crush it out by subjecting the "berdaches" as the Spanish called them to severe penalties, including public execution and burning.

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EAST ASIA: In East Asia, same-sex love has been referred to since the earliest recorded history. Early European travelers were taken aback by its widespread acceptance and open display. None of the East Asian countries today have specific legal prohibitions against homosexuality or homosexual behavior. . . . This same-sex love culture gave rise to strong traditions of painting and literature documenting and celebrating such relationships. In Thailand "ladyboys," have been a feature of Thai society for many centuries, and Thai kings had male as well as female lovers.

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EUROPE: Western documents concerning same-sex relationships are derived from ancient Greece. They depict a world in which relationships with women and relationships with youths were the essential foundation of a normal man's love life. Same-sex relationships were a social institution variously constructed over time and from one city to another. In ancient Rome, the emperors with the exception of Claudius took male lovers.

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During the Renaissance, rich cities in northern Italy were renowned for their widespread practice of same-sex love, engaged in by a considerable part of the male population and constructed along the classical pattern of Greece and Rome. . . . The relationships of socially prominent figures, such as King James I [reviser of what became the King James Bible] and the Duke of Buckingham, served to highlight the issue.

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MIDDLE EAST, SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA: Among many Middle Eastern Muslim cultures egalitarian or age-structured homosexual practices were, and remain, widespread and thinly veiled. The prevailing pattern of same-sex relationships in the temperate and sub-tropical zone stretching from Northern India to the Western Sahara is one in which the relationships were—and are—either gender-structured or age-structured or both. . . . In Persia homosexuality and homoerotic expressions were tolerated in numerous public places, from monasteries and seminaries to taverns, military camps, bathhouses, and coffee houses. In one period, male houses of prostitution (amrad khane) were legally recognized and paid taxes.

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SOUTH PACIFIC: In many societies of Melanesia, same-sex relationships were, until the middle of the last century, an integral part of the culture.

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In short, homosexuals have existed and been accepted throughout the majority of history in most parts of the world. One could even argue that it is the Christianist and orthodox Jewish anti-homosexual precepts which are the anomaly when the issue is viewed over time and around the world. Some other web sites with historical reviews of the acceptance and prevalence of same sex love are here, here and here.