Please reply to this thread with your comments on an article/book you have read for this week's seminar.
Deviance A
Deviance A
Week 12 - Sexual Deviants
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Cristian Berco, ‘Social Control and its Limits: Sodomy, Local Sexual Economies and Inquisitors during Spain’s Golden Age’, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Summer 2005), pp. 331-358.
Bercos’ argument stems from his idea that the policing of sodomy and sexual deviance was a form of social control. He goes on to assert that such controls were not ‘wholly effective’ as people are always able to find ways to resist and ‘affirm their individuality.’
He describes what the term sodomy means in this era: ‘Sex with animals, anal inter course whether homosexual or heterosexual, and under very specific circumstances lesbian sex could fall under the rubric of sodomy.’
An interesting part of Bercos’ article is his discussion of clergymen and foreigners and how they were both more likely to be accused of sodomy, but also how they often received surprisingly lenient sentences. He claims that local men were almost twice as likely to be burnt at the stake for sodomy than a foreign man. It is interesting to consider why these two groups were so deeply distrusted by society. Berco suggests that ‘foreign men… were susceptible… because they were outsiders to the community.’ He goes on to attest that the leniency of the inquisition towards such men was due to ‘the consistent application of fair procedures’ and that in many cases magistrates really tried to sentence foreigners but did not have enough evidence to do so.
He also talks about the gender debate and the fear within society about the inversion of gender roles that sodomy required; he suggests that this fear stemmed from the inversion of gender roles representing ‘a symbol of the breakdown in social hierarchies.’
He concludes that his examples perhaps imply that accusations of sodomy were ‘fabricated out of sheer hostility or distrust’ which compliments his original argument that the authorities’ dislike of sexual deviance stemmed from a desire for social control.
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Cristian Berco, 'Social Control and Its Limits: Sodomy, Local Sexual Economies, and Inquisitors during Spain's Golden Age', The Sixteenth Century Journal, 2(2005), pp 331-358
Berco's argument is that without denunciations from the populace the Inquisition would not have been able to make anywhere near the same number of prosecutions as they did. This reliance on the local population, Berco argues, allowed for a certain level of resistance from the accused. Berco also argues that a gap appeared between the authorities at local and national levels (Supreme Council in Madrid), as well as the population over what could be defined as sexual deviance.
This article primarily uses statistical data cross-referenced with case studies and demographic information to show that certain types of people (clergymen and foreigners) were more likely to escape a death sentence whereas for Moriscos or Muslim slaves there was a far greater chance of being killed.This article is useful because it shows that the specific system of control in Spain at the time (Spanish Inquisition) was not an all-powerful system whereby all sinners and law breakers were punished uniformly throughout Spain. Instead, what this article shows is that it was more often local people who brought forward and accused others of sodomy rather than the inquisitors themselves. In addition to this, local inquisitors behaved differently with different groups of people showing wider social attitudes and anxieties of the time and place; for example, punishments were more lenient towards the clergy for fear of causing distrust among their flocks. Such findings show that 1. the Inquisition was not all-powerful, 2. the population were also wary of sexual deviance, 3. inquisitors were ready to negotiate sentencing depending on who had been accused.
Obviously this is extremely specific to only one region of Spain, limiting the ability to draw wider conclusions. However the key here is to displace systems and institutions in the pre modern period from being conceived as homogeneous engines with a uniform and collective idea of what constituted sexual deviance; instead placing individual agents at the foreground of our understanding of just how these bodies operated.
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Theology, nature and the law: sexual sin and sexual crime in Italy from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, Nicholas Davidson
In this study Davidson analyses the changes in the perception of sexual deviance in Italy over the course of the middle ages. He seeks to identify the contrasts and comparisons between how sexual deviance was viewed by the Catholic church, and by the City governments within Italy.
Catholic Church
He argues that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Italian Catholic Church based much of their thoughts on sex on the writings of Thomas Aquinas in the Thirteenth Century, who argued that sex should only be performed for the purpose of procreation. However, moving into the sixteenth century there were growing appreciations for sexual delight among Catholic moralists. Davidson sttributed some of this to scientific advances which categorised sex as a desire of nature. A growth in appreciation of sexual pleasure also impacted theological understand of rape, which had previously been seen as only a 'minor offence'.Government
Davidson asserts the importance of not assuming that tehre was complete uniformnity between the Church and the Government on the subject of sex. In some instances, sex could be seen as more puinishable and deployed in the secular world, with many of the city governments seeing sexual deviance as 'not just a sin against God, but also a potential threat to themselves - a threat to the orderly transmission of property which was guaranteed by stable marriage, and a threat to the family system' 86He alludes to the formation of Magistrates Courts dealing exclusivly with 'sodomnia', and he refers to the lack of consistency in the trials of sexual deviants, noting that 'sexual offences with servants were punished with lower penalities than those commited with women of a higher status' 94.
Summary
Overall Davidson has attempted to emphasise that there was not just a common evolution of perception of sexual deviance between the Catholic Church and the Secular State. Davidson emphasises that repression was rife amongst both. However, while much of the early modern period was charactised by sexual repression, it was not fully true in Italy. 'The works of theologians, medical writers, philosophers and otehrs suggest that, from teh fifteenth century at least, a broader udnerstanding of sexual activity was beginning to develop'. 97
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M. Rocke, ‘The Ambivalence of Policing Sexual Margins: Sodomy and Sodomites in Florence’, in Milner (ed), At the Margins, pp. 53-70
Michael Rocke’s piece on sodomy questions the identification of sodomites as a marginal group, particularly in the case of Florence. Rocke initially argues that sodomites should not be defined as a clear marginal group, due to the varying nature of not only the group as a whole, but also of their perceived crimes. Florence, in particular, serves as an example of how common sodomy was within the 15th century, and it's relatively low prosecution rate provides backing for Rocke’s argument that sodomites were not a group on the margins of society, and that sodomy itself was intrenched within normal social practices.
Alongside this, Rocke also considers the changes in law related to sodomy enacted in Florence in the 15th Century, which he argues formed a balance which allowed authorities to condemn sodomy in a society where it was extremely prevalent. Florentine authorities replaced laws which prescribed extreme punishments for sodomy as these were rarely enforced, and instead enacted smaller, but frequently applied, punishments such as fines. According to Rocke, this prevented popular outcry but still enabled authorities to denounce the practice. Rocke does point out, however, that not all crimes of sodomy were punished leniently, and identifies three key factors which worsened the treatment of accused sodomites; age, gender, and political status.
Overall, Rocke’s study of Florence puts forward an extremely convincing argument about the prevalence of sodomy as a sexual practice, and the difficulties faced by authorities to control and condemn it. He uses a breadth of primary evidence, as well as building on his previous works, to illustrate the nature of sodomy persecution, as well as to raise important questions as to whether sodomites can truly be viewed as a marginal group.
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Jeffrey Richards, Sex, Dissidence and Damnation (Routledge, 1991)
Chapter 6: Prostitutes
Richards discusses the role of prostitutes in pre-modern life and their significance in terms of religious and political relations to common people. He also briefly discusses the status of prostitutes in society and how the treatment of them reflected changes in the wider society.
- The early modern attitude to prostitutes is quite clearly that they are the lesser evil when compared to sodomy. They were widely considered an acceptable outlet of lust but only for certain groups in society, for example, young unmarried men. There were regulations regarding prostitutes but they were often flouted. For example, there were church teachings against prostitution but the tolerance of the practice remained and Churches even rented buildings that were used as brothels.
- Richards makes a brief comment that 'Christians have a fundamental hostility to sexual identity' but does not elaborate much. The idea of sexuality in this point is intriguing because of its non-existence.
- In terms of the status of prostitutes, there were regulations on the practice of prostitutes. Much of these regulations were an attempt to police morals, for example, in England brothels were not permitted to open on holy days. This can be seen also in municipalisation of brothels which meant that authorities could better control the practices.
- They often had poor legal status and Richards compares them to Jews and lepers in terms of their official position in society. When states and municipal councils regulated minority (deviant) groups, prostitutes, jews and lepers often appeared in the same legislation. All groups were forced to wear distinctive clothing to identify them, they were segregated from 'decent' society and all were urged to repent and reform themselves.
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Sodomy and Heresy in Early Modern Switzerland (William Monter):
• 4 findings:
1 = Sodomy meant different things in different towns – eg. Men prosecuted for homosexuality in towns and bestiality in countrysides. 2 = Repression of sodomy = probably most intense during days of Protestant and Catholic Reformations and during peak of prosecutions for witchcraft, another form of deviance confused with heresy. 3 = homosexual subcultures existed in large Italian towns. 4 = sodomites punished in town and countryside with greater severity than any other place.• Aims to highlight these 4 things to be true in his text by examining Republic of Geneva and Canton of Fribourg which both recorded several trials for sodomy, but = different – eg. Republic = urban and other rural, but both famous for religious zeal. F = catholic and G = Calvinist. Focus on these places because enough records of cases to deduce meaningful generalisations. As a result, argues that persecution of homosexuals resulted from religious zeal in these places.
Geneva
not even spread of regular persecutions, but rather clusters – eg. Between 1561 and 1569 = 6 deaths and 8 banishments due to sodomy trials. Then 20 years = only 1 trial. (43-44)
• 1613-1623 = following canal trials – Pierre Canal accused of treason and also confessed to homosexuality triggered persecutions.
• Link between homosexuality accusations and religious zeal. Occurred when Calvin’s new religious leaders took over Geneva and when the Consistory was implemented. In case of boy attacking another = quotations used by judge from scripture. Hanged despite mitigating circumstances - it being 1st time he had committed act in area reformed Church. (45-46)
• Woman hanged, but mainly because her blaspheming by assuring she was a virgin when she wasn’t made it more likely she was homosexual sodomy.
Fribourg:all cases date from 15th century and = bestiality, not homosexuality.
• Links between bestiality and other crimes – eg. 1st witchcraft accusation involving
Benedictine Abbey in 1457 = 1st sentence = acts of bestiality with a cow, a deer, a goat and other animals. Devil said to appear afterwards and encouraged him to do witchcraft.
• Labelling of heresy to sodomy goes back to middle ages and so does witchcraft to heresy. Charles V promulgated his famous law code, the Carolina, in 1532, by this point, sodomy = listed among other spiritual crimes which = bad due to their offense of God.
• Explains why sodomy tended to cluster at particular times of religious zeal.
• Ended at 1650 in these places, the same time as witchcraft.
• Though was one case of bestiality in Geneva as late as 1721 and in 1724 in nearby Lutheran state, overtone of religious horror = not so prominent as during 1st half of 17th century.
• The Consistory = also weaker by 18th century.
• Enlightenment Europe = more rational and stopped executing witches. Religious zeal = confined to lower classes who did not execute and control machinery of justice persecutions died out = morals offense and not matter of public disorder.
• Like in France, in 1780s Geneva started to bring homosexuals to trial again, but none deemed need to be executed.
• All these facts highlight that persecution resulted from religious zeal.0 likes -
S.R. Falkner, ‘“Having it off” with Fish, Camels, and Lads: Sodomitic Pleasures in German-Language Turcica’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 13 (2004), 401-27
The author reveals a number of interesting topics. Falkner looks into sexually charged images, which were frequent in the increasing amount of early modern texts on the Turks within Europe. These often either promoted moral reform within Christianity, or championed military action against the Ottoman empire. Early modern authors used atittudes of people in regards to sex as a way of perceiving their overall morality; the Turks were said to show of Christian slaves like cattle, naked in public, and so reveal their ungodly nature. Muslim bestiality is also commented upon; David Schuster of the late seventeenth century wrote of ‘turkish vices’, heterosexual intercourse and bestiality with fish. Overall Falkner reveals the highly sexually charged nature of many Christians’ attitudes to the Turks. Commenting on the Turks immodesty and lustfulness and revealing them to be sexual deviants helps to enhance the polemic and anti-Ottoman feeling of early modern Europe.
Whilst the author does well in providing examples and evidence for such a polemic, analogies could easily be made with other periods of history thus widening the significance of the article. For example the use of same-sex scandals could be likened to those of the twentieth century, and reveal new meaning behind prevalent attitudes in modern society. Furthermore the author looks into the categories too homogenously, often viewing the argument as Christian and Muslim rather than noting the many variations in attitudes and religion throughout Europe. This article is a useful tool as an introduction into the understanding of Christian sexual polemic against the Turks, however it has its faults, and even with the same evidence, the author could have created a much stronger argument with many more perspectives.0 likes