Editing Zoophilia (section)

===Historical and cultural perspectives===
{{Main|Historical and cultural perspectives on zoophilia}}
[[File:Judensau from Frankfurt.jpg|thumb|right|The taboo of zoophilia has led to stigmatised groups being accused of it, as with [[blood libel]]. This German illustration shows [[Jews]] performing bestiality on a ''[[Judensau]]'', while Satan watches.]]
Instances of this behavior have been found in the Bible.<ref name="aggrawal_2009_16_3">{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.006 |title=References to the paraphilias and sexual crimes in the Bible |year=2009 |last1=Aggrawal |first1=Anil |journal=Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=109–14 |pmid=19239958}}</ref> In a cave painting from at least 8000 BC in the Northern Italian [[Val Camonica]] a man is shown about to penetrate an animal. Raymond Christinger interprets that as a show of power of a tribal chief,<ref>[http://www.archaeometry.org/sxx.htm Archaeometry.org], Link to web page and photograph, archaeometry.org</ref> and so we do not know if this practice was then more acceptable, and if the scene depicted was usual or unusual or whether it was symbolic or imaginary.<ref name="Bevan2006">{{cite book|author=Lynne Bevan|title=Worshippers and warriors: reconstructing gender and gender relations in the prehistoric rock art of Naquane National Park, Valcamonica, Brecia, northern Italy|url=https://books.google.com/?id=WzxmAAAAMAAJ&q=Coren+del+Valento+animal&dq=Coren+del+Valento+animal|year=2006|publisher=Archaeopress|isbn=978-1-84171-920-7|page=}}</ref> The "Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art" says the scene may be humorous, as the penetrating man seems to be waving cheerfully with his hand at the same time. Potters seem to have spent time depicting the practice, but this may be because they found the idea amusing.<ref name="Bahn1998">{{cite book|author=Paul G. Bahn|title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art|url=https://books.google.com/?id=xwm_D1u_UTsC&pg=PA188&dq=%22prehistoric+art%22+bestiality|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-45473-5|page=188}}</ref> Dr "Jacobus X", said to be the [[pen name]] of a French author, said this was clearly "before any known taboos against sex with animals existed".<ref>''Abuses Aberrations and Crimes of the Genital Sense'', 1901.</ref> Marc Epprecht states that authors such as Jacobus X do not deserve respect because their methodology is based on hearsay, and was designed for voyeuristic titillation of the reader.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/?id=dJdErRqoBeQC&pg=PA193&dq=%22Jacobus+X%22+taboos|title="Bisexuality" and the politics of normal in African Ethnography|journal= Anthropologica|volume=48|pages=187–201|number=2|year=2006|author=Marc Epprecht|jstor=25605310|doi=10.2307/25605310}}</ref> Masters said that since pre-historic man is [[prehistoric]] it goes without saying that we know little of his sexual behaviour;<ref>Masters, Robert E. L., ''Forbidden Sexual Behavior and Morality'', p. 5.</ref> depictions in cave paintings may only show the artist's subjective preoccupations or thoughts.

[[Pindar]], [[Herodotus]], and [[Plutarch]] claimed the Egyptians engaged in ritual congress with goats.<ref name="BulloughBullough1994">{{cite book|author1=Vern L. Bullough|author2=Bonnie Bullough|title=Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5HFtMkmFMYC&pg=PA61&dq=bestiality+%22ancient+egypt%22+religious |date=January 1, 1994|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8240-7972-7|page=61}}</ref> Such claims about other cultures do not necessarily reflect anything about which the author had evidence, but may be a form of propaganda or [[xenophobia]], similar to [[blood libel]].{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

Bestiality was accepted in some North American and Middle Eastern indigenous cultures.<ref name="Noram">{{cite book|author=Judith Worell|title=Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/?id=7SXhBdqejgYC&pg=PA298&dq=bestiality+indigenous+gender|date=September 2001|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-227245-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo0000unse_g9b9/page/298 298]|chapter=Cross-Cultural Sexual Practices|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo0000unse_g9b9/page/298}}</ref> Sexual intercourse between humans and non-human animals was not uncommon among certain Native American indigenous peoples, including the [[Hopi]].<ref name="Voget61">Voget, F. W. (1961) "Sex life of the American Indians", in Ellis, A. & Abarbanel, A. (Eds.) ''The Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behavior'', Volume 1. London: W. Heinemann, pp. 90–109.</ref><ref name=Taleyesva>{{cite book|last=Talayesva|first=Don C|title=Sun Chief: The Autobiography of a Hopi Indian|year=1942|publisher=Yale University Press|page=78|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ebB-BbI0wx8C&printsec=frontcover&vq=zoophilia#v=onepage&q=intercourse%20chicken&f=false|author2=Simmons, Leo William|accessdate=12 December 2012|isbn=9780300002270}}</ref> Voget describes the sexual lives of young Native Americans as "rather inclusive", including bestiality.<ref name="Voget61"/> In addition, the [[Copper Inuit]] people had "no aversion to intercourse with live animals".<ref name="Voget61"/>

Several cultures built temples ([[Khajuraho]], India) or other structures ([[Sagaholm]], [[tumulus|barrow]], Sweden) with zoophilic carvings on the exterior, however at [[Khajuraho]], these depictions are not on the interior, perhaps depicting that these are things that belong to the profane world rather than the spiritual world, and thus are to be left outside.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

In the Church-oriented culture of the [[Middle Ages]], zoophilic activity was met with execution, typically burning, and death to the animals involved either the same way or by hanging, as "both a violation of [[Religion and sexuality|Biblical edicts]] and a degradation of man as a spiritual being rather than one that is purely animal and carnal".<ref>Masters (1962)</ref> Some witches were accused of having congress with the devil in the form of an animal. As with all accusations and confessions extracted under torture in the [[witch trials in Early Modern Europe]], their validity cannot be ascertained.<ref name="BulloughBullough1994"/>