History of zoophilia
This article covers the historical and cultural aspects of zoophilia and zoosexuality (also known as bestiality), from prehistory onwards.
This article is being drafted at present and may be incomplete
Overview
Prior to and outside the influence of the major Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), sex with animals (also known as zoophilia, or bestiality) was sometimes forbidden, and sometimes accepted. Occasionally it was incorporated into religios ritual. The Abrahamic religions by and large forbid it, and make it a sin against god, and during the Middle ages in Europe people and animals were often executed if found guilty. With the age of enlightenment, bestiality became subsumed into sodomy and a civil rather than religious offence.
Since the 1980s, many alternative sexualities have formed social networks, and zoosexuality (a more modern name for the spectrum of affinity and attraction to animals) is no exception to this. Although society in general is hostile, several decades of research seem to form a consensus that it is commonly misunderstood and mistaken for zoosadism. (Main article: Research on zoophilia)
Regardless, although there might be minor indications of slow changes in cultural attitudes over decades, it is usually considered a crime against nature in public, and illegal in most countries, and for that reason it is not much evidenced other than online, in private, and in the light of prosecution.
Zoophilia through history
Ancient, Greek and Roman
- Prehistoric man probably was not bound by any self-image in regard to sexuality, and "was likely to have made many such attempts" (Masters, Prehistory of bestiality).
- "Bestiality... existed as a rather widespread practice in all the nations of antiquity of which we have adequate records. Where it is not specifically mentioned, it may be legitimately inferred on the basis of the over-all evidence." (Masters)
- A cave painting from at least 8000 BC in the Northern Italian Val Camonica "depicts a man complete with full erection standing behind a female deer. The viewer is left in no doubt that he intends to have sex with her. We clearly cannot say if our prehistoric artist depicts himself, or something which he has observed someone else doing. What we can deduce however is that he has an intimate knowledge of the external sexual organs of this animal, and that it was made before any known taboos against sex with animals existed." (Cited to Dr. Jacobus X.:Abuses Aberations and Crimes of the Genital Sense, 1901)
- The Sagaholm is a bronze age barrow with zoosexual carvings.
- In ancient Egypt, the animal aspects of the gods ensured that bestiality would be practiced both for religious and magical purposes. Herodotus states religious bestiality was practiced in Egypt - the most famous example being of course the copulations of women with goats. Voltaire spoke of sexual relations between Egyptian women and sacred goats, citing Plutarch and Pindar as his sources. The scholar and anthropologist Lang states that the Egyptian women submitted to he-goats while the "men committed the sin of impurity with she-goats." (See: Goat of Mendes). At El Yemen, trained baboons were popular sex partners with men and women alike. Similarly, in the Nile and Indus Valleys, monkeys were instructed in the art of manipulating the genitals of both sexes. It is recorded that dog-faced baboons once fornicated with women "throughout Egypt and the length and breadth of the Arab world". Finally it is often related that the Egyptians "mastered the art of sexual congress with the crocodile". (Masters)
- In ancient Greece, Xenophon records sex with goats. Norman Haire (Hymen) states "since the Greek myths contain many stories of gods who assumed the shape of animals in order to mate with mortals, we may judge that even bestiality was not regarded as revolting."
Europe: Dark and Middle Ages
In the Church-oriented culture of the Middle Ages, zoosexual activity was met with execution, typically burning, and death to the animals involved either the same way or by hanging. Masters comments that:
- "Theologians, bowing to Biblical prohibitions and basing their judgements on the conception of man as a spiritual being and of the animal as a merely carnal one, have regarded the same phenomenon as both a violation of Biblical edicts and a degradation of man, with the result that the act of bestiality has been castigated and anathematized [...]"
In 1468, Jean Beisse, accused of bestiality with a cow on one occasion and a goat on another, was first hanged, then burned (the animals were burned also). In 1539, Guillaume Garnier, charged with intercourse with a female dog (described as "sodomy"), was ordered strangled after he confessed under torture. The dog was burned, along with the trial records which were "too horrible and potentially dangerous to be permitted to exist" (Masters). In 1601, Claudine de Culam, a young girl of sixteen, was convicted of copulating with a dog. Both the girl and the dog were first hanged, then strangled, and finally burned. In 1735, Francois Borniche was charged with sexual intercourse with animals. It was greatly feared that "his infamous debauches may corrupt the young men." He was imprisoned. There is no record of his release.
Modern era
Tribal and other cultures
- "Malinowski, who noted that the Trobianders have no laws against bestiality (or homosexuality, masturbation, exhibitionism, etc.), tells us that offenders are nonetheless subjected to punishment in the form of derision and contempt [such as] "No one likes a dog better than a woman." ... Other primitive peoples of modern times have also been observed to disapprove, though only mildly, of such deviant forms of sexual behavior as bestiality and homosexuality - and somewhat like the Trobianders they express their lack of approval by poking fun at the miscreant rather than by officially condemning and punishing him." (Masters)
- Among the Masai, it was customary for older boys to have sexual relations with she-asses. Young Riffian boys also had sexual liaisons with female asses (Ford and Beach, 1951, pp. 147-148). Among the Tswana of Africa, boys assigned to the care of cattle frequently engaged in zoosexual activity. It was also common in the Gusti tribes and considered rather harmless, but boys were reprimanded and warned against this activity. Miner and DeVos (1960) comment that amongst Arab tribal cultures, "Bestiality with goats, sheep, or camels provides another outlet. These practices are not approved but they are recognized as common among boys."
Separately, Western cultures have at times reacted to other negatively-viewed sexual and lifestyle activities, with moral panic, in the past.
See also
Sources
Main sources include:
- R.E.L. Masters Ph.D.: Forbidden Sexual Behaviour and Morality, an objective examination of perverse sex practices in different cultures (1962), ISBN LIC #62-12196
References and external links
Histories of zoophilia by non-zoophiles
- Dubois-Dessaule: Tude Sur la Bestiality au point de Vue Historique (The Study of Bestiality from the Historical, Medical and Legal Viewpoint) (Paris, 1905)
- Gaston Dubois-Desaulle: Bestiality: An Historical, Medical, Legal, and Literary Study, University Press of the Pacific (November 1, 2003), ISBN 1410209474 (Paperback Ed.)
Histories of zoophilia by zoophiles
Note: these pages are to a degree amateurs research, written to varying standards by parties with a vested interest. However they may also contain numerous factual references and other suggestions of academic interest omitted by or unfamiliar to authors less familiar with the subject.
- [1] Source 1 - "Zoophilia and The Law -- History"
- [2] Source 2 - "Zoophilia / Bestiality and History"
- [3] Source 3 - "Legal History of bestiality part 2"
- The above 3 sources were written by "L'Etalon Doux" in the late 1990s and published online either as web pages or on zoophile newsgroups.
Culture and sociology
- Hans Hentig Ph.D.: Soziologie der Zoophilen Neigung (Sociology of the Zoophile Preference) (1962)
- Marie-Christine Anest: Zoophilie, homosexualite, rites de passage et initiation masculine dans la Greece contemporaine (Zoophilia, homosexuality, rites of passage and male initiation in contemporary Greece) (1994), ISBN 2739421466
