View source for Iwan Bloch, BeitrSge zur Aetiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis, ErsterTeil, Dresden, 1902 (excerpt) (book)

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pp. 1-17 (introduction) and pp. 120-123 (on religion and homosexuality)

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[pp. 1-17:]

Just as the physiological manifestations of sexual life are as old as
mankind, so too are its pathological manifestations. Ages ago the same
aberrations of the sexual drive occurred that we observe today among primitive
and civilized peoples. In the Bible, the Vedas, in numerous ancient Egyptian
papyri, and in the documents of pre-Columbian Mexico, we find reports and
insinuations of homosexuality, anal intercourse, of the many refined types
of unnatural sexual debauchery associated with the obscene cults of the
sexual deities. These uses of the sexual drive that deviate from the normal
act, which still today are observed among many primitive peoples with shocking
frequency, are most definitely not linked necessarily with "civilization"
or in particular with the "age of nervosity."

On the contrary: If there is anything that expresses itself with the
very same elementary force outside of civilization as well as within it,
it is the sexual drive. In general, the statement holds true that the sexual
drive, as a purely physical function, can form neither an object for comparison
nor a marker of difference between primitive and civilized man.

Therefore, it is not valid to invoke culture and civilization as such
and their various manifestations, in particular the cultural diseases,
the "fin-de-si&eacute;cle malaises" and whatever other names there may
be for the pains of our time, as the main etiological factors for the sexual
abnormalities and aberrations. There are certainly supporting conditions
which these times of highly developed civilization, of "<i>&Uuml;berkultur</i>,"
may offer for the development and spread of an abnormal sexual life, which
can explain the quantitative increase in these aberrations that exists
in fact in eras like the Roman imperial period, for example. But this factor
alone is not sufficient to explain the appearance and genesis of unnatural
expressions of the libido sexualis, since the same manifestations are observed
among primitive peoples that lack any higher culture, and in fact still
live in Stone Age conditions (certain Australian tribes).

With this in mind, the view of those researchers who assign to civilization
the lead role in the etiology of the psychopathia sexualis must be regarded
with suspicion from the start. The founder of this, in my view, incorrect
general view of the psychopathia sexualis is R. v. Krafft-Ebing. In his
view, the perverse expressions of the sexual drive are connected to the
rampant nervosity, created by modern social cultural life, of the most
recent generation, a generation excited by the sexual sphere, driven to
sexual abuse, and finally led to perverse acts.1 The frequent occurrence
of abnormal sexual functions among civilized man is explained by Krafft-Ebing
in part by the "frequent abuse of the reproductive organs", in part by
the circumstance that "such functional anomalies are often the a sign of
a usually hereditary, morbid constitution of the central nervous system."2
It is certainly correct that an increased nervosity in times of &Uuml;berkultur
adversely impacts the sexual life and calls forth neuropathological conditions
in the respective generation, which are associated with "monstrous aberrations
of the sexual drive life."3 On the other hand, one can see from the book
by Ploss and Bartels, <i>Das Weib in der Natur- und V&ouml;lkerkunde</i>
[<i>Woman in the Natural and Social Sciences</i>], that the same "monstrous
aberrations" occur with quite primitive peoples, about whom there can be
no talk of the effects of a refined, sophisticated culture intensively
attacking the nervous system. And these perversities do not appear in isolated
cases among these peoples, but rather they sometimes occur in much greater
distribution than is observed even among the most civilized peoples.

The essence of the sexual drive and of its anomalies is in fact independent
of all culture and shows the same traits among primitive and civilized
peoples,4 it is independent of the physical and mental damage associated
with culture, independent of degeneration in the anthropological and pathological
sense. Culture and degeneration come into consideration only as supporting,
frequency-boosting influences.

Besides that, there are a large number of external factors having nothing
to do with culture, degeneration, or degenerative heredity, whose impact
in the creation of sexual anomalies among primitive and developed peoples
is nonetheless of the greatest significance.

To present these important etiological factors in context is the purpose
of the following studies.
<center>* *

*</center>
In general, two opposing views have established themselves concerning the
genesis of the sexual anomalies. Either the inherited-ness or the acquired-ness
of sexual perversions is emphasized.

Krafft-Ebing was the first to describe these perversions as "functional
signs of degeneration" and in this way emphasized the primarily innate
nature of them, following Casper (1852). Krafft-Ebing declares, in particular,
that homosexuality is innate.5

The second major author in this field, Albert Moll, adheres in general
to this view,6 but he acknowledges that a "remainder" of homosexuals and
sexual perverse persons are left over for whom neither a hereditary predisposition
nor other diseases are effective from an etiological standpoint.7 He points
in particular to the ancient Greeks, among whom homosexuality was nearly
as widespread as normal love, without being based on any degeneration.8

Moll's reference to this manifestation among the undoubtedly physically
and mentally healthy Hellenes is even more significant because these were
not occasional perverse pederastic acts, but rather a typically developed
homosexual culture [<i>Urningtum</i>], which is something that otherwise
Krafft-Ebing and Moll explain as due solely to a morbid, innate constitution
on a degenerative basis.9

The third one of these authors, who are justly viewed as the pioneers
in the field of scientific research on the various forms of "psycho- or
neuropathia sexualis," namely Albert Eulenberg, likewise tends toward a
stronger emphasis of heredity and morbid constitution, especially with
reference to contrary sexual feeling [i.e., homosexuality]; but he especially
makes very noteworthy arguments concerning the non-pathological basis of
many heterosexual anomalies and aberrations.10 But if he vindicates these
sexual montrosities, which he quite rightly understands as sexual "epicureanism,"
only for the "civilized human being, so far removed and alienated in every
respect from natural life," it must be remembered that "sexual picacism,"
fetishism, sadism, and so forth are manifested in exactly the same way
among peoples who exist in the most idyllic natural condition imaginable,
who have not yet experienced a wit of civilization. If, for example, as
Ploss-Bartels report, there is a custom in one primitive people that the
man introduces fishes and the like into the female sexual parts and then
draws them out by cunnilingus, that is no lesser sexual "gourmandism" than
what occurs in Parisian brothels in the form of "pollution labiale."11
Thus these are general human aberrations, independent of the level of civilization,
which -- I need mention only the refined and elaborate system of the Indian
arts of love -- certainly can occur without any neuropathological basis,
as simple heightening of stimulation, and which can become a national custom
(as among the Indians).

Of the remaining researchers who emphasize the primary innateness of
the sexual perversions, I will mention only Havelock Ellis12 and Magnan.13

It cannot be denied that the aforementioned representatives of this
view, who indeed include the founders of scientific research into the pyschopathia
sexualis, have for the moment carried their view to victory, so that the
opposing doctrine of the acquired-ness of most sexual anomalies has receded
more into the background.

The first person to argue the latter emphatically was A. v. Schrenk-Notzing,14
who was the first to discover the surprising fact that a complete healing
of contrary sexual feeling and other sexual perversions could be achieved
by suggestion therapy, and indeed even in cases which had previously been
viewed as innate. This led for Schrenck-Notzing to the inescapable conclusion
that in the understanding of these sexual abnormalities, the hereditary
aspect had been quite significantly overestimated, while a much greater
share in the pathogenesis of the sexual aberrations should be attributed
to external conditions (situational factors, upbringing).15

Even before Schrenck-Notzing, in 1886 the famour Peterburg syphilis
expert Professor Benjamin Tarnowsky, in his brilliant monograph on the
"morbid manifestations of the sexual instinct" (Berlin, 1886), pointed
out the frequent occurrence and the mode of acquired-ness of sexual perversions.
He had already emphasized that the latter occur relatively frequently as
the result of lasciviousness and seduction even among physically and mentally
healthy persons.

This latter aspect was then elaborated and demonstrated in greater
detail especially by A. Hoche in an important work,16 which was soon followed
by A. Cramer.17 Both of them proved that typical homosexuality [<i>Urningtum</i>]
occurs together with full mental and physical health, and that in only
rare cases are the sexual perversions based on a severe hereditary problem,
while much more frequently masturbation and debauchery are to be considered
as etiological factors. The possibility of an innate contrary sexual feeling
is quite vehemently denied by Cramer.

Similar thoughts were developed by K. Kautzner in a very noteworthy
article.18 Kautzner likewise attacks the biogenetic view of homosexuality
as incorrect, and sees seduction as a major cause of contrary sexual feeling.
<center>* *

*</center>
Therefore, according to the arguments presented above, there are in general
two groups of sexual perversions: the innate ones, i.e. those existing
since earliest childhood, and those acquired in later life. The latter
are divided in turn into those sexual aberrations which are caused by diseases
and those which occur in healthy persons. In the present document, I intend
to present only the etiological conditions of this last group, i.e. the
causes of the development of sexual perversions in otherwise healthy persons.
Once these are clarified, then at the same time the realizable possibilities
of a general prophylaxis against sexual aberrations will be provided. These
aberrations are based for the most part on general human conditions, which
are distributed qualititatively equally over the whole world and which
exert the same effects everywhere, even if they may show quantitative differences
among different peoples and in different times.

Compared to these external factors, based on the nature and malleability
of the human sexual drive, the influences of heredity and diseases, which
have been emphasized so much to date, will recede extraordinarily into
the background.

The doctrine once put forth by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs regarding homosexuality,
that it represented an innate condition in which a "woman's soul was trapped
in a male body,"19 which A. Geigel attacked already in his writing <i>Das
Paradoxon der Venus Urania</i> (W&uuml;rzburg, 1869) with the objection
that body and soul together form a single being, has been recently resurrected
by Magnan and Krafft-Ebing. The former spoke of a "female brain" in a male
body. Already Schrenck-Notzing20 rejected this theory as lacking any scientific
basis and based solely on the very untrustworthy statements of the homosexuals.
Cramer spoke out against this theory with particular vehemence. "Assuming
the case," he wrote, "that the respective centers for the two sexes are
preformed in the brain even before the differentiation of the sex in the
third month, for which all evidence is lacking, it is hard for me to understand
how a brain not suited to this sexual character should develop once an
individual has taken on a definite character as regards his sexual apparatus
in the third month of pregnancy. For it is a known fact that, in case of
an amputation of any extremity or extirpation of any sensory organ during
youth, the respective centers do not develop. For what reason, then, should
the brain of a man with a normally-formed sexual apparatus develop for
the minimal remainders of the originally present female constitution? That
would definitely contradict an indisputable pathologic-anatomical law.
For the brain and the organ have a reciprocal relationship. If the center
does not develop, the organ atrophies, and vice-versa. Such a development
would be inconceivable without some other significant malformation."21
Cramer quite rightly recalls the eunuchs who, in spite of lacking the sexual
glands, never develop a female center.

The "innate" cases of homosexuality probably do not exist at all. Most
of the cases so-named are those in which the sexual perversion appeared
in earliest childhood, and even these are very rare.22 The respective conditions
are probably best studied among the primitive peoples, untouched as far
as possible by civilization, and in this case it is remarkable that the
experienced African traveler Dr. Oscar Baumann,, for example, who has occupied
himself much with the sexual aberrations of the African natives, has encountered
only two cases of "innate" homosexuality among the numerous peoples of
inner Africa, one in Unyamwesi, the other in Uganda.23 In the civilized
countries, the alleged innateness of the sexual perversions is usually
derived only from the anamnesic statements and autobiographies of homosexuals
and other perverse persons. In what way their value should be assessed
has been emphasized by various authors. Priapus is a god of lies,24 and
in no sexual area does this appear more clearly than in the area of aberrations
of the normal sexual drive. Here subjective delusion is combined with auto-suggestion,
the role of which has been presented especially by Schrenck-Notzing.25
The uncritical theories of an Ulrich were taken for truth by many homosexuals
and transferred to their own condition. Many of the autobiographies and
descriptions of their condition by sexual perverts, recorded by Krafft-Ebing
with all-too-great credulity, show clear traces of the effects of fantasy,
whereby the actual facts are usually falsified in a clearly apparent way.

Those cases of sexual perversity appearing in early youth usually fall
under the heading of those acquired by illness, or morbid constitution.
But in this case, the subjective statements of the sick can always be disregarded,
insofar as the doctor will easily be able to discover objective characteristics
of a morbid condition causing the sexual anomaly, whether these characteristics
are anatomical-somatic or psychological in nature.

Every sexual pervert must first be examined in reference to the existence
of severe hereditary problems, as well as so-called signs of degeneration.
If a multiple occurrence of severe psychoses, alcoholism, diabetes, syphilis,
and other diseases leading to degenerescence is found in the family of
the subject, then suspicion of a psychopathological basis of the abnormal
sexual actions is justified. However, it should be recalled that a hereditary
problem does not always manifest itself,26 therefore it cannot always be
blamed for the appearance of a sexual perversion.

Whether sexual perversion as such is a sign of degeneration is rightly
doubted by Havelock Ellis,27 since it occurs among otherwise healthy and
normal individuals, as Moll also confirms. Another more important question,
however, is that of the occurrence of the usual signs of degeneration with
sexual perverts, for which Havelock Ellis has established the very correct
principle that the abnormalities must be very pronounced and represented
in multiple fashion, in order to count as signs of degeneration.28 In fact,
the presence of multiple signs of degeneration in a single individual is
a rather unmistakable marker of a neuro- or psychopathological disposition.

In addition to skull assymetries, narrowness of the palate, harelip,
cleft palate, dental anomalies, hypertrichosis, tic convulsif, speech impediments,
we see here primarily Morel's ear (total or partial lack of the helix or
antihelix) and other malformations of the ears (Darwinian pointed ears),
as well as abnormal and morbid conditions of the genitals and the genital
region, as well as an abnormally active fantasy life. I will address these
last two conditions more thoroughly below.

Finally, actual diseases may be considered in the etiology of acquired
sexual perversions. It is of great interest that Tarnowsky assigns a major
role to syphilis in the pathogenesis of sexual anomalies. Hereditarily
syphilitic children, or even those produced by syphilitic parents but not
showing perceptible symptoms, later exhibit signs of a perverse sexual
sense.29 Apparently, this is to be explained by the same effect, intensely
damaging to the nervous system, which is attributed to syphilis in the
etiology of tabes and dementia paralytica. In the anamnesic examination
of sexual perverts, prior syphilis may therefore attain a certain significance.

Doctors have long been familiar with the appearance of sexual aberrations
in various mental illnesses. We know that epilepsy and epileptic insanity
are associated extraordinarily often with disturbances in the sexual area,
which appear particularly in the form of sudden outburts of the normal
or abnormal sexual drive (debauched offenses, pederasty, bestiality, etc.).
The same epileptic may commit the most varied sexual offenses in a state
of psychic disturbance. Whether Tarnowsky is therefore justified in deducing
a particular form of "epileptic pederasty"30 may remained unanswered. One
will seldom observe a single form of sexual perversion in an epileptic.
Also remarkable is the periodic appearance of sexual aberrations, which
can thus be classified in the category of periodic insanity. Tarnowsky's
"periodic pederasts" differ from healthy homosexuals31 in that they anxiously
avoid the company of the latter and hide their condition as much as possible.
These sick persons satisfy their perverse drive twice or three times a
year at defined, recurring times, and in the remaining period they have
normal intercourse with women. Even flagellation and necrophilia can occur
in a clearly periodic manner and thus be characterized as morbid. Imbeciles,
idiots, alcoholics, and persons with dementia senilis or paralytica very
often present sexual abnormalities. Senile dementia in particular delivers
a strong contingent to the sexual offenses of the most varied kinds (pederasty,
exhibitionism, debauchery with children, masochism and sadism, etc.).

Current medical science is able to detect all these aforementioned
morbid causes of sexual perversions with certainty and accordingly to decide
on the greater or lesser accountability of the respective sexually perverse
individual. However, in the great majority of cases, medical examination
provides no indications for the existence of a morbid basis for the sexual
abnormality. Individual minor symptoms or even mere "nervosity," which
is so common today in all classes of people, are certainly not sufficient
to categorize sexually perverse acts or conditions as "morbid." Rather,
there is no doubt that all sexual perversions may appear in exactly the
same manner even with mentally and physically healthy people, who must
in every respect be viewed as "accountable."

Comprehension of the possibility and surprising frequency of this occurrence
will be gained only by observing the many varied etiological factors which
give us a satisfactory explanation of the establishment of sexual anomalies
in healthy people. Therefore, I will now turn to the study of these causative
conditions...

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<p>Footnotes for pp. 1-17

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<blockquote>1 R. v. Krafft-Ebing, <i>Psychopathia sexualis</i>, 10th edition,
Stuttgart, 1898, pp. 304-305.

2 ibid. p. 33.

3 ibid. p. 6 Similar to Krafft-Ebing, A. Eulenberg is also of the opinion
that a "certain level of civilization" has etiological significance for
the genesis of sexual anomalies. Cf. <i>Sexuelle Neuropathie</i>, Leipzig,
1895, p. 97.

4 Here, let us only cite the judgment of the most influential researchers
in this area: "One encounters not rarely the view that everything which
is generally designated as unnatural sexual enjoyment owes its initial
origin to the overstimulated sensuality of a developed culture. But that
is totally incorrect, and on the contrary we find not rarely a highly refined
sexual debauchery among tribes with a very low level of civilization, whom
one is generally so fond of thinking of as living in an idyllic natural
state, of whom one sometimes hears descriptions as though the Golden Age
with all its blessings still existed among them." H. Ploss &amp; M. Bartels,
<i>Das
Weib in der Natur- und V&ouml;lkerkunde</i>, 6th edition, Leipzig, 1899,
p. 451.

5 Compare his statements in the preface to A. Moll's <i>Die kontr&auml;re
Sexualempfindung</i>, 3rd edition, Berlin 1899, pp. IV-V.

6 op. cit. and in <i>Untersuchungen &uuml;ber die Libido sexualis</i>,
Berlin 1898, Vol. I.

7 ibid., I, 674.

8 "When we consider what the ancient Greeks accomplished in the arts
and sciences, or in terms of moral power, we will be hard pressed to believe
that the ancient Greeks suffered from a morbid constitution ... It is also
undoubtedly false to assert that the homosexual manifestations appeared
in precisely the period in which the Greeks were already in decline. On
the contrary, homosexual love emerged in a most extraordinary manner precisely
in the period of flourishing." ibid., p. 676.

9 I have gotten the general impression from reading Moll's writings
that, in spite of the author's fundamental assumption of the hereditary
nature of sexual perversions, in many ways he is inclined toward a different
explanation of them. This entangles him in numerous contradictions, of
which a large number could be compiled. This uncertainty comes to light
particularly in the case summaries. For example, compare in Libido Sexualis,
pp. 692-693: "To start, one observes other manifestations of illness extraordinarily
often along with the perversion of the sexual drive, which are to some
degree neuropathological but some of which are even psychopathological.
Aside from that, it is possible to observe in a very large number of cases
that a hereditary problem is often present simultaneously with the perverse
sexual drive. Nonetheless, there are authors who deny this, and we will
do well to refrain from all apriorism and thus to regard a portion of the
cases, in this respect at least, as unexplained." If even Havelock Ellis
(<i>Das kontr&auml;re Geschlechtsgef&uuml;hl</i>, German translation by
H. Kurella, Leipzig, 1896, p. 30) notes: "Krafft-Ebing's method is not
without problems; his is not a very critical mind," then that should give
us something to think about. Theoretical one-sidedness, particularly in
the area being treated of here, leads rather to the obscuring than to the
clarification of the essential issues.

10 A. Eulenberg, <i>Sexual Neuropathie</i>, pp. 96-97 and passim.

11 "The lower in civilization a tribe is, the more frequently lasciviousness
and animalistic sensuality are manifested. Many primitive peoples use excessive
stimulants to arouse female lust. On the island of Pohnpei (West Carolines),
it is considered a special mark of feminine beauty for the smaller labia
to be lengthened considerably, and their lengthening, as well as that of
the clitoris, was caused artificially even in small girls, as we saw. The
man arouses lust in the woman by grabbing the lengthened labia with his
teeth, in order to stretch them further, and, as Kubary reports, some men
go so far as to insert a fish into the vulva in order to lick it out again
bit by bit. Such disgusting and horrid experiments are carried on with
the main wife, with whom the man intends to produce a child, so long until
she starts to urinate, and only after that does coitus begin." Ploss-Bartels,
op. cit. I, 433. - P. Mantegazza correctly notes as well regarding this
custom: "In this area, the most highly educated men of the purest Aryan
race and the basest men of the lowest ethnic hierarchy partake as equals
in brotherly bestialness." <i>Anthropologisch-kulturhistorische Studien
&uuml;ber die Geschlechtsverh&auml;ltnisse des Menschen</i>, 3rd edition,
Jena, no date, p. 197. As a "civilized" counterpart, let us recall that
earl who inserted strawberries into his mistress's genitalia and later
ate the fruits thus marinated. (Eulenberg, op. cit., p. 101). The "renifleurs,"
who sniff female urine, also belong in this category.

12 <i>Die Theorie der contr&auml;ren Sexualempfindung</i>, from the
<i>Centralblatt
f&uuml;r Nervenheilkunde und Psychiatrie</i>, February 1896; <i>Das kontr&auml;re
Geschlechtsgef&uuml;hl</i>, German translation by H. Kurella, Leipzig,
1896.

13 V. Magnan, "Des anomalies, des aberrations et des perversions sexuelles"
in: <i>Annales m&eacute;dico-psychologiques</i>, 7th series. T. I. Paris,
1885, p. 454ff. (German translation by P.J. M&ouml;bius in: Magnan, <i>Psychiatrische
Vorlesungen</i>, No. 2/3, Leipzig, 1892, p. 43ff.)

14 <i>Die Suggestions-Therapie bei krankhaften Erscheinungen des Geschlechtssinnes</i>,
Stuttgart, 1892.

15 op. cit., p. 11.

16 A. Hoche, "Zur Frage der forensischen Beurteilung sexueller Vergehen"
in: <i>Neurologisches Centralblatt</i>, 1896, pp. 57-68.

17 A. Cramer, "Die kontr&auml;re Sexualempfindung in ihren Beziehungen
zum &sect; 175 des Strafgesetzbuches" in: <i>Berliner klinische Wochenschrift</i>,
1897, No. 43, pp. 934-936; No. 44, pp. 962-965.

18 K. Kautzner, "Homosexualit&auml;t," in: <i>Archiv f&uuml;r Kriminalanthropologie</i>,
1899, Vol. II, pp. 152-63.

19 "The sex of the body of the homosexual [<i>Urning</i>] is male,
that of his soul female. He is anima muliebris virili corpore inclusa [a
woman's soul trapped in a male body]. That is why, like a woman, he feels
sexually repulsed by the woman, but drawn to the man. By the influence
of the male body, however, the homosexual's soul is made similar to a man
in particular parts. While remaining female in its essence, it has taken
on male coloring here and there." K.H. Ulrichs, <i>Argonauticus</i>, Leipzig,
1869, p. 87.

20 op. cit., p. 193.

21 Cramer, op. cit., p. 936.

22 Tarnowsky, op. cit. p. 33.

23 <i>Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthropologischen Gesellschaft</i>,
1899, p. 668.

24 An inscription on a medieval Priapus column in the catacombs of
San Gennaro dei Poveri in Naples says: "Priapus a god of lies the cave
of the Cimmerian is vain deceit, it is wicked to serve the idol Phallus."
Cf. Victor Schultze, <i>Die Katakomben von San Gennaro dei Poveri in Neapel,
eine kunsthistorische Studie</i>, Jena, 1877, p. 28.

25 op. cit. p. 196. Cramer notes (op. cit., p. 964): "The masturbator
who reflects much on his condition reads everything related to it. Given
the wide circulation of 'perverse-sexual' literature, he easily obtains
this reading material ... Suddenly everything becomes clear to him; he
thinks back on his youth and, unconsciously, by way of auto-suggestion,
he arrives at the conclusion that he was sexually abnormal starting from
his youth onward."

26 Ziehen, article on "Degeneratives Irresein" in: <i>Real-Encyclop&auml;die
der gesamten Heilkunde</i>, published by A. Eulenberg, Vienna, 1895, Vol.
V, p. 448.

27 Havelock Ellis, <i>Die Theorie der contr&auml;ren Sexualempfindung</i>,
S.A. p. 5.

28 ibid., p. 5.

29 Tarnowsky, op. cit., pp. 34-35.

30 Tarnowsky, op. cit., p. 8 and p. 51.

31 ibid., p. 43.</blockquote>


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<p>[pp. 120-123:]
<p>Finally, we come to the strangest of all religio-sexual phenomena: homosexuality
and pederasty for religious reasons, a phenomenon that is characteristic
of primitive and civilized peoples in equal measure. How can religious
pederasty, or its ubiquitous spread, be explained? The fact that homosexuality
for religious reasons exists is a matter beyond doubt, but the explanation
of it is very difficult and uncertain. My suppositions about the origin
of this astonishing custom are as follows.
<p>If the usual, normal sex act appeared to primitive man as something
miraculous, demonic, supernatural, in which the gods must have a hand,
then the observance of same-sex relationships between men must have definitely
seemed to him to be a pure miracle, as the effect of a higher spirit infusing
these unnatural inclinations into the human being.[1] Thus these first
few beings "disinherited from the joy of love" were brought into mysterious
relation with higher beings and viewed as earthly representatives of the
gods. The abnormal, miraculous, unusual expression of a perverse orientation
of the sexual drive was interpreted as a higher, more holy one. One should
always remember that primitive man is far removed from applying our moral
standards to these phenomena. His indifference with regard to them offers
a precise analogy to that [indifference] which even today our lower classes
exhibit with respect to these things. If the moral standpoint is removed,
then the primitive human being caught up in animism and demonism sees only
the puzzling, physical act itself, which requires an explanation in the
given sense.
<p>This religious understanding of homosexuality condensed then into a
religious practice, insofar as those womanish, homosexually-inclined men
were designated as priests. However, since they were usually not present
in sufficient number, they were artificially cultivated; or at least the
attempt was made to create the appearance as though the male priests were
women. When it is reported of South and Central American tribes that the
male priests had to wear women's clothes,[2] this corresponds in folk-psychological
terms with the report by Herodotus (II, 36) that the priests of the gods
in ancient Europe, except in Egypt, had to wear long hair. We have already
become acquainted in the aforementioned reports from Martius with the intimate
relationships between magic and artificially cultivated pederasty among
the South American Indians. Falkner and Bastian report that among the Arauks
the male magicians are plainly forced to abandon their sex and don feminine
clothing. They are also forbidden to marry and are usually selected already
as children, with particularly feminine-looking ones being preferred.[3]
Hammond reports about the "Mujerados" of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico
that they are absolutely indispensable for the religious orgies. Pederastic
practices constitute a significant component of the religious ceremonies
of the Pueblos. Likewise, the effeminates of Florida were particularly
fond of attending religious celebrations.[4]
<p>Similar situations are found among the civilized peoples. The "holy"
pederasts of the Sakalaves of Madagascar,[5] find their counterpart among
the civilized peoples of antiquity in the pederastic priests of Baal Peor,
Kybele, Aphrodite, and the Dea Syria.[6]
<p>Pederasts are called "holy ones" (qadeshim)[7] in the Old Testament
for the same reasons as this attribute is given to them by primitive peoples.
Even the pederastic act itself, or at least disgusting insinuations of
it, were viewed by Baal Pegor as "holy" and were dedicated to him.[8]
<p>The temple of Aphrodite Hetaira in Athens served, according to Apollodorus,
as a residence for female and male hetairai, [9] and the cult of the "Mother
of the Gods" Kybele exhibits no less indications of religious homosexuality
in its castrated priests (galli).
<p>It is known that in the Satanic cult of the Christian Middle Ages, unnatural
sexual offenses between the same sexes were viewed as something sanctified.
<p>Even female homosexuality, or tribadism, can arise for religious reasons.
A female branch of the Cainite sect founded by Quintilla "led back to the
famous Sappho in every respect" and gained wide distribution in North Africa
thanks to the zealous sermons of its founder.[10]
<p>In any case, especially among religious fanatics who joined together
in particular sects, we find a whole number of sexual anomalies combined
which are all justified by religious reasons. However, it can scarcely
be assumed that all members of these religious communities were afflicted
by congenital sexual perversions. No, the profound association of religious
mysticism with the sexual drive is what reveals itself here in the sexual
degenerations of an unleashed imagination. This can be demonstrated from
the relatively harmless, but worrisome in its consequences, "aseminal cohabitation"
of the recent Oneida sect in North America to the Satanic cult of the Cainites,
the Manicheans, and the Templars, which embrace the most heinous sexual
vices, the latter of whom aped the holy rites of the Christian church in
order to glorify the principle of evil, but in so doing [word missing]
into the purely sexual ...

&nbsp;
<p>Footnotes for pp. 120-123

&nbsp;
<blockquote>1 Usually in the form of dreams, as with the Otoe Indians in
North America. Karsch, "Uranismus oder Paederastie bei den Naturvoelkern"
in: Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Leipzig, 1901, vol. III, p.
132, and Sauk Indians, ibid. p. 121.

2 F. Karsch, op. cit., p. 123.

3 Karsch, op. cit., pp. 157-158.

4 Ibid., p. 119.

5 Ibid., p. 102.

6 That the pederastic effeminization of the Scythians, known as theleia
noesos, has a religious origin, is shown by W.H. Roscher ("Das von der
'Kynanthropie' handelnde Fragment des Marcellus von Side," Leipzig, 1896,
p. 25, note 61).

7 Cf. J. Rosenbaum, Geschichte der Lustseuche im Altertum, 6th edition,
Halle, 1893, p. 122-123.

8 Cf. Rabbi Salomon Jarchi's commentary on Numbers 25: Eo quod distendebat
coram illo foramen podicis, et stereus offerebant." In J.A. Dulaure, Des
divinit&eacute;s generatrices ou du culte du phallus chez les Anciens et
les Modernes, Paris, 1885, p. 67.

9 W.H. Roscher, Nektar und Ambrosia, Leipzig, 1883, p. 89.

10 P. Dufour (pseud. of P.L. Jacob), Geschichte der Prostitution, vol.
III, Berlin, 1901, p. 35.</blockquote>


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