This article covers the
historical and cultural aspects of zoophiliaZoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία , is the practice of sex between humans and animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice. A person who practices zoophilia is known as a zoophile.Although sex with animals is not outlawed in some countries, it is not explicitly condoned anywhere...
and zoosexualityZoosexuality is a term used to describe a sexual orientation towards non-human animals. It has become more commonly referenced in scientific research literature since Hani Miletski's research into the field in the 1990s...
(also known as
bestiality), from prehistory onwards.
Overview
Prior to and outside the influence of the major Abrahamic religions (
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
and
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
),
sex with animalsZoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία , is the practice of sex between humans and animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice. A person who practices zoophilia is known as a zoophile.Although sex with animals is not outlawed in some countries, it is not explicitly condoned anywhere...
(also known as zoophilia, or bestiality) was sometimes forbidden, and sometimes accepted. Occasionally it was incorporated into religious ritual. The Abrahamic religions by and large forbid it, and declared it a sin against their God, and during the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
in Europe people and animals were often executed if found guilty. With the
Age of EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
, bestiality became subsumed into
sodomySodomy is a term used today predominantly in law to describe the act of anal intercourse, oral intercourse, or bestiality.- Definitions :...
and a civil rather than religious offence.
Separately, Western cultures have at times reacted to other negatively-viewed sexual and lifestyle activities, with
moral panicA moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue which appears to be a threat to the social order. Stanley Cohen, author of the seminal Folk Devils and Moral Panics , says a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to...
.
Since the
1980sThe 1980s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1980, to December 31, 1989.The time period saw social, economic and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies...
, many alternative sexualities have formed social networks, and
zoosexualityZoosexuality is a term used to describe a sexual orientation towards non-human animals. It has become more commonly referenced in scientific research literature since Hani Miletski's research into the field in the 1990s...
(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 bestiality is commonly misunderstood and mistaken for
zoosadismZoosadism is a term coined by Ernest Borneman referring to pleasure derived from cruelty to animals. Zoosadism is part of the Macdonald triad, a set of three behaviors that are a precursor to Sociopathic behavior.-Research:...
. Most notably,
utilitarianUtilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its contribution to overall utility: that is, its contribution to happiness or pleasure as summed among all people...
philosophers such as
Peter SingerPeter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics , University of Melbourne...
and
Jacob M. AppelJacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....
have argued that, under certain circumstances, such behavior should be legal.
Although there may be indications of slow changes in cultural attitudes over recent decades, bestiality is still often considered a crime against nature and remains illegal in many countries, and for that reason it is not much evidenced other than
onlineONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
, in private, and in the context of prosecution.
Ancient, Greek and Roman
Caveat - It is important to be aware that some of the descriptions in antiquity may have been written from a political agenda, that is, with the intent of portraying a given target group intentionally negatively. Reader judgement is necessary when considering such source material.
- Prehistoric man probably was not bound by any self-image in regard to sexuality, and "was likely to have made many such attempts". In general, "[b]estiality... 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 open-air rock engraving (photograph) probably 5000 years old in the Northern Italian Val Camonica
Val Camonica is one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy, about 90 km long. It starts from the Tonale Pass, at 1883 metres above sea level and ends at Corna Trentapassi, in the comune of Pisogne, near Lake Iseo...
"It depicts a man complete with full erectionPenile erection is a physiological phenomenon where the penis becomes enlarged and firm. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular and endocrine factors, and is usually, though not exclusively, associated with sexual arousal. Penile erection can also...
standing behind a donkey. The viewer is left in no doubt that he intends to have sex with the donkey. Other people think that one 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."
- The Sagaholm
The Sagaholm in present-day Sweden had a large barrow from the early Nordic Bronze Age. It had a circle of slabs of sandstone, probably as many as 100. Only 45 remain, but 18 of them are adorned with petroglyphs depicting ships, animals and people, including scenes of zoophilia.The find is today at...
is a SwedishSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
barrowA tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world...
with zoosexual carvings that dates to the early Nordic Bronze AgeThe Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, c. 1700-500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of...
.
- Instances of zoosexual behavior have been found in the Bible.
- In ancient Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
, the animal aspects of the gods ensured that bestiality would be practiced both for religious and magical purposes. HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
states religious bestiality was practiced in Egypt - the most famous example being of course the copulations of women with goats. VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade.Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every...
spoke of sexual relations between Egyptian women and sacred goats, citing PlutarchPlutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
and PindarPindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is best preserved...
as his sources (StraboStrabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus , which had recently become part of the Roman Empire.. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome...
and Plutarch both confirm Herodotus' mention [Bk 2, § 46] of an Egyptian woman having public sex with a goat). 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 NileThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
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 crocodileA crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
" by turning it on its back. (Masters)
- In ancient Greece, Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens and Xenophon of Thebes, was a soldier, mercenary, and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
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."
- Plutarch and Virgil state of Greece, that: "it commits very frequently and in many places great outrages, disorders and scandals against nature, in the matter of this pleasure of love; for there are men who have loved she-goats, sows and mares," (Discourse on the Reason of Beasts, xvii) Pliny
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an author, naturalist, and natural philosopher as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
states that SemiramisSemiramis was a legendary Assyrian queen, also known as Semiramide, Semiramida, or Shamiram.Many legends have accumulated around her personality. Various efforts have been made to identify her with real persons...
prostituted herself to her horse, and VenetteVenette is a commune in the Oise department in northern France....
says that "there is nothing more common in Egypt than that young women have intercourse with bucks."
- Robson, in "Bestiality and bestial rape in Greek myth" (1997) suggests three points of departure for analyzing Greek myth: 1) sex with animals as pornography, 2) as part of hunting ritual, and 3) as bestial myths and/or male initiation rituals.
- Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...
and other writers state that in RomanAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times, women sometimes inserted snakes into their vaginas. Curiously, this is reported to have been both for sexual purposes and also as a means to keeping cool and deodorizing that part of the body in the heat of summer. LucianLucian of Samosata was an Assyrian rhetorician, and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.-Biography:...
comments that snakes were taught to suckle on women's nipples. Juvenal states in the Mysteries of the Bona Dea, that "if... men are wanting, she [the Roman woman] does not delay to submit her buttocks to a young ass placed over her." Roman society had around 12 formal categories of prostitute, the lower of whom performed with animals.
- Interestingly, the Jewish code of law (the Talmud
The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
) found it necessary to proscribe specifically women from being alone in the company of animals, in order to rule out suspicion (Muth 1969, Christy 1970).
- The Synod of Ancyra
The Synod of Ancyra was an ecclesiastical council, or synod, convened in Ancyra , the seat of the Roman administration for the province of Galatia, in 314...
(circa. 313-316 AD), the first gathering of Christian leaders since the end of anti-Christian persecution, dedicated a substantial proportion of the meeting to deciding the position of the church with regard to bestiality. Two of the resulting 25 canons address the act. The sixteenth canon describes the penancePenance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Christian Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in the Lutheran Divine Service...
and level of restrictions to be applied to various age-groups for having previously committed bestiality, or continuing to do so. The seventeenth canon prohibits all lepers from praying inside church if they had committed bestiality (or had sexual intercourse with a leprous woman) while they suffered from leprosy.
Roman Games and Circus
The most explicit recorded incidents of public sex involving humans and animals activity are associated with the murderous
sadismSadism is pleasure in the infliction of pain or humiliation upon another person, while masochism refers to gratification from receiving the same. These practices are often related and are collectively known as sadomasochism as well as S&M or SM...
,
tortureTorture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of...
and
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
of the Roman games and
circusThe Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot racing stadium and mass entertainment venue located in Rome. Situated in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest Chariot Racing Stadium in ancient Rome...
, in which it is estimated that several hundreds of thousands died. Masters reports: "Beasts were specially trained to copulate with women: if the girls or women were unwilling then the animal would attempt rape. A surprising range of creatures was used for such purposes - bulls, giraffes, leopards, cheetahs, wild boar, zebras, stallions, jackasses, huge dogs, apes, etc. The beasts were taught how to copulate with a human being [whether male or female] either via the
vaginaThe vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...
or via the
anusThe anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to expel feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest, such as bones; food...
." Representations of scenes from the sexual lives of the gods, such as
Pasiphaë and the BullIn Greek mythology, Pasiphaë , "wide-shining" was the daughter of Helios, the Sun, by the eldest of the Oceanids, Perse; Like her doublet Europa, her origins were in the East, in her case at Colchis, the palace of the Sun; she was given in marriage to King Minos of Crete. With Minos, she was the...
, were highly popular, often causing extreme suffering, injury or death. On occasion, the more ferocious beasts were permitted to kill and (if desired) devour their victims afterwards.
ChimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s and
mandrillThe Mandrill is a primate of the Cercopithecidae family, closely related to the baboons and even more closely to the Drill. Both the Mandrill and the Drill were once classified as baboons in genus Papio, but recent research has determined that they should be separated into their own genus,...
s, both in fact ferocious and very powerful species of
primateA primate is a member of the biological order Primates , the group that contains lemurs, lorisids, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including great apes. With the exception of humans, who inhabit every continent on Earth, most primates live in tropical or subtropical...
: "made drunk by wine and inflamed by the odor of females of their kind, were loosed upon girls whose genitals had been drenched with the urine of female chimps and mandrills." The victims were often virgins and not infrequently young children. One spectacle is said to have included "a hundred tiny blonde girls being raped simultaneously by a horde of
baboonBaboons are African and Asian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominid members of the primate order; only the Mandrill and the Drill are larger...
s."
- (Masters, "The Prostitutes In Society")
Europe: Middle Ages
In the Church-oriented culture of the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, 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 anathema
Anathema originally meant something lifted up as an offering to the gods; later, with evolving meanings, it came to mean:# to be formally set apart;# banished, exiled, excommunicated;# denounced, sometimes accursed; or# a literary term...
tized [...]"
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 involved were also burned. In 1539, Guillaume Garnier, charged with intercourse with a female dog (described as "sodomy"), was ordered strangled after he confessed under
tortureTorture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of...
. 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.
On the other hand, other accounts are more possibly fictitious, such as Pietro Damiani's, who in his "De bono religiosi status et variorum animatium tropologia" (11th Century) tells of a Count Gulielmus whose pet ape became his wife's lover. One day the ape became "mad with jealousy" on seeing the count lying with his wife that it fatally attacked him. Damain claims he was told about this incident by
Pope Alexander IIAlexander II , born Anselmo da Baggio, was Pope from 1061 to 1073.He was born in Milan. As bishop of Lucca he had been an energetic coadjutor with Hildebrand in endeavouring to suppress simony, and to enforce the celibacy of the clergy...
and shown an offspring claimed to be that of the ape and woman. (Illustrated Book of Sexual Records)
Clergyman and chonicler Gerald of Wales claimed to have witnessed a man having intercourse with a horse as part of a pagan ritual in Ireland.
Although thousands of female witches were accused of having sex with animals, usually said to be the
DevilThe Devil is believed in certain religions and folklore to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The Devil is commonly associated with heretics, infidels, and other unbelievers...
in animal form or their familiars, court records available in Europe and the United States, dating back to the 14th century and continuing into the 20th century, nearly always show males, rather than females, as the human parties in court cases. (Encyclopedia of human sexuality, Humboldt University)
Asia
- Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis was a British sexologist, physician, and social reformer.- Early life :Ellis, son of Edward Peppen Ellis and Susannah Mary Wheatley, was born in Croydon, then a small town south of London. His father was a sea captain, his mother the daughter of a sea captain, and many other...
[note 52] states: "Among the TamilTamil people , are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, a state in India, and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. They speak Tamil , with a recorded history going back two millennia. Emigrant communities are found across the world...
s of Ceylon [Sri LankaSri Lanka , officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka , is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India...
] bestiality with goats and cows is said to be very prevalent." The Japanese peopleThe are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as...
traditionally have a matter-of-fact attitude to many aspects of sex as the painting by Hokusaiwas a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. In his time, he was Japan's leading expert on Chinese painting. Born in Edo , Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series which includes the iconic and internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off...
shows.
Other cultures
- Pacific Isles: Malinowski
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski was a Polish anthropologist, widely considered one of the most important 20th-century anthropologists. His pioneering ethnographic fieldwork made a major contribution to the study of Melanesia and of reciprocity.-Life:Malinowski was born in Kraków, Poland, to an...
, a foremost PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
anthropologist of the 20th centuryThe 20th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar.The British Empire, the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved in the first half of the century, with all but the...
also cited by Masters, noted that the Trobriand IslandersThe Trobriand Islands are a 170 mi² archipelago of coral atolls off the eastern coast of New Guinea. They are situated in Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of Kiriwina, which is also the location of the...
(near Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
) have no laws against bestiality (or homosexualityHomosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
, masturbationMasturbation refers to sexual stimulation, especially of one's own genitals , often to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by other types of bodily contact , by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods...
, exhibitionismExhibitionism, known variously as flashing, apodysophilia and Lady Godiva syndrome, is the psychological need and pattern of behavior involving the exposure of parts of the body to another person with a tendency toward an extravagant, usually at least partially sexually inspired behavior to...
, etc.), but 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 Trobrianders they express their lack of approval by poking fun at the miscreant rather than by officially condemning and punishing him." He also reports of the same tribe: "a man copulated with a dog, the names of both man and dog were house-hold words in the villages. The culprit, Moniyala, apparently lived down his shame. The subject... must never be mentioned in his presence, for, the natives say, if he heard anyone speaking about it he would commit lo'u [suicide]."
- Africa: Among the Maasai
The Maasai are an indigenous African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well known of African ethnic groups...
, it was customary for older boys to have sexual relations with she-asses. Young RiffianRiffian is a comune in the province of Bolzano-Bozen in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 70 km north of Trento and about 25 km northwest of Bolzano ....
boys (a MorrocanMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
tribe) also had sexual liaisons with female asses (Ford and Beach, 1951, pp. 147-148). Among the Tswana of AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, boys assigned to the care of cattle frequently engaged in zoosexual activity. It was also common in the GustiGusti may refer to:*Dimitrie Gusti was a Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and philosopher*Gusti Huber , an Austrian theater and film actress...
tribes and considered rather harmless, but boys were reprimanded and warned against this activity. The fishermen of the East African coast "from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean" are said to have had regular coitus with female dugongThe dugong is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's Sea Cow , was hunted to extinction in the 18th century...
carcasses.
- Middle East: Miner and DeVos (1960) comment that amongst Arab
Arab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
tribal cultures, "Bestiality with goats, sheep, or camels provides another outlet. These practices are not approved but they are recognized as common among boys." Havelock-Ellis [note 52] states "The Arabs, according to Kocher, chiefly practice bestiality with goats, sheep and mares. The Annamites, according to Mondiere, commonly employ sows and (more especially the young women) dogs."
- Native Americans: Such activity was also common among Native American
Native Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
tribes such as the HopiThe Hopi are American Indians people who primarily live on the 12,635 km² Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi Reservation is entirely surrounded by the much larger Navajo Reservation. The two nations used to share the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area...
Indians. Voget (1961:p99-100)describes the sexual lives of young Native Americans as "rather inclusive," including bestiality.
- Inuit: Ford & Beach mention the Copper Inuit
Copper Inuit are a Northern Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region and the Northwest Territories's Inuvik Region. Most historically lived in the area around Coronation Gulf, on Victoria Island, and southern Banks Island.Their western boundary was Wise...
(eskimoEskimos or Esquimaux are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska and Canada, and all of Greenland....
es), an offshoot of the Thule peopleThe Thule or proto-Inuit were the ancestors of all modern Inuit. They developed in coastal Alaska by AD 1000 and expanded eastwards across Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people of the earlier Dorset culture that had previously inhabited the region...
who used to live on the Coppermine RiverThe Coppermine River is a river in the North Slave and Kitikmeot regions of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada. It is long. It rises in Lac de Gras, a small lake near Great Slave Lake and flows generally north to Coronation Gulf, an arm of the Arctic Ocean...
and Coronation GulfCoronation Gulf lies between Victoria Island and mainland Nunavut in Canada. To the northwest it connects with Dolphin and Union Strait and thence the Arctic Ocean; to the northeast it connects with Dease Strait and thence Queen Maud Gulf. To the southeast lies Bathurst Inlet.Inside the gulf lies...
coast. These people apparently had "no aversion to intercourse with live or dead animals". Knud Rasmussen has recorded a myth of one InuitInuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska...
tribe: "There was once a woman who would not have a husband. Her family let dogs copulate with her. They took her out to an island, where the dogs then made her pregnant. After that she gave birth to white men. Before that there had been no white men."
c.1700 - 1950
The Age of Enlightenment took much that had been under the field of religion, and brought it under the field of science. As with
homosexualityHomosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
a variety of mixed views resulted which persisted through until around 1950, when researchers such as
Kinsey-People:*Alfred Kinsey, entomologist and sexologist**the Kinsey Reports, a pair of books on sexuality by Alfred Kinsey**the Kinsey scale of sexual orientation, invented by Alfred Kinsey, or person's orientation as measured on that scale, as in "Kinsey 6"...
followed by Masters began researching zoophilia on its own terms.
The view of this era might broadly be described as objectified. Sciences such as anthropology and study of the psyche were in their infancy, and classical belief, categorization, and the subject-object viewpoint of study had not yet been upset by 20th century thinkers. Subjects were often studied by
describing the objects of study in detail, and
categorizing them into hierarchies and families. Such categories and viewpoints were often subjectively based upon writers' impressions, rather than being as objective as their authors imagined them to be (this issue impacted other fields of human study too). Zoosexuality was no longer for the most part punished by religious execution; rather, like homosexuality, it was broadly treated as a sickness or deficiency in a person, or analysed as a behavior of a
social classSocial classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...
of person. Some early researchers made the intellectual leap of considering it as a sexual variation rather than a deficiency, but these were a minority. Psychology had not yet emerged as a field in its own right, so psychological fields were subsumed within
MedicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, and zoosexuality was documented by scientists as a medical phenomenon associated with more primitive or lower class people and races. Those who were neither were assumed to be examples of rare perversion or degeneracy. The clinical viewpoint by the early 20th century was oriented around early psychology's concept of non-sexual acts as symbolic or substitutional, after Freud. Both human and animal behavior (including sexuality) were seen psychologically through the twin light of
behaviorismBehaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things which organisms do — including acting, thinking and feeling — can and should be regarded as behaviors...
(
John WatsonJohn Broadus Watson is an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism, after doing research on animal behavior. He also conducted the controversial "Little Albert" experiment...
's influential view that science should reject the use of introspection in favor of stimulus-response as an explanation, and that the understanding of the conscious mind was not a valid goal of experimental psychology) and
determinismDeterminism is the view that every event, including human cognition, behavior, decision, and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. With numerous historical debates, many varieties and philosophical positions on the subject of determinism exist from...
(the view that there was no such thing as free-will in behavior).
Thus, in 1927, when British sexologist
Havelock EllisHenry Havelock Ellis was a British sexologist, physician, and social reformer.- Early life :Ellis, son of Edward Peppen Ellis and Susannah Mary Wheatley, was born in Croydon, then a small town south of London. His father was a sea captain, his mother the daughter of a sea captain, and many other...
wrote
Studies in the psychology of sex, science was still in the stage of describing and categorizing unusual sexual activities, largely according to researchers' preconceived notions or behaviorist observations, under a thin guise of objectivity:
Havelock-Ellis referenced Kraft-Ebbing's work
Psychopathia SexualisPsychopathia Sexualis may refer to:* Psychopathia Sexualis, a 1886 psychology book on sexuality by Richard von Krafft-Ebing, see Richard von Krafft-Ebing#Psychopathia Sexualis...
(1894) which recognized zoophilic voyeurism (watching animals mate), as "fall[ing] within the range of normal variation". He identified touch and emotional closeness producing "sexual excitement or gratification" as "a sexual fetishism" termed "erotic zoophilia". Kraft-Ebbing then divides zoosexual activity into "two divisions: one in which the individual is fairly normal, but belongs to a low grade of culture, the other in which he may belong to a more refined social class, but is affected by a deep degree of degeneration," (Kraft-Ebbing named these "bestiality" and "zooerasty" respectively, stating they were different in kind from erotic zoophilia). Havelock-Ellis' view was that:
- "Bestiality and zooerastia merely present in a more marked and profoundly perverted form a further degree of the same phenomenon which we meet with in erotic zoophilia; the difference is that they occur either in more insensitive or in more markedly degenerate persons [...] In seeking to comprehend this perversion it is necessary to divest ourselves of the attitude toward animals which is the inevitable outcome of refined civilization and urban life. Most sexual perversions, if not in large measure the actual outcome of civilized life, easily adjust themselves to it. Bestiality [with one exception] is, on the other hand, the sexual perversion of dull, insensitive and unfastidious persons. It flourishes among primitive peoples and among peasants. It is the vice of the clodhopper, unattractive to women..."
- The UK Offences Against The Person Act 1861 (repealed) brought the act within the realm of the criminal law, stating: "Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of buggery
The British English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It was also a specific criminal offence under the English common law.-In law:...
, committed either with mankind or with any animal, shall be liable ... to be kept in penal servitude for life ...." (In this law, the crossover from religious to civic law can be seen; the characterization as "abominableAbomination ; English term used to translate the Biblical Hebrew terms shiqquwts, and sheqets which are derived from shâqats, or the terms tōʻēḇā or to'ba or ta'ab...
" being a term carried over from Canonical law and Leviticus 18Leviticus 18 is a chapter of the Biblical book of Leviticus. It narrates part of the instructions given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. The chapter deals with a number of sexual activities considered 'unclean' or 'abominable'...
)
- Mirabeau, in the 18th century
The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini/Common Era numbering system.However, Western historians sometimes specifically define the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work...
, stated, on the evidence of Basque priests, that "all the shepherds in the Pyrenees practice bestiality". Mantegazza records (Gli Amori degli Uomini, ch. V) that a young ApennineApennine may refer to:*The Apennine Mountains*The Apennine or Italian peninsula*The archaeological Apennine culture*The lunar Montes Apenninus...
goatherd believed his dyspepsiaDyspepsia , popularly known as indigestion, meaning hard or difficult digestion, is a medical condition characterized by chronic or recurrent pain in the upper abdomen, upper abdominal fullness and feeling full earlier than expected when eating. It can be accompanied by bloating, belching, nausea...
and nervous symptoms stemmed from sexual congress with his animals. In 18th century South Italy and Sicily, "bestiality among goatherds and peasants is said to be almost a national custom by Bayle" (Dictionary, Bathyllus, cited by Havelock-Ellis as note 50). Warton was informed that in Sicily priests in confession used to habitually inquired of herdsmen if they had anything to do with their sows. In Normandy priests were advised to ask similar questions.
- Jonas Liliequist, a social historian at the University of Umeå in Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
, who has studied bestiality in Swedish history, observed the abundance of bestiality cases in Swedish courts during the 17th and 18th centuries (more than 1500), and the scarcity of cases of homosexual acts (appr. 20). He raises the question of whether this discrepancy had been because of a more tolerant attitude towards same sex intercourse than to intercourse between man and animal, or if it had been due to an even more severe taboo against homosexual acts.
Modern era
- In some countries, notably the Netherlands
The Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
, DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
, MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
, live sex shows between women and symbolically stud-like animals (pony, donkey, large dog) took place up until recently. They probably do continue albeit less visibly and fewer.
- "L'Etalon Doux" writes of French openness regarding zoosexuality in media and research, that "A certain acceptance of the sexual connotations of the beast has never been lost from ancient times as in other parts of the world. Even today you are much more likely to see an explicit scene of animals mating in a French erotic film than elsewhere... In 1991 a film appeared in France with a 'General Release' certificate which could only be described as 'Hard Core' animal mating complete with screen filling close-ups and slow motion ejaculations." (Also compare the almost brutally explicit and prolonged horse mating sequence in the Polish film director
A film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
BorowczykWalerian Borowczyk was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988.-Biography:...
's 1975 film "La bête" (The Beast)
- There was much speculation that Oliver the chimpanzee was a human/chimpanzee hybrid. However genetic and other tests later convincingly proved this unfounded, and that genetically he seemed an ordinary chimpanzee and showed no significant matches of any kind with human genetics. No hybrid has ever been verified to be genuine.
See also
- Humanzee
The humanzee is a hypothetical chimpanzee/human hybrid. Chimpanzees and humans are very closely related , leading to contested speculation that a hybrid is possible, though no specimen has ever been confirmed.-Etymology:In spite of the usual convention of...
- Zoophilia
Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία , is the practice of sex between humans and animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice. A person who practices zoophilia is known as a zoophile.Although sex with animals is not outlawed in some countries, it is not explicitly condoned anywhere...
- Anthrozoology
Anthrozoology is the study of human-animal interaction , also described as the science focusing on all aspects of the human-animal bond and a bridge between the natural and social sciences....
- Erotic art
Erotic art covers any artistic work that is intended to evoke erotic arousal or that depicts scenes of love-making. It includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, music and writing.-Definition:...
- History of sex
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 0856290416 LIC #62-12196
- Robson, Bestiality and Bestial Rape in Greek Myth, 1997, S. Deacy and K. F. Pearce (edd.), Rape in Antiquity, Duckworth, 65-96
- Illustrated Book of Sexual Records
- Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, Bestiality entry, at Humboldt University Berlin Sexology Dept
- 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, p90-109
Histories of zoophilia by non-zoophiles
- Dubois-Dessaule: Etude 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 1-4102-0947-4 (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.
- http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2269/zoohistory.html Source 1 - "Zoophilia and The Law -- History"
- http://internetdump.com/users/akita/zoo-history.html Source 2 - "Zoophilia / Bestiality and History"
- http://www.blasderobles.com/Varia/Kircher/legal2.htm 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
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
either as web pages or on zoophile newsgroupA usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
s.
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 2738421466
- Bronislaw Malinowski:
The Trobriand Islands (1915)
The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia (1929)
Art
- Museum of bestial art an online museum of zoophilic representation in art (You need to click on "Map" to access the site)