History Of Prostitution
The Prostitution (from Latin prostituere put forward, exposing the public) is an activity consisting in accepting or obtaining sexual relations in exchange for remuneration. Although this activity is practiced by members of both sexes, it is most often done by women, but it also affects men in prostitution, heterosexual, homosexual, transvestite or transsexual. The generic term is prostitute (e). This article discusses the history of prostitution.
Summary |
Antiquity
The "sacred prostitution"
Mesopotamia
Jean Bottero is one of the few historians to have questioned the origins of the Mesopotamia prostitution in his book . The presence of sacred prostitutes in Genesis XXXVIII with the story of Tamar and Deuteronomy XXIII: 18 hints at the presence of such practices .
World India
The Indian world has also its sacred prostitute, the Devadasi.
The constitution of a dowry
In many ancient societies, this was the case for example in society Etruscan , prostitution is not frowned upon and was to free women a source of income to provide a dowry and gain access to marriage which was a Searched status, much to the indignation of the Greeks who thus reproached to the Etruscans of promiscuity of their wives.
In the Greek world
In Greece , in Athens , is attributed to Solon , the founding father of the republic, the sixth century BC. AD , the creation in all areas of the city of municipal facilities: the offer and sale of body are held in public places, strictly separated from the private (oikos, home) and considered marketing areas, areas that turn humans into products. Could quickly open up private schools, subject to authorization and owe taxes.
In Greek society, the most misogynistic of antiquity , who keeps his women in the women's quarters , prostitutes are usually slaves , but may be young men or women who have lost parents or guardians and left without resources. Those who are not home must solicit their customers: the ports are their favorite hunting grounds and each arriving boat sees influx of prostitutes from select bosses or rich merchants. At Corinth , for example, a thriving city, the temple of Aphrodite has over 1000 prostitutes. Moreover, the courtesans , literally, "buddies, girlfriends, prostitutes are free, freed slaves, who provided a distraction intellectual, cultural , sexual, but also to the aristocracy. Aspasia ( fifth century BC. J.-C . ) scandalous lover Pericles , is a figure.
Rome
At Rome , as elsewhere in the Mediterranean, who have slaves can use it as they wish since the slave is private property. The slave woman is also excluded from the scope of the laws on adultery, her partner can not accuse her lover to be the master or a third party. Moreover, laws condemn teachers who prostitute their slaves are so inefficient that they will often be reproclames of I. to IV century , as well as laws equating the adulterous sexual relations between master and slave.
However, prostitution has flourished in Rome when it comes in many forms: the prostitutes are in the house indicated by lighted candles during business hours , in hostels , in boxes or in the street before the arcades (called fornix where the term fornication ) as the front doors of their homes.
Very early, in the second century BC. AD , they are listed in a registry special and must have a license to practice. Civilly, they are subject to indignities. Their condition varies from the most wretched slaves, courtesans and courtiers of luxury services bribes to be very expensive. Their herd is renewed by the slave trade fueled by the wars and piracy : at Delos , 10 000 slaves were sold each day in the empire and they are tens of thousands of children and adolescents who supply each market this year fun.
The ruins of a brothel in Pompeii attest to the practice of prostitution in ancient Rome. The profession, considered degrading, however, was lawful , sexuality is not restricted in antiquity as it has become the world Christianized. It is difficult to have a single image of prostitution in the Roman era. The pandering , lenocinium, was often the subject of prohibition and punishment. Nevertheless, the presence of prostitutes, Lenon, attests to the contrary. The emperor even tax the occupation to increase state revenues. Although tolerated, the practice was not without risks. A papyrus of the fourth century tells a suit between an old woman who delivered her daughter into prostitution and the murderer of the latter in which she sought relief. Some times when the adultery was punishable by death have seen the ladies of high society inscribe on the register of prostitutes to avoid conviction.
The Hebrews
For their part, the Hebrews of the Bible institute a monotheism which, by nature, not specific rites different gods, including sacred prostitution. Prostitution is forbidden to ordinary women of the Hebrew people, but allowed for foreign. In fact, this prohibition operates through a shell game going on, because is not called "prostitute" the woman cons her father lends money, but only the woman who is under the authority of a man and without its approval, sells or gives its charms. It is the diversion of many a householder who is banned, not the sex trade, and the Middle East , a father can monetize the services of her daughter as soon as it was three.
The Bible shows that men have easy recourse to prostitutes (Genesis 38.15), while the books of wisdom vied to repeat the advice to avoid those that you take in their nets to rob you of all your assets. The recommendations are a matter of prudence, not of respect for persons, and the prostitute is a well present in the world of the Bible.
Christianity Old
The Jesus of the Gospels has a very personal approach that deals with prostitutes friendly and gives an example of faith: "Verily I say unto you, the publicans and prostitutes before you arrive in the kingdom of God "(Matthew 21.31). The prostitute is guilty of a serious moral wrong, but it can be saved by faith.
Subsequently, the Christian tradition considers prostitution as a lesser evil. The Fathers of the Church bear witness, of Augustine of Hippo in the fourth century who believes it is natural and helps protect the honorable women and girls of desire for men until Thomas Aquinas in XIII century , which concludes is necessary to society as the toilets in a house: it smells bad, but it (s) is everywhere in the house that feel bad. Prostitution is also so natural that, for many theologians , it is preferable for a woman to shoot her husband rather than consent to certain sex seen, them, as serious sins.
In the family, the Eastern custom of offering the slaves of the house for overnight guests is a sign of hospitality.
In Saudi
In pre-Islamic era, the repudiation of a wife by her husband left her without rights and without recourse. Effect of Women's time, a married man in his own way and at the same time the number of women he wanted, and often depended on him to survive in the same way, it could also repudiate all that it wanted without having to vital legal obligations vis--vis them.
Fast enough, these women found themselves divorced in misery. When they did not fall into slavery in the strict sense of the word, they were engaged in prostitution. To attract attention, they often bare-chested, like the sacred prostitutes, known in Mesopotamia and India , regions with which the Arabian Peninsula traded and had intense cultural and human exchanges.
The places where prostitution was practiced were marked with a red flag, hence the name of "women's flags." When a prostitute gave birth to a child, a woman physiognomist qafah indicated that men were like the child and attributed to him. If it was a child we had not assigned, the owner of the prostitute is attributed and traded. But in days to come the emergence of Islam changed things for religion condemned prostitution as a sin.
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages , those responsible for public order, municipalities , lay or ecclesiastical lords ( bishops , abbots and Pope ), gradually organizing prostitution, already from the twelfth century , and especially from the fourteenth century , drawing financial gain. There are even brothels owned by monasteries or chapters. Prostitution is still considered as natural, as a lesser evil. In northern Italy , the authorities explain that even the recruitment of prostitutes attractive will convince young people to turn away from the homosexuality. Cities and towns officially open houses of prostitution or municipal designate areas of the city, usually its suburbs, where prostitution is tolerated.
The regulations cover:
- restrictions on freedoms of prostitutes (travel, dating, clothes);
- the days and hours of mandatory closing of houses;
- financial and other relationships between managers and their staff home, first, the authorities or the other.
Is often specified the nature of clients: many houses can theoretically receive no married men, the priests and the Jews. The holding of the prostitute must be distinct from that of other women so that they are unlikely to be bothered wrongly. The spirit of the regulations is not to protect the prostitutes against violence and exploitation: the perspective of the lesser evil, these women are sacrificed for the greater good of public order. Often, indeed, is the persistence of rape by gangs who bring municipalities to the question of organizing prostitution in order to channel the sexual aggression of men. For these women "lost", the ideal would be completed after a time their duties, they repent, and save their souls, like Mary Magdalene , referring to the word of Jesus. In the spirit of the times, prostitutes are not marginalized, but well integrated into a society where they have their role to play. In fables , sometimes ribald, Middle Ages, the prostitutes are complicit other women and help them to avenge the alleged seducers. The Cathedral of Chartres was also a window that was offered by prostitutes in the same way as other windows were offered by the corporation of bakers or hucksters.
The prostitutes are for financial reasons, because they are destitute for one reason or another: this is the case for the foreign city, migrant from the countryside, girls are excluded from the marriage system because that they were raped because they are pregnant and handmaidens hunted because they are widowed or abandoned. But there is also a less miserable prostitution, women who are quietly at home for people of good condition, and that the neighborhood more or less well tolerated.
Sexual practices, for what we can learn, seem to be commonly oral, anal, and manual interfemoral, women fleeing the reasons for vaginal contraceptive.
Prostitution during the medieval period is the subject of unequal treatment. The city of Marseille , in itself, presents more of a reversal of its regulations that will ban the most severe complacency through taxation authorities. Thomas Aquinas thought that by deleting prostitution The uncontrollable desire of men could threaten the rest of society and good women, particularly their relationship. Tullia of Aragon and Rosa Vanozza were high figures of this time, becoming the last thirty years the acknowledged mistress of Pope Alexander VI and giving him four children. An order of St. Mary Magdalene was established for the rehabilitation of prostitutes. Their reputation is poor, however, Joan of Arc , for example, drove the whores who followed his army. Prostitutes were often the companions of soldiers.
From the middle of the sixteenth century , the tendency to organize prostitution is reversed and the closing of the houses are spreading throughout the Europe , in countries such as reformed in Catholic countries. In France , the order of proscription date of 1560. From that time, prostitution will be hunted, but the shares will be more or less severe and more or less persistent, at various times, the trend will continue: they simply adapt and thrive in the underground.
Modern
From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century , the modern period is marked by the will to fight against prostitution. Sometimes the measures are aimed its eradication, through imprisonment or banishment. But many of these are quickly forgotten or not enforced. Some behaviors are new: open asylums for penitent women, that will soon join those that are considered at risk of falling into prostitution because poor and unmarried. Specific orders to admit that even the pretty girls, ugly "not to fear for their honor." The England , then the Spanish , creating such institutions. In 1658 , Louis XIV ordered to imprison the Salpetriere all women convicted of prostitution, fornication or adultery, until the priests or religious leaders believe they have repented and changed. It was the first time in Europe that the prison serves as a punishment: it was previously used only to keep the accused until trial or sentenced up to their departure for exile or prison.
The England began to deport the Caribbean girls in closed houses: they are 400 homes after the closure of London in 1650 with an estimated 10,000 of those who join forces the America of 1700 to 1780. The European aristocracy seems particularly violent in the way of living sexuality and, unlike the Middle Ages, it was for centuries the stories of brutality in establishments where orgies , beatings, whipping , corruption of minors are common. Society as a whole is characterized by sexual violence and, in the countryside as in cities, gangs attacking single women for gang rape accompanied by beatings.
In the Austrian Netherlands, the Church takes a more prominent place in social life and tends to punish those who act contrary to morality. Unlike today, prostitution concerned primarily women who performed in public in front of men, with or without intercourse. It is important to note that the concept of money does not make sense to give a definition of prostitution in modern times, reports are either free or paid. Prostitution was primarily a crime against morality. Although the Middle Ages the authorities turn a blind eye to this practice, they tried to channel it with actions and in well-defined throughout the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Note that the measurements become much more severe from the seventeenth century. According to historians and Nanouche Monballyu Jos Heeren, this is due to "(...) gentrification, and that accompanies prudishness (...)". In Brussels, until the late sixteenth century, prostitution was taking place more or less freely in several districts. However, city authorities were forced to limit it to two streets and prohibiting the solicitation as the phenomenon has grown. Prostitutes who do not respect these rules were imprisoned, placed on the scaffold, flogged or even banned, what is general in most cities in the Netherlands. The humiliation was for the aldermen an effective way to fight against these atrocities. However, the results were rather poor. Women banned returned through another door and those who had more honor attached no importance to the humiliation. The same fate was reserved for the brothel owners, even if they also had to pay a fine. This is why the city of Brussels created the mid-seventeenth century a "Cruyscapelle" designed to trap women lgres1 manners. Practice that it was locking up prostitutes in a cage in the public square so that passers make the turn, as is the case in Amsterdam, was quickly dismissed by the magistrate of the city because they found this measure too indecent, not confined to the prostitute, but for disturbing public order due to the behavior of them after this chtiment2.
The role played by the Church and particularly ambiguous. On the one hand, and that from St. Augustine, she sees prostitution as a necessary evil that can not be removed under penalty of a company to have other ailments. On the other hand, by its moral obligation, it represses using his ecclesiastical courts, not the prostitutes, pimps and other tenants on behalf of conjugal morality. In the Archdiocese of Mechelen, which depends in particular the city of Brussels, the Archbishop had the right to ban people, which he did repeatedly when pimping became too noisy and disturbing in a quartier3. However, we note that the various authorities remained very lax compared to many complaints by the parish priests of the capital, especially those of Brittany, their request was not followed because it was exaggerated because the Prostitution was seen as an evil necessary4.
There are three types of prostitutes to highlight. First, there are the courtesans who work for themselves and caring for customers exclusively rich. Then there are the prostitutes working in brothels. They rented a room to tenants, often a couple who cared so to feed and lodge against the gift of his body. Often, the husband looked after the hostel while she was preparing the rooms and prostitutes. The madam was often a former prostitute who was too old to do his job. She and her husband also took advantage of their children for work in brothels for any tche5. The third group is women who worked in the street. It was often either poor women living in most cases of venereal disease who needed a second income, or women trying to steal customers. Unlike the first group, they were exploited by a pimp to whom they were submitted. When the brothels were full of customers, tenants sometimes down the street to take those who were in the parages6.
The growing number of prostitutes is probably due to the depletion of the population. In Brussels, prostitution was an alternative for the unemployed but also to those who lived in the textile trade because these industries are declining constantly since the eighteenth century. Just add the figure in most of rural women who come to town hoping to shake off their very lives prcaire7. However, we note that most of the prostitutes who work in Brussels are from the city. Even if more arrests of foreign, that does not mean there are more women who come from outside the city, but rather that the police are more strict with them because harm the image and public policy, but mainly because the capital is experiencing a growing number of prostitutes from all provinces. In addition, these women come to Brussels to escape their misery and do not know specifically local customs, making more than to live miserably, they are difficult to manage on the places they frequent, or in the manner 'accost passants8.
The clientele of brothels was very diverse. All social strata, masons people of good family, side by side, both married men than young singles. The matchmakers played with all their art to take these men in places of lust. Some were even stealing the hat of their victim to force him to go into hostels and take advantage of its money through words and gestures affriolants9.
The prostitutes are punished the same way as other vagrants or criminals of society of the ancien regime. That is to say, first, they receive preferential treatment if they are good family and secondly that their punishment will be heavier if they come from lower strata of society. In the former prostitutes are more confined in convents, in the other they will be humiliated in a public place to be then be incarcerated or bannies10. In the case of the city of Brussels, the order of Mary Elizabeth, dated 18 August 1732 gives us an idea of the practice. The amman11 Brussels, Baron Reynegom, had made the request to the Privy Council to punish prostitutes as was the case in Holland. They had to be locked in a cage and turn the crowd. But this is denied by the housekeeper because too useless. It therefore ordered that the daughters of debauchery are exposed to public shame, tied to a stake on a scaffold with an iron collar, holding a sign that explains the crime. This form of repression is highly similar to that used for vagrants. The ordinance encourages another punishment for girls from good families who are privileged. They are cocooned in a sort of convent, St. Croix home or "Cruyshuys" in Hidden from view, so as not to impair the reputation of their families.12.
We thus see increased collaboration between the state, cities and religious authorities to fight against prostitution throughout the eighteenth century. But this phenomenon is not significant for the entire period. In fact, according to Josef de Brouwer, the eighteenth century was strongly influenced by regimes "anticlerical," where the king's image as defender of the Church is "sold out" against a decline of ecclesiastical power in favor of the sovereign. So Charles VI prohibits bishops from 1723 to exercise temporal power. This trend continues to grow throughout the Austrian period and culminated in the reign of Joseph II, which accounts for all property and powers of the Church. The right of the sovereign takes precedence over ecclesiastical authority and that of cities. These so jealous of all the losses of land and therefore strive to retain and exercise the privileges they are scarce, thus causing rivalries eux13.
In that order we also find that the image of the prostitute has deteriorated sharply during all Modern Times. En effet, alors qu'au Moyen ge elles taient respectes si elles se conduisaient comme des femmes respectables, l'autorit de plus en plus importante accorde au pouvoir central jusqu'au XVIIIe sicle entrane une vision de la prostitue comme criminelle coupable de dsordre dans l'ordre public, elle est humilie et juge par toute la socit. La prostitution devient donc un phnomne marginal qu'il faut cacher aux yeux de tous14. Cependant, vers la fin du XVIIIe sicle, les lites se sensibilisent ce problme et s'en crent une vritable admiration de libertinage et de plaisir, ce qui confrera la socit du XIXe sicle un double regard contradictoire sur la prostitution15.
Cette volont de cadrer et de rprimer les prostitues est due notamment la peur que la dbauche entrane. En effet, le magistrat urbain tout comme les religieux ont une peur exacerbe du pch, dont la sexualit est l'un des plus importants16. Ils voyaient dans le plaisir de la chair un retour la bestialit tant hae par les modernes, que la relation soit conjugale ou extra-conjugale. Commettre ce pch est directement synonyme de descente en Enfer. Le corps de la femme fait donc peur, c'est un agent de Satan qui pousse au pch. La femme est dangereuse pour l'homme, elle veille en lui des sentiments ambigus, entre admiration et rpulsion. Elle est mystrieuse et cache ses secrets l'abri et les met en uvre pour faire ce dont elle a envie17. D'un ct, depuis l'antiquit, l'homme voit la femme l'image d'une Nature qui enfante et protge ses petits. Mais peu peu avec l'avnement de la science, les scientifiques dcouvrent une Nature qui peut dtruire, qui peut tre sauvage. La femme est donc diabolise l'image de la Nature dont on a peur18. Les femmes du peuple sont dcrites comme proche de l'animal en mettant en valeur le ct violent et impulsif19. Nous le voyons donc, la socit est trs influence par la religion catholique. Cependant, celle-ci ne fait pas que rejeter la sexualit. Il est normal que les couples aient une vie sexuelle, en y incorporant mme du plaisir. Mais elle doit rester mesure et ne pas tre excessive, tant par l'activit que par les diffrentes positions. C'est donc l'excs qui est condamn, pas les relations sexuelles normales au sein d'un couple. Ajoutons que l'adultre, mme s'il s'agit d'un affront la morale sociale, est bien plus frquent chez les hommes que chez les femmes bien que certains thologiens comme Franois de Sale trouvent a anormal que l'homme empche son pouse de le tromper or que lui n'hsite pas le faire. Outre les contraintes institutionnelles qu'elle impose, le caractre dcadent de la sexualit est galement ancre dans les murs. La dcence est le mot d'or de la socit moderne. L'historien Marcel Bernos met en valeur le fait qu'il ne faut pas voir des aspects exclusivement ngatifs de ces rgles. Elles ont, selon lui, contribu mettre fin aux mariages des filles trop jeunes qui taient peine pubres20.
la veille de la Rvolution franaise , on value 30 000 les simples prostitues de Paris et 10 000 les prostitues de luxe ; Londres , elles seraient 50 000, ce qui est une preuve de l'chec des mesures de rpression.
Contemporary Period
Du 15 au 17 octobre 2005 a eu lieu une confrence europenne de prostitues Bruxelles qui a dbouch sur la rdaction d'un manifeste et d'une dclaration des droits des travailleurs du sexe.
Notes
- Rfrence:Msopotamie : l'criture, la raison et les dieux (Jean Bottro)
- Deuxime livre des rois .org / wiki / Two% C3% A8me_livre_des_Rois Deuxi.C3.A8me_livre_des_Rois_23 # "class =" extiw "alt =" s: The Second Book of Kings "> 23:4 et seq.
- Johanna Stuckey, " Sacred Prostitutes "Matrifocus, accessed August 11, 2010
- Brothels Issue Two thousand years of history on France Inter 20 October 2010
See also
Related articles
External Links
- (En) The grisettes in Paris (1832) by Ernest Desprez.
Bibliography
- Regis Revenin, Homosexuality and male prostitution in Paris, 1870-1918, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2005, 225 p.
- Rossiaud Jacques, Medieval Prostitution, Flammarion, 1988.
- Michel Foucault , History of Madness, Gallimard, 1961.
- Erica-Marie Benabou , La Prostitution and morality police in the eighteenth century, Perrin, 1987.
- Alain Corbin , Les Filles de noce. Sexual misery and prostitution in the nineteenth century, Aubier, Paris, 1978.
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