Tabu Homosexualität
Encyclopedia
Tabu Homosexualität: Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils is a standard work of Germanophone research into homophobia
, written by German sociologist, ethnologist, and sexologist Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg
, and first published in 1978.
, Marija Gimbutas
, and Michel Foucault
, she conducted sociological research on homophobia and homosexuality, and translated priorly unavailable or neglected artifacts and records from dead languages for the first time.
In spite of not having been translated into any other language as of 2008, since its first publication Tabu Homosexualität remains treated and quoted as a standard source internationally as well. As of 2008, it is found in a number of Western European libraries, and in the US is even available in libraries in 13 different states.
In order to give an idea of the old age of negative prejudices directed against same-sex activities in the West, in Chapter I, Alte Nachrichten über die ethische Bewertung der männlichen Homosexualität bei germanischen Stämmen ("Ancient sources on the ethical evaluation of male homosexuality by Germanic tribes"), Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg mainly discusses many ancient European writers (mostly Greek and Roman) denouncingly accusing other tribes and nations across Europe as tolerant towards same-sex activities as was a common form of slander in Classical Antiquity, the absurdity of which is emphasized by the fact that writers of accused groups often accused the accuser's nation of the same thing even if ignorant of the original accusation hauled towards themselves. Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg thereby also demonstrates the strong numinous
taboo regarding same-sex activities making them a near-unmentionable vice, as no rational explanation for this ostracization is ever provided, these activities are invariably depicted as negative in themselves.
Only three exceptions are mentioned where the purpose of slander is not immediately obvious: Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus
in the third volume of his Outlines of Pyrrhonism mentioned a tribe of Karmans among whom "lewdness between men [...], as is said, is not regarded as abominable but just like any ordinary thing". Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg identifies it as one of many examples of Sextus Empiricus's often-used rhethoric device of applying the most absurd properties to people, places, and other objects simply for the purpose of demonstrating basic rules of logic. The second exception is a note by Posidonius
, quoted in Diodorus Siculus
's Bibliotheca historica
, on Celtic sleeping customs which Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg attributes to a misunderstanding of traditional separation of the sexes in daily life.
The third is an analysis of the common modern scholarly debate around the ritual killing of criminals regarded as altogether ignavi et imbellis et corpore infames ("cowardly, unbelligerent, and perverted") by proto-historic Germanics
as mentioned by Tacitus
in his Germania
, whereupon Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg first remarks that the complex issue of common Western homophobia as apparent in the presented material must be analyzed at a wider, more interdisciplinarian scope.
Its roots and cultural elements can be traced back several millennia into Eurasian culture, and were originally based on the subsequent overlapping and conflict-ridden superimposition of the three basic ethnic and cultural strata
(see stratification (archeology)
, social stratification
, and archaeological horizon) underlying all modern Indo-European cultures. These three successive strata were the following:
See also Three-age system
. Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg interprets these three strata as relating to the trifunctional hypothesis
by Georges Dumézil
, of classic Indo-European society consisting of three distinct classes, clerical (= Shamanic), agricultural, and warrior. Yet other than Dumézil, Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg does not regard all three of these components as genuinely Indo-European or Proto-Indo-European. Instead, in regard of the Kurgan hypothesis
and what Gimbutas saw as "Old Europe", Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg considers these three components as the result of successive superimposition of what originally were the above-mentioned three different cultures, with Indo-European culture in Europe and the Middle East since the Iron Age as the result. See Proto-Indo-European society
for details.
The immediate cause of Indo-European homophobia, misogyny, and patriarchy was an ethnocentric culture shock when Proto-Indo-European tribes encountered the highly sensual Maternal Megalith Culture in general, and particularly last traces of Shamanic ritual transvestism and sex change absorbed within this culture. In proto-historic Norse culture for instance, the resulting religious stratification
emerged as the cultural strata of the subdued and marginalized Maternal Megalith Culture and the subsequently dominant Indo-European influence respectively transformed into maternal, fertility Vanir
and belligerent, patriarchal Æsir
religion, with the mythological Æsir-Vanir War
as a distorted cultural memory of Europe's Indo-Europeanization, similar to the story of The Rape of the Sabine Women
in ancient Italy potentially recalling the same proto-historical process.
(1989), Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg further chronicles the re-enforcing influence of Western colonialism
when Indo-European cultures began globally expanding from the Age of Discovery
and Age of Conquests on, thus explorers and conquerors again came upon Shamanic cultures partly involving ritual fertility and sexual cults, and Europe simultaneously encountered the wide spread of syphilis
through these new cross-cultural contacts just when modern science began to dawn.
These processes also fostered ethnocentric beliefs of Indo-European moral superiority over "uncivilized", sensual, and "filthy" "savages" (see for instance the saying of the White man's burden of being morally obliged to "civilize" non-Westerners), social and ethnic "aliens", and marginalized minorities in a complex process of interior socio-psychological, cultural structuring of human sensual desires on the one hand, and foreign political and military colonialism of these desires on the other hand. Thus, in all three books (Tabu Homosexualität, Mannbarkeitsriten, and Angst und Vorurteil) Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg alludes to cultural anthropology works such as The Origins of Totalitarianism
by Hannah Arendt
, Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents
, Herbert Marcuse
's Eros and Civilization
, Critical Theory's Dialectic of Enlightenment
and The Authoritarian Personality
, or The Civilizing Process
by Norbert Elias
.
Finally, as Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg relates in Angst und Vorurteil, just as colonialism and the rise of syphilis had compromised the scientific Enlightenment
approach to sexuality, the impact of HIV
corrupted post-WWII progressive counterculture
's influence on Western society's attitudes towards sexuality.
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
, written by German sociologist, ethnologist, and sexologist Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg
Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg
Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg , M. A., Ph.D., is a German sociologist, ethnologist, sexologist, and writer further specializing into the fields of psychology, Indo-European studies, religious studies, and philosophy, since 1980 also increasingly anthropology...
, and first published in 1978.
Background
Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg used the better part of the 1970s in order to complete Tabu Homosexualität: Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils (reprinted in 1981, then leaving out the word Tabu from its title) as beside drawing from scholars such as Mircea EliadeMircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
, Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas , was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological...
, and Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, she conducted sociological research on homophobia and homosexuality, and translated priorly unavailable or neglected artifacts and records from dead languages for the first time.
Authority
Tabu Homosexualität is considered a foundational standard work in Germanophone research into homophobia, misogyny, patriarchy, general repression of sensuality and particularly repression of sexual deviance (Leibfeindlichkeit). As recently as 2007, the Berlin Department of Education (Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung) officially recommended use of the book in high schools as part of homophobia awareness trainings in social studies classes.In spite of not having been translated into any other language as of 2008, since its first publication Tabu Homosexualität remains treated and quoted as a standard source internationally as well. As of 2008, it is found in a number of Western European libraries, and in the US is even available in libraries in 13 different states.
Introducing chapters
In the prefacing Einführung, Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg deals with the post-WWII mitigation of German laws forbidding same-sex activities, and her motivations for researching the issue of homophobia, an undertaking whereupon she came upon increasingly earlier and earlier manifestations each inspiring countless cultural derivations of this hatred.In order to give an idea of the old age of negative prejudices directed against same-sex activities in the West, in Chapter I, Alte Nachrichten über die ethische Bewertung der männlichen Homosexualität bei germanischen Stämmen ("Ancient sources on the ethical evaluation of male homosexuality by Germanic tribes"), Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg mainly discusses many ancient European writers (mostly Greek and Roman) denouncingly accusing other tribes and nations across Europe as tolerant towards same-sex activities as was a common form of slander in Classical Antiquity, the absurdity of which is emphasized by the fact that writers of accused groups often accused the accuser's nation of the same thing even if ignorant of the original accusation hauled towards themselves. Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg thereby also demonstrates the strong numinous
Numinous
Numinous is an English adjective describing the power or presence of a divinity. The word was popularised in the early twentieth century by the German theologian Rudolf Otto in his influential book Das Heilige...
taboo regarding same-sex activities making them a near-unmentionable vice, as no rational explanation for this ostracization is ever provided, these activities are invariably depicted as negative in themselves.
Only three exceptions are mentioned where the purpose of slander is not immediately obvious: Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....
in the third volume of his Outlines of Pyrrhonism mentioned a tribe of Karmans among whom "lewdness between men [...], as is said, is not regarded as abominable but just like any ordinary thing". Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg identifies it as one of many examples of Sextus Empiricus's often-used rhethoric device of applying the most absurd properties to people, places, and other objects simply for the purpose of demonstrating basic rules of logic. The second exception is a note by Posidonius
Posidonius
Posidonius "of Apameia" or "of Rhodes" , was a Greek Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher native to Apamea, Syria. He was acclaimed as the greatest polymath of his age...
, quoted in Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
's Bibliotheca historica
Bibliotheca historica
Bibliotheca historica , is a work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, and describe the history and culture of Egypt , of Mesopotamia, India, Scythia, and Arabia , of North...
, on Celtic sleeping customs which Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg attributes to a misunderstanding of traditional separation of the sexes in daily life.
The third is an analysis of the common modern scholarly debate around the ritual killing of criminals regarded as altogether ignavi et imbellis et corpore infames ("cowardly, unbelligerent, and perverted") by proto-historic Germanics
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
as mentioned by Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
in his Germania
Germania (book)
The Germania , written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus around 98, is an ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire.-Contents:...
, whereupon Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg first remarks that the complex issue of common Western homophobia as apparent in the presented material must be analyzed at a wider, more interdisciplinarian scope.
Ethnic and cultural background: The Three Strata of Indo-European society
According to Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg's socio-psychological, socio-historical interdisciplinary approach to the topic of homophobia, drawing from research fields such as cultural studies, religious studies, ethnology, philology, and linguistics, the ethnocentric prejudice towards particularly male same-sex attraction and activities in the history of Western, Indo-European cultures is intrinsically identical to misogyny, thus originally gave rise to, and until the modern age maintained, patriarchal structures of Indo-European society.Its roots and cultural elements can be traced back several millennia into Eurasian culture, and were originally based on the subsequent overlapping and conflict-ridden superimposition of the three basic ethnic and cultural strata
Stratum
In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
(see stratification (archeology)
Stratification (archeology)
Stratification is a paramount and base concept in archaeology, especially in the course of excavation. It is largely based on the Law of Superposition...
, social stratification
Social stratification
In sociology the social stratification is a concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions."...
, and archaeological horizon) underlying all modern Indo-European cultures. These three successive strata were the following:
- The Stone Age Subarctic Shamanic Culture of the last glacial period (called Würm regarding the Alps region, Weichsel regarding Scandinavia, and Devensian regarding the British Isles) ending c. 9,000 BCE,
- the Maternal Megalith Culture of European and Middle East Bronze AgeBronze AgeThe Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, introducing farming and practicing fertility cultsFertility riteFertility rites are religious rituals that reenact, either actually or symbolically, sexual acts and/or reproductive processes: 'sexual intoxication is a typical component of the...rites of the various functional gods who control reproduction, whether of man, beast, cattle, or grains of seed'..They...
including sexual rites (c. 9.000 BCE to c. 3.000 BCE; roughly equivalent to Gimbutas's "Old Europe"), - and the violent West-bound conquest of these regions by belligerent Proto-Indo-European tribes from Asia (see Bronze Age collapseBronze Age collapseThe Bronze Age collapse is a transition in southwestern Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age that some historians believe was violent, sudden and culturally disruptive...
, Kurgan hypothesisKurgan hypothesisThe Kurgan hypothesis is one of the proposals about early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" in the Pontic steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language...
, and %C3%86sir-Vanir War#Theories), beginning around the end of the fourth millennium BCE, introducing domestication of animals (particularly horses for purposes of work, mobility, and especially warfare) and cattle breeding, and initiating the Indo-European Iron AgeIron AgeThe Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
in Europe and the Middle East.
See also Three-age system
Three-age system
The three-age system in archaeology and physical anthropology is the periodization of human prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective tool-making technologies:* The Stone Age* The Bronze Age* The Iron Age-Origin:...
. Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg interprets these three strata as relating to the trifunctional hypothesis
Trifunctional hypothesis
The trifunctional hypothesis of prehistoric Proto-Indo-European society postulates a tripartite ideology reflected in the existence of three classes or castes—priests, warriors, and commoners —corresponding to the three functions of the sacral, the martial and the economic, respectively...
by Georges Dumézil
Georges Dumézil
Georges Dumézil was a French comparative philologist best known for his analysis of sovereignty and power in Proto-Indo-European religion and society...
, of classic Indo-European society consisting of three distinct classes, clerical (= Shamanic), agricultural, and warrior. Yet other than Dumézil, Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg does not regard all three of these components as genuinely Indo-European or Proto-Indo-European. Instead, in regard of the Kurgan hypothesis
Kurgan hypothesis
The Kurgan hypothesis is one of the proposals about early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" in the Pontic steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language...
and what Gimbutas saw as "Old Europe", Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg considers these three components as the result of successive superimposition of what originally were the above-mentioned three different cultures, with Indo-European culture in Europe and the Middle East since the Iron Age as the result. See Proto-Indo-European society
Proto-Indo-European society
Proto-Indo-European refers to the single ancestor language common to all Indo-European languages. It is therefore a linguistic concept, not an ethnic, social or cultural one, so there is no direct evidence of the nature of Proto-Indo-European 'society'. Much depends on the unsettled Indo-European...
for details.
The immediate cause of Indo-European homophobia, misogyny, and patriarchy was an ethnocentric culture shock when Proto-Indo-European tribes encountered the highly sensual Maternal Megalith Culture in general, and particularly last traces of Shamanic ritual transvestism and sex change absorbed within this culture. In proto-historic Norse culture for instance, the resulting religious stratification
Religious stratification
Religious stratification is the division of a society into hierarchical layers on the premise of religious beliefs, affiliation, or faith practices.According to Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E...
emerged as the cultural strata of the subdued and marginalized Maternal Megalith Culture and the subsequently dominant Indo-European influence respectively transformed into maternal, fertility Vanir
Vanir
In Norse mythology, the Vanir are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods and are the namesake of the location Vanaheimr . After the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir became a subgroup of the Æsir...
and belligerent, patriarchal Æsir
Æsir
In Old Norse, áss is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in Norse paganism. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir...
religion, with the mythological Æsir-Vanir War
Æsir-Vanir War
In Norse mythology, the Æsir–Vanir War was a war that occurred between the Æsir and the Vanir, two groups of gods. The war ultimately resulted in the unification of the two tribes into a single tribe of gods...
as a distorted cultural memory of Europe's Indo-Europeanization, similar to the story of The Rape of the Sabine Women
The Rape of the Sabine Women
The Rape of the Sabine Women is an episode in the legendary history of Rome in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families. The English word "rape" is a conventional translation of Latin raptio, which in this context means "abduction"...
in ancient Italy potentially recalling the same proto-historical process.
Subsequent derivations within Indo-European societies
From there, Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg traces the genesis of homophobia via a number of historical derivations which exhibited increasing levels of rationalization:- Chapter IV, Interdependenzen zwischen religiösen Werten und sozialen Normen bei den Germanen ("Interdependencies between religious values and social norms in Germanic culture"): Within subsequently dominant Indo-European culture, the originally highly regarded Shamanic priest of the subdued and marginalized Maternal Megalith Culture was ethnocentrically re-interpreted as an evil figure, and the former fertility rites as evil lewd magic. The least rationalized version of the resultant negative archetype of a lewd, non-human freak as apparent in sufficiently surviving artifacts and records is to be found in Norse sources, as the mythological, demonic nithingNíðIn historical Germanic society, nīþ ; was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honour and the status of a villain. A person affected with the stigma is a nīðing ....
creature. Due to this lack of rationalization of the archetype's Norse version, it is the most pure, primordial version available to modern research, and the attributes of the nithing are thus the most easily identifiable among all the archetype's local variations as a negative ethnocentric, mythological re-interpretation of the Maternal Megalith Culture stratum under the circumstances of Indo-European cultural dominance. As explained in further chapters, this socio-cultural archetype of an evil, lewd non-human freak became a profound influence for every aspect about ubiquitous Leibfeindlichkeit (repression of sensuality) that followed from it in Western civilization. - Chapter V, Tendenzen der Beurteilung homosexuellen Verhaltens von der Christianisierung bis zum Beginn der Ketzer- und Hexenverfolgungen ("Tendencies in evaluation of homosexual behaviour between Christianisation and the beginning inquisitorial persecution of witches and heretics"), section 1, Die römische Gesetzgebung ("Roman laws"): Capital homophobic tendencies in Ancient Rome as apparent for instance in Lex ScantiniaLex ScantiniaThe Lex Scantinia is a poorly documented ancient Roman law that penalized a sex crime against a freeborn male minor . The law may also have been used to prosecute adult male citizens who willingly took a passive role in having sex with other men...
(Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg does not cover Ancient Greece in depth until her 1990 book Vom Schmetterling zur Doppelaxt, only emphasizing in Tabu Homosexualität and later works that ancient Greek pederastyPederasty in ancient GreecePederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged relationship between an adult and a younger male usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods...
does not meet her primary focus for Tabu Homosexualität of same-sex activities among adult males, as in Ancient Greece, these relations took place between fertile and infertile individuals, by quoting, among other modern scholars and ancient sources, Kenneth DoverKenneth DoverSir Kenneth James Dover, FRSE, FBA was a distinguished British Classical scholar and academic, who was head of an Oxford college and from 1981 until his retirement in December 2005 was Chancellor of the University of St Andrews....
). - Chapter V, section 2, Die kirchlichen Bestimmungen ("Ecclesiastical regulations"): Homophobia apparent in the ancient Jewish culture (Leviticus 18Leviticus 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'...
) and in Early Christianity (Saint Paul, early Church FathersChurch FathersThe Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
, and penitentialPenitentialA penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning the Christian sacrament of penance, a "new manner of reconciliation with God" that was first developed by Celtic monks in Ireland in the sixth century AD.-Origin:...
s) up to the ninth century CE. Here, Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg debunks the Biblical origin of the common Sodom myth created by Byzantine emperor Justinian IJustinian IJustinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
in the 500s CE who was the first person in the world to claim that Genesis 19 would in any way relate to same-sex activities. - Chapter V, section 3, Die gefälschten Kapitulare des Benedictus Levita ("The forged capitularies of Benedictus Levita"): The Medieval ecclesiastical concept of sodomySodomySodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
brought forth by the forged Capitularia Benedicti Levitae within Pseudo-IsidorePseudo-IsidorePseudo-Isidore is the pseudonym given to the scholar or group of scholars responsible for the Pseudo-Isidorean Decretals, the most extensive and influential set of forgeries found in medieval Canon law. The authors were a group of Frankish clerics writing in the second quarter of the ninth century...
(a collection of persuasive false material on theological, legal, and political matters fabricated by FrankishFranksThe Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
monks around 850 CE). During proto-historic Iron Age, the religious fertility rites of the marginalized Maternal Megalith Culture stratum had been ethnocentrically interpreted as the evil, lewd seid magic of a nithing in proto-historic Norse and Germanic sources. Referencing Justinian's Sodom myth, Frankish monk Benedictus Levita as the author of the Capitularia Benedicti Levitae obviously appealed to these prevailing folk beliefs when he strongly associated his idea of sodomy with evil sorcery, satanism, heathenism, and heresy. Thereby, he also originally incorporated the common Germanic practice of burning nithings into ecclesiastical law as burning sodomites and witches alike at the stake. Prior to Levita, church dogma had denounced belief in witches and burning people out of these pagan beliefs as sinful. - Chapter VI, Die Pönalisierung der Homosexualität im Rahmen der Ketzer- und Hexenprozesse des Mittelalters ("The penalisation of homosexuality within the Medieval heresy and witch trials"): How Levita's ideas were put into practice by creating the Inquisition. Also discusses in-depth the Malleus MaleficarumMalleus MaleficarumThe Malleus Maleficarum is an infamous treatise on witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, and was first published in Germany in 1487...
as an extension and further popularization of Levita's original ideas on sodomites and witches. - Chapter VII, Weiterentwicklung und Modifizierung des Vorurteils gegen die Homosexualität bis 1870 ("Further developments and modifications of homophobic prejudice up until 1870"): Arriving at the theories of pathology (Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg specifically mentions the concept of moral insanityMoral insanityMoral insanity is a medical diagnosis first described by the French humanitarian and psychiatrist Philippe Pinel in 1806...
), corruption, and downfall of the state brought fourth by the Age of ReasonAge of reasonAge of reason may refer to:* 17th-century philosophy, as a successor of the Renaissance and a predecessor to the Age of Enlightenment* Age of Enlightenment in its long form of 1600-1800* The Age of Reason, a book by Thomas Paine...
and the Age of EnlightenmentAge of EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, the history of these pseudo-scientific ideologies, and how they were instrumental in prolonging the traditional persecution of sexual deviants, especially homosexuals, in the Western world from the 17th to the 20th century. - Chapter VIII, Beeinträchtigung der Erforschung des Vorurteils gegenüber der männlichen Homosexualität durch das Vorurteil selbst ("Obliteration of research into homophobic prejudice caused by the very prejudice itself"): Socio-psychological analyses of patterns and social dynamics of general and specifically homophobic prejudice and discrimination in Western society, building upon the facts, patterns, and concepts demonstrated in earlier chapters, emphasizing again the cultural impact and significance of Indo-European influence and the Three Strata of Western culture in general. In further detail than in this one chapter, Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg would re-visit this academic field of general Vorurteilsforschung (prejudice studies) in her later work Angst und VorurteilAngst und VorurteilAngst und Vorurteil: AIDS-Ängste als Gegenstand der Vorurteilsforschung is a sociology book written by German sociologist, ethnologist, and sexologist Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg that was first published in 1989.- Background :In 1988, due to her former scientific achievements...
(1989), in-depth analyzing in full the common patterns of prejudice and discrimination in modern Western society following from the cultural evolution described in Tabu Homosexualität.
Relations to other works, by Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg and others
In Mannbarkeitsriten (1980) and Angst und VorurteilAngst und Vorurteil
Angst und Vorurteil: AIDS-Ängste als Gegenstand der Vorurteilsforschung is a sociology book written by German sociologist, ethnologist, and sexologist Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg that was first published in 1989.- Background :In 1988, due to her former scientific achievements...
(1989), Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg further chronicles the re-enforcing influence of Western colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
when Indo-European cultures began globally expanding from the Age of Discovery
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration and the Great Navigations , was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contacts with...
and Age of Conquests on, thus explorers and conquerors again came upon Shamanic cultures partly involving ritual fertility and sexual cults, and Europe simultaneously encountered the wide spread of syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
through these new cross-cultural contacts just when modern science began to dawn.
These processes also fostered ethnocentric beliefs of Indo-European moral superiority over "uncivilized", sensual, and "filthy" "savages" (see for instance the saying of the White man's burden of being morally obliged to "civilize" non-Westerners), social and ethnic "aliens", and marginalized minorities in a complex process of interior socio-psychological, cultural structuring of human sensual desires on the one hand, and foreign political and military colonialism of these desires on the other hand. Thus, in all three books (Tabu Homosexualität, Mannbarkeitsriten, and Angst und Vorurteil) Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg alludes to cultural anthropology works such as The Origins of Totalitarianism
The Origins of Totalitarianism
The Origins of Totalitarianism is a book by Hannah Arendt which describes and analyzes the two major totalitarian movements of the twentieth century, Nazism and Stalinism...
by Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
, Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents is a book by Sigmund Freud. Written in 1929, and first published in German in 1930 as Das Unbehagen in der Kultur , it is considered one of Freud's most important and widely read works....
, Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
's Eros and Civilization
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, Critical Theory's Dialectic of Enlightenment
Dialectic of Enlightenment
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and The Authoritarian Personality
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, or The Civilizing Process
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by Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias
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.
Finally, as Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg relates in Angst und Vorurteil, just as colonialism and the rise of syphilis had compromised the scientific Enlightenment
Science in the Age of Enlightenment
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approach to sexuality, the impact of HIV
HIV
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corrupted post-WWII progressive counterculture
Counterculture of the 1960s
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's influence on Western society's attitudes towards sexuality.
Editions
- 1978: Tabu Homosexualität: Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt/Main. ISBN 3-10-007302-9
- 1981: Homosexualität: Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt/Main. ISBN 3-59-623814-5
Further reading
- Friedländer, Walter A. (1979). Review Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, Tabu: Homosexualität. Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils, International Social Work, XXII, No. 2 (Summer 1979).
- Apfelbaum, Bernard (1981). Chritianity, social tolerance, and homosexuality: Gay people in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century/The unmentionable vice: Homosexuality in the later Medieval Period/Tabu Homosexualität: Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils, Journal of Sex ResearchJournal of Sex ResearchThe Journal of Sex Research is a scientific journal published by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality . In 1963, the society had published a one-issue journal entitled Advances in Sex Research...
; May81, Vol. 17 Issue 2, p184-187 (3 Reviews of the respective works by John Boswell, Michael Goodich, and Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg) - Sandmann, Heinz. Homosexualtität - Ein historischer Streifzug ("Homosexuality: A historical foray"), summary of Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg's book Tabu Homosexualität
- Whisnant, Clayton John (2008). Introduction: Gay German History: Future Directions?, Journal of the History of SexualityJournal of the History of SexualityThe Journal of the History of Sexuality is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1990 and published by the University of Texas Press.- Indexing :...
- Volume 17, Number 1, January 2008, pp. 1–10
External links
- Tabu Homosexualität (1st ed.) on Open LibraryOpen LibraryOpen Library is an online project intended to create “one web page for every book ever published”. Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive and has been funded in part by a grant from the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation.-Books for the blind and...
- Homosexualität (2nd ed.) on Open Library