Books on castration and eunuchs

[Danya]

I was looking through the closet to find a C.S. Lewis quote in his book "The Screwtape Letters". I want to use this quote in one of my upcoming blog posts.

As I was searching for the Lewis book, I came across three that deal with castration and eunuchs. Right now, I don't have time to say much about them. I may do that later when I have more time. Right now, I simply want to recommend them as good reads.

1. "Castration, An Abbreviated History of Western Manhood", Gary Taylor, 2000. Some of you have mentioned feeling a connection between vasectomy and castration. Mr. Taylor makes exactly the same connection in reference to himself. Of course, the vasectomy piece is only a minor part of the history. This is a scholarly work that's very well written and very entertaining besides. There's a quote on the back cover from Maggie Paley, author of 'The Book of the Penis': "A passionate, provacative history of ideas about male sexuality and the best account of castration you're ever likely to read."

2. "The Persian Boy", Mary Renault, 1972. An historical fiction account of Alexander the Great's gelded boy slave lover, Bagoas. This book has been mentioned on EA before. BTW, Bagoas is an actual historical figure.

For those who may be interested, Mary Renault published a, for that time, daring and sympathetic look at homosexual lives and love way back in 1959, "The Charioteer". The story takes place in WWII.

3. "Memoirs of Byzantine Eunuch", Christopher Harris, 2002. I really enjoyed this one and need to reread it.

For decades, I've had a thing for books and tales about eunuchs. Now I know why I had that fascination!

[DeaconBlues]

I remember "The Screwtape Letters" and one classic line from it, the first line of the last letter. "My dear, my VERY dear Wormwood,..." Ever since reading that, I am always worried any time someone talks or writes to me as "very dear" or anything like that.

[Danya]

I found "The Screwtap Letters' to be scary and subversive in the matter-of-fact way the devil's assistant goes about trying to corrupt our hero. There's nothing at all dramatic going on. Just simple, day-to-day attempts to slowly turn the guy's path. It's a very well-written book.

[Francis]

I was just about to start a thread on books about eunuch's and was going to draw attention to Wilbur Smith's Egypt series - "River God", "Warlock" and "Quest" . I have read the first two and the chief character is a eunuch in Ancient Egypt. They are quite entertaining and quite graphic in places. I wont say more except to say that Wilbur hs done a pretty good job of portrayal of his life as a eunuch and recommend the series as a good read.

[homptydumpty]

EUNUCHS AND CASTRATE A CULTURAL HISTORY is a great book i have read more than once!

[Jesus]

I have gradually started to catalog my more important books and articles on castration and eunuchs. Here is my listing to date (with only about a third completed so far):

Amis, Kingsley
1976 The Alteration [fiction]. New York: Viking Press.

Anderson, Mary M.
1990 Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Aucoin, Michael William, and Richard Joel Wassersug
2006 The Sexuality and Social Performance of Androgen-Deprived (Castrated) Men Throughout History: Implications for Modern Day Cancer Patients. Social Science & Medicine 63:3162-3173.

Ayalon, David
1988 On the Eunuchs in Islam. In Outsiders in the Lands of Islam: Mamluks, Mongols and Eunuchs. Pp. 67-124. London: Variorum Reprints.

1999 Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study in Power Relationships. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University. [a review and some excerpts are on the Nonfiction Board]

Behrend-Martinez, Edward
2005 Manhood and the Neutered Body in Early Modern Spain. Journal of Social History 38(4):1073-1093.

Cauldwell, D. O.
1947 Effects of Castration on Men and Women: Accidental, Voluntary and Involuntary Castration; Eunuchism and History - Medical Treatment and Aspects. Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius Publications. [the full text of this is on the Nonfiction Board]

Chatterjee, Indrani
1999 Between Male and Female: Androgynous Anti-kin. In her Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India. Pp. 44-57. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Cheney, Victor T.
1995 A Brief History of Castration. Edison, NJ: USCCCN International.

Clapton, Nicholas
2006 Handel & the Castrati: The Story Behind the 18th Century Superstar Singers (29 March–1 October 2006). London: Handel House Museum.

Cohen, Lawrence
1995 The Pleasures of Castration: The Postoperative Status of Hijras, Jankhas and Academics. In Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture. P.R. Abramson and S.D. Pinkerton, eds. Pp. 276-304. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Croutier, Alev Lytle
1989 Harem: The World Behind the Veil. New York: Abbeville Press.

Deller, Karlheinz
1996 The Assyrian eunuchs and their predecessors. Second Colloquium on the Ancient Near East - The City and its Life, Mitaka, Japan, 1996, pp. 303-311. Universitätsverlag C. Winter.

DeMarco, Laura E.
2002 The fact of the castrato and the myth of the countertenor. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 86, pp. 174-185.

Diner, Helen (Pseud. Bertha Eckstein-Diener)
1938 Angels & Eunuchs. In her Emperors, Angels, & Eunuchs: The Thousand Years of the Byzantine Empire. Pp. 62-72. London: Chatto & Windus.

Edwardes, Allen
1959 Eunuchism: Honor in Dishonor. In his The Jewel in the Lotus: A Historical Survey of the Sexual Culture of the East. Pp. 179-198. New York: Julian Press.

Engelstein, Laura
1999 Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Fauber, L. H.
1990 Narses: Hammer of the Goths: The Life and Times of Narses the Eunuch. Gloucester: Alan Sutton.

Ferroul, Yves
1997 Abelard's Blissful Castration. In Becoming Male in the Middle Ages. J.J. Cohen and B. Wheeler, eds. Pp. 129-150. The New Middle Ages. New York: Garland Publishing.

Finucci, Valeria
2003 The Masquerade of Manhood: The Paradox of the Castrato. In her The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the Italian Renaissance. Pp. 225-280. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Fisher, Humphrey J.
2001 Eunuchs. In his Slavery in the History of Muslim Black Africa. Pp. 280-294. Washington Square, NY: New York University Press.

Fritz, Hans
1994 Kastratengesang: hormonelle, konstitutionelle und pädagogische Aspecte. Tutzing: Verlegt bei Hans Schneider.

Grayson, A. Kirk
1995 Eunuchs in power: Their role in the Assyrian bureacracy. In Vom Alten Orient Zum Alten Testament: Festschrift für Wolfram Freiherrn von Sodern zum 85. Geburtstag am 19.Juni 1993. M. Dietrich and O. Loretz, eds. Pp. 85-98: Verlag Butzon & Bercker Kevelaer.

Guilland, Rodolphe
1943 Eunuchs in the Byzantine Empire: A Study in Byzantine Titulature and Prosopography. Études Byzantines 1:197-238. (anonymous translation)

Guyot, Von Peter
1980 Eunuchen als Sklaven und Freigelassene in der griechisch-römischen Antike. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.

Hage, J. Joris, and Refaat B. Karim
2000 Ought GIDNOS Get Nought? Treatment Options for Nontranssexual Gender Dysphoria. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 105(3):1222-1227.

Halpern, Ashlea
2006 Battle of the Sexless; The Plight of the Modern-Day Eunuchs, and Why They Come to Philadelphia. In City Paper. Philadelphia.

Hathaway, Jane
1997 The Qazdaghs and the Chief Black Eunuch. In her The Politics of Households in Ottoman Egypt: The Rise of the Qazdaghs. Pp. 139-164. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hawkins, J. D.
2002 Eunuchs among the Hittites. In Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2-6, 2001. S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting, eds. Pp. 217-233, Vol. 1. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

Hester, J. David
2006a Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19:12 and Transgressive Sexualities. 33 pp.: Interfakultäres Zentrum für Ethik in den Wissenschaften, Tübingen.

2006b Queers on Account of the Kingdom of Heaven: Rhetorical Constructions of the Eunuch Body. 18 pp.: Interfakultäres Zentrum für Ethik in den Wissenschaften.

Hopkins, Keith
1978 The Political Power of Eunuchs. In his Conquerors and Slaves. Pp. 172-196. Sociological Studies in Roman History, vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Humana, Charles (pseud.)
1973 The Keeper of the Bed: The Story of the Eunuch. London: Arlington Books.

Irvine, Martin
1997 Abelard and (Re)writing the Male Body: Castration, Identity, and Remasculinization. In Becoming Male in the Middle Ages. J.J. Cohen and B. Wheeler, eds. Pp. 87-106. The New Middle Ages. New York: Garland Publishing.

Ishikawa, Takeshi
1995 Hijra: India's Third Sex (in Japanese). Tokyo: Seiya-sha

Jaffrey, Zia
1996 The Invisibles: A Tale of the Eunuchs of India. London: Phoenix.

Jay, Jennifer W.
1995 Eunuchs and Sinicization in the Non-Han Conquest Dynasties of China. Paper delivered at Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast. Forest Grove, OR.

Jonckheere, Frans
1954 Eunuchs in Pharonic Egypt. Revue d'Histoire des Sciences 7(2):139-155.

Kadish, Gerald E.
1969 Eunuchs in Ancient Egypt. In Studies in Honor of John A. Wilson; Studies in Ancient Civilization, No. 35. Pp. 55-62. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Kuefler, Mathew S.
1996 Castration and Eunuchism in the Middle Ages. In Handbook of Medieval Sexuality. V.L. Bullough and J.A. Brundage, eds. Pp. 279-306. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

2001 The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

2003 The Practice of Self-Castration in Early Christianity. Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA (unpubl. ms.).

Lal, K.S.
1994 Ghilmans and Eunuchs. In his Muslim Slave System in Medieval India. Pp. 105-118. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.

Lansky, Mark
1989 The Most Critical Option: Sex Offenses and Castration in San Diego, 1938-1975. Journal of San Diego History 35(4).

Lascaratos, John & Kostkopoulos, Anthanasios
1997 Operations on Hermaphrodites and Castration in Byzantine Times (324-1453 AD). Urologia Internationalis 58:232-235.

Lindholm, Charles
1996 Slaves, Eunuchs, and Blacks. In his The Islamic Middle East: An Historical Anthropology. Pp. 213-227. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Long, Jacqueline
1996 Claudian's In Eutropium: Or, How, When, and Why to Slander a Eunuch. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

Maekawa, Kazuya
1980 Female Weavers and Their Children in Lagash - Presargonic and Ur III. Acta Sumerologica 2:81-125.

Mango, Cyril
1986 St. Michael and Attis. Delton: Tes Christianikes Archaiologikes Hetaireias, series 4, vol. 12:39-62.

Marmon, Shaun
1995 Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society. New York: Oxford University Press.

Matignon, Jean-Jacques
1900 Les eunuques du Palais impérial de Pékin. In his Superstition, Crime et Misère en Chine. Pp. 231-273. Lyon: A. Storck & Cie.

McCaffrey, Kathleen
2002 Reconsidering Gender Ambiguity in Mesopotamia: Is a Beard Just a Beard? In Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2-6, 2001. S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting, eds. Pp. 379-391, Vol. 2. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

Mitamura, Taisuke
1970 Chinese Eunuchs: The Structure of Intimate Politics. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company.

Money, John
1993 Sexual Perfection Is to Be a Eunuch: The Skoptic Syndrome. In his The Adam Principle: Genes, Genitals, Hormones, & Gender: Selected Readings in Sexology. Pp. 341-353. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

Montagu, F. Ashley
1946 Ritual Mutililation Among Primitive Peoples. Ciba Symposia 8(7):421-436.

Moran, Neil
2002 Byzantine Castrati. Plainsong and Medieval Music 11(2):99-112.

Moxnes, Halvor
2003 Leaving Male Space: Eunuchs in the Jesus Movement. In Putting Jesus in His Place: A Radical Vision of Household and Kingdom. Pp. 72-90. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Nanda, Serena
1996 Hijras: An Alternative Sex and Gender Role in India. In Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. G. Herdt, ed. Pp. 373-418. New York: Zone Books.

1999 Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Peschel, Enid Rhodes, and Richard E. Peschel
1987 Medical Insights into the Castrati in Opera. American Scientist 75:578-583.

Pittard, Eugène
1934 La castration chez l'homme. Recherches sur les adeptes d'une secte d'eunuques mystiques, les Skoptzy. Archives suisses d'Anthropologie générale 6(3-4):213-535.

Pleasants, Henry
1966 The Castrati. HiFi/Stereo Review (July):36-41.

Premand, Natacha F., and Ariel Eytan
2005 A Case of Non-Psychotic Autocastraton: The Importance of Cultural Factors. Psychiatry 68(2):174-178.

Proschan, Frank
2002 Eunuch Mandarins, Soldats Mamzelles, Effeminate Boys, and Graceless Women: French Colonial Constructions of Vietnamese Genders. GLQ 8(4):435-467.

Rapaport, Ionel
1948? Introduction a la Psychopathologie Collective: La Secte mystiques des Skoptzy. Paris: L. Rodstein.

Reade, Julian
2002 Sexism and Homotheism in Ancient Iraq. In Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2-6, 2001. S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting, eds. Pp. 551-568, Vol. 2. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

Reddy, Gayatri
2005 With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Rice, Anne
1982 Cry to Heaven [fiction]. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Ringrose, Kathryn M.
1996a Eunuchs as Cultural Mediators. Byzantinische Forschungen: Internationale Zeitschrift für Byzantinistik 23:75-93.

1996b Living in the Shadows: Eunuchs and Gender in Byzantium. In Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. G. Herdt, ed. Pp. 85-110. New York: Zone Books.

2003 The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of gender in Byzantium. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Roberts, Laura Weiss, Michael Hollifield, and Teresita McCarty
1998 Psychiatric Evaluation of a "Monk" Requesting Castration: A Patient's Fable, With Morals. American Journal of Psychiatry 155:415-420.

Roll, Lindsey
2007 Angels We Have Heard on High: The Making of the Castrati in 17th and 18th Century Italy. (ms.)

Scholz, Piotr O.
2001 Eunuchs and Castrati: A Cultural History. J.A. Broadwin and S.L. Frisch, transl. Princeton, NJ: Marcus Wiener Publishers.

Scott, Charles L., and Trent Holmberg
2003 Castration of Sex Offenders: Prisoners' Rights Versus Public Safety. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 31:502-509.

Sloothaak, Mike
2003 Eunuchs, Castration, and Orientalism. 21 pp.: Purdue University (American Studies Dept.).

Somerset-Ward, Richard
2004 Angels & Monsters: Male and Female Sopranos in the Story of Opera, 1600-1900. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Spencer, Robert F.
1946 The Cultural Aspects of Eunuchism. Ciba Symposia 8(7):406-420.

Stent, G. Carter
1877 Chinese Eunuchs. Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
n.s., no. 11.

Stevenson, Walter
1995 The Rise of Eunuchs in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Journal of the History of Sexuality 5(4):495-511.

Tadmor, Hayim
2002 The Role of the Chief Eunuch and the Place of Eunuchs in the Assyrian Empire. In Sex and Gender in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2-6, 2001. S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting, eds. Pp. 603-611, Vol. 2. Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project.

Taylor, Gary
2000 Castration: An Abbreviated History of Western Manhood. New York: Routledge.

Terao, Yoshio
1985 The Eunuch Story: Men Who Want to Become Not Men (in Japanese). Tokyo: Toho Shobo.

Toledano, Ehud R.
1998 The African Eunuchs in the Nineteenth Century. In his Slavery and Abolition in the Ottoman Middle East. Pp. 41-53. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Tougher, Shaun (ed.)
2002 Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond. Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales.

Tougher, Shaun F.
1997a Byzantine Eunuchs: An Overview, With Special Reference to Their Creation and Origin. In Women, Men and Eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium. L. James, ed. Pp. 168-184. London: Routledge.

1997b The Emperor's Men: Eunuchs and Strategoi. In The Reign of Leo VI (886-912): Politics and People. Pp. 194-218. Leiden: Brill.

2004 Holy Eunuchs! Masculinity and Eunuch Saints in Byzantium. In Holiness and Masculinity in the Middle Ages. P.H. Cullum and K.J. Lewis, eds. Pp. 93-108. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.

Tsai, Shih-shan Henry
1996 The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Vyas, M.D. & Shingala, Yogesh
1987 The Life Style of the Eunuchs. New Delhi: Anmol Publications.

Wassersug, Richard J., B.S. Zelenietz, and G. Farrell Squire
2004 New Age Eunuchs: Motivation and Rationale for Voluntary Castration. Archives of Sexual Behavior 33:433-442.

Watanabe, Kazuko
1999 Seals of Neo-Assyrian Officials. In Priests and Officials in the Ancient Near East: Papers of the Second Colloquium on the Ancient Near East - The City and its Life; held at the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan (Mitaka, Tokyo). K. Watanabe, ed. Pp. 313-361. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter.

Wille, Reinhard, and Klaus M. Beier
1989 Castration in Germany. Annals of Sex Research 2:103-133.

Wolfson, Elliot R.
1997 Eunuchs Who Keep the Sabbath: Becoming Male and the Ascetic Ideal in Thirteenth-Century Jewish Mysticism. In Becoming Male in the Middle Ages. J.J. Cohen and B. Wheeler, eds. Pp. 151-186. The New Middle Ages. New York: Garland Publishing.

[Danya]

Jesus,

I appreciate your posting of this list and look forward to its completion, when you have the time. Some of these would be difficult for me to acquire (e.g., 1877 Chinese Eunuchs. Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society). I'm sure copies of even old journal articles can be obtained with enough effort.

Tonight, as I ate my cheesy dinner (I need the calcium, you know :-) ), I continued my reading of Anne Rice's beautiful and sensitively written, fictional "Cry to Heaven", one of the books on your list. I'd seen this book mentioned elsewhere in the Archive.

When I purchased it last night, I wasn't sure that I had the right book. The opening sentence told me that I had what I sought: "Guido Maffeo was castrated when he was six years old and sent to study with the finest singing masters in Naples."

[vesal_mas]

Dear Friends,

This post was an inscentive to look at what I could find on the subject.
Having an academic function, I could find some articles in the library.
I begin with the article of Farrell Squire. I think this article had been posted elsewhere. But it is so good, I post it again. Moderators may erase this and other articles if they think they have to.

Greetings to all,

Vesal !

Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 33, No. 5, October 2004, pp. 433–442 ( C_ 2004)
New Age Eunuchs: Motivation and Rationale
for Voluntary Castration
Richard J. Wassersug, Ph.D.,1,4 Sari A. Zelenietz, B.S.,2 and G. Farrell Squire, B.S.3
Received July 22, 2003; revision received November 11, 2003; accepted November 11, 2003
We used a survey posted on the Internet to explore the motivation of men who are interested in
being castrated. Out of 134 respondents, 23 (17%) reported already having been castrated. The
104 (78%) individuals who said they had not been castrated were asked why they wanted to be
castrated and why they had not actualized that desire. They were given multiple-choice answers
to select from. The major reason (selected by 40% of respondents) for desiring castration was to
achieve a “eunuch calm” and freedom from sexual urges; however, a large proportion (∼30%) of
respondents found fantasies about being castrated sexually exciting and a similar percentage desired
castration for the “cosmetic” appearance it achieved (which we interpret to mean scrotal removal
along with an orchiectomy). This high interest in castration as either a sexual stimulus (a fetish) or
a cosmetic enhancement was unexpected and contrasted with the more classically stated motivation
for voluntary castration in the psychiatric literature, i.e., libido control and transsexualism. Internet
discussion groups that serve these men may encourage them to act out their castration fantasies.
Alternately, Internet discussions may give them a displacement outlet for their fantasies and decrease
the risk of castration by nonmedically qualified “street-cutters” or by self-mutilation. Forty percent
of our respondents claimed that they would have an orchiectomy, if it were cheap, safe, and simple.
A quarter wanted to try chemical castration first, but 40% were embarrassed to talk to their doctors
about their interest in castration. Information now available on the Internet provides these men with
increasingly easy access to street-cutters and directions on howto perform surgical castrations, putting
them at risk of permanent injury and disability. Physicians need to be aware of these risks.
KEYWORDS: castration; Internet; orchiectomy; eunuch; fetish.
INTRODUCTION
Eunuchs are castrated men whose testicles are
surgically removed or otherwise made nonfunctional by
crushing or drug treatment. Next to tooth extraction and
circumcision, castration has arguably been the most commonly
practiced surgical ablation on the Asian continent
since before Christ. It produced the hundreds of thousands
1Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
2Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
3Arbody, Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas. (Deceased)
4To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of
Anatomy & Neurobiology, Sir Charles TupperMedical Building, 5850
College Street, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
B3H 1X5; e-mail: tadpole@dal.ca.
of eunuchs that administrated much of the Byzantine
world (Ringrose, 2003) and the Ottoman Empire in the
west (Ayalon, 1999; Marmon, 1995) and the Chinese
dynasties in the east (Tsai, 1996; see also Tougher, 2002).
Although Tsai (1996) considered castration the
“worst form of human exploitation” and Taylor (2000)
labeled it the “epitome of loss” and the “ultimate humiliation,”
psychiatry has documented many cases of men
in modern times castrating themselves (e.g., Aboseif,
Gomez, & McAninch, 1993; Becker & Hartmann, 1997;
Martin & Gattaz, 1991; Masson & Klein, 2002). Unfortunately,
our understanding of what motivates these men is
largely derived from a biased sample: those individuals
whose attempts at self-surgery or use of a medically
unqualified castrator are not completely successful are the
ones who come to the attention of the health profession.
433
0004-0002/04/1000-0433/0 C_ 2004 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.
434 Wassersug, Zelenietz, and Squire
Menwho desire to be castrated and achieve itwithout
complications (by either self-castration or the services of a
nonmedical castrator, i.e., a “street-cutter”) may never be
seen by a physician. Similarly, men who fantasize about
being castrated, but do not act out their fantasies, may also
be invisible to the medical system. Little is known about
what motivates these people to get castrated or to delay
acting out their fantasies.
In this study, we make use of adult discussion groups
on the Internet to explore the reasons why some men
wish to be castrated, yet have not proceeded to have
an orchiectomy either within or outside of the medical
system. We make use of the fact that the privacy and
anonymity afforded by the Internet has allowed large
discussion groups to form among people who share
obsessions that encompass areas that society at large might
consider taboo (see, e.g., Williams & Weinberg, 2003).
In our case, we focused on groups where castration
was either a major or minor defining theme of the group.
We included a few discussion groups related to prostate
cancer because chemical and/or surgical castrations are
standard treatments for advanced prostate cancer. Through
our survey, we were able to identify motivation factors
beyond the two commonly identified: a desire for celibacy
and transsexualism (Money, 1980). We were also able to
get a rough demographic profile on a set of men who are
fascinated with the idea of being castrated.
METHOD
Participants and Procedures
A survey was designed that was specifically directed
toward men interested in castration. It was posted between
May and September 2002 on 30 adult discussion
groups on the Internet.5 The groups were selected to
cover a breadth of interests in castration, ranging from
transsexual fantasy sites to advanced prostate cancer
discussion groups. Our key method of finding groups
was through Internet searches using key words such as
“castration” and “eunuch.” Included were sites that might
5The groups where the survey was posted or where directions to the
survey were posted included www.eunch.org, phml@phcagroups.org,
circle@prostatepointers.org, prostate@listserv.acor.org, advanced@
phcagroups.org, as well as the following, which all start with the
prefix “http://groups.yahoo.com/group/”: eandmlifestyle, psychemasculation,
chemicallyalteredsexuality, eunuchshaven, eunuchsreferralsandadvice,
GYNARCHY, Gynosupremacy, menwithoutballs2,
MWJournal, newthrones, theneuteringnews, triumphantamazons,
TG Writers, tgchristians, barbarastransgenderedchat, marisastransgendersalon,
midwesttransgendersupport, nicoleststgsupport, transgenderededucationassoc,
tenntvtgtsstation, TsDoItYourselfHormones, valleytgirlfetish,
msjilljorgensen, fantasygirl, seattletransgenderedandsos.
Table I. Respondents by Age
Age N %
Under 25 5 4
25–35 21 16
35–45 31 23
45–55 51 38
Over 55 23 17
No answer provided 3 2
be visited by both heterosexual and gay men interested
in castration, although we made no effort to explore the
sexual orientation of respondents.
The survey yielded 134 replies. The age and educational
levels of the respondents are given in Tables I and
II. The mean age was approximately 45, assuming that the
number of respondents under 25 (N = 5) had an average
age of 20 and those over 55 (N = 23) had an average
age of 60. Because these polls were posted largely on
sites that are technically restricted to adults, it is likely
that few of the respondents were below the age of 20 (the
minimum age to view the sites is 18). However, given the
large number of replies from men over 55, our estimate of
a mean age of 45 is likely to be slightly low.
The majority of respondents had at least four years
of college education. Only 1 person had not completed
high school,whereas 12 respondents had doctoral degrees.
Thus, overall the respondents represented a group of welleducated,
mature adults.
The survey consisted of three questions: (1) What
is your castration status? (2) Why haven’t you been
castrated? and (3) Why do you want to be castrated?
The latter two queries were directed at individuals
who were interested in being castrated, but who had not
undergone the procedure. The questions had 17, 12, and 24
choices for answers, respectively (seeAppendix).Respondents
could select only one choice for the first question,
but asmany choices as applied for the second and the third
questions.Many of the choices were similar (e.g., choices
Table II. Respondents by Education Level
Educational level N %
Non-HS 1 1
HS graduate 21 16
2 yrs college 29 22
4 yrs college 33 25
Postcollege 34 25
Doctoral degree 12 9
No answer provided 4 3
Motivation for Voluntary Castration 435
Table III. Most Common Reasons Respondents Gave for Not Having Been Castrated Yet
Number of
Rank responses
1 A medically safe castration is too expensive for my budget 45
2 If castration were as cheap, safe, and painless as a flu shot, I’d be 43
much more likely to get it done
3 I’m embarrassed to talk to my physician or urologist about this 42
4 I fear that an operation by a street-cutter would be dangerous 35
5 I would like a trial run with a reversible chemical castration first 28
6 and 10 for Question 2). However, some were admittedly
unlikely (choice 21 in Question 3) given the targeted
subject pool, that is, postpubescent males over 18 years of
age. The goal was to give as broad a sweep of options in
Questions 2 and 3 as possible. Respondents were permitted
to select more than one answer to these two questions.
Permitting multiple answers also reduced the chances that
wewould get more than one survey filled in per individual.
Because we tracked e-mail addresses, we know that each
response came from a different e-mail address.
Basic demographic information was also requested,
that is, age and educational level.We did not askwhere the
respondents were from, but this survey was only posted
in English, so we assume that most of the respondents
were from English-speaking countries. We also asked the
respondents to tell us when they first became interested in
castration.
To encourage veracity, the questionnaire was
introduced by stating that (1) the survey was being
conducted for a professor in a medical school in Canada
and (2) all individual replies would be kept strictly
confidential. In posting this survey on the Internet, we
realized that the responses we received were subject to a
variety of biases, as discussed, for example, by Mustanski
(2001). We assumed that all of the respondents were
males and honest in their replies; however, we had no
way to independently verify this.
We also recognized that the respondent pool might
have been biased toward individuals who had easy, but
private, computer Internet access. A similar possible bias
was acknowledged by Williams and Weinberg (2003),
who used the Internet, much as we did, to locate and
survey individuals with sexual interests in animals. These
individuals were likely to be people with some economic
independence, which may correlate with their age and
educational level.
RESULTS
Of the 134 replies, 23 (17%) respondents claimed
to have been castrated whereas 104 (78%) stated they
had not. Two respondents gave their castration status as
“other” and five provided no answer. The many people
who responded to the second and the third questions but
who had not been castrated suggest that there is a sizable
community of “eunuch wannabes” who are largely hidden
from public view.
The mean number of responses to Question 2 (“Why
haven’t you been castrated?”)was 2.9,with a range of 1–8.
The five most common reasons why the men who nurture
fantasies of being castrated and have nevertheless not had
orchiectomies are given in Table III. The general reasons
that these men gave for not having the procedure were
cost and medical safety. Cost and medical safety concerns
accounted for three of the four most frequent reasons for
not actualizing their fantasies of castration (ranked first,
second, and fourth in Table III). More than 40% of the 104
uncastrated males surveyed selected one or more of these
three reasons for not having been castrated. On the one
hand, they feared going to street-cutters (ranked fourth)
and, on the other hand, they were embarrassed to talk
to their physicians about medically safe orchiectomies
(ranked third). Approximately a quarter of the men who
responded to the survey expressed interest in a trial
run with reversible chemical castration (ranked fifth in
Table III).
The mean number of responses to Question 3 (“Why
do you want to be castrated?”) was 3.3, ranging from 1 to
11. The five most popular reasons for desiring castration
are given in Table IV. The two most common answers
were similar: a desire to have a “eunuch’s calm” (ranked
first) and a loss of sexual urges/appetite (ranked second).
Approximately 40% of the uncastrated males selected one
or both of these reasons for wishing to be castrated.
The next most frequent answer (ranked third) was
the “excitement of the castration scene.” This answer
suggests that, for some, castration fantasies may fall into
the realm of paraphilias, as identified in the DSM-IVTR
(American Psychiatric Association, 2000) although
castration fantasies are not specifically listed there. This
answer was followed in popularity by a desire for the
cosmetic appearance associated with castration (ranked
436 Wassersug, Zelenietz, and Squire
Table IV. Most Common Reasons Respondents Desire Castration
Number of
Rank Reason responses
1 A feeling of calm, often called the eunuch calm 42
2 A sense of control over one’s sexual urges and/or sexual appetite 41
3 The excitement of the castration scene itself 32
4 Cosmetic effect. Just like the look 31
5 Feeling a deep desire to be submissive to partner 26
fourth). We interpret this to mean that the respondents
viewed castration as including removal of the scrotum,
because a pure orchiectomy without scrotal removal
would not produce an overt change in the appearance
of the external genitalia (other than eventual shrinkage).
The fifth most common reason was a “deep desire to
be submissive to a partner.” A quarter of the uncastrated
males selected this as a reason for desiring castration.
Of the castrated males, only five respondents selected
medical treatment for disease as a reason for
their castration (choices 1–3 in Question 1). Another
well-known reason for castration is as part of sexual
reassignment surgery (SRS) for male-to-female
(MtF) transsexuals, but only four respondents gave that
as a reason for their orchiectomies (choices 4–6 in
Question 1).
A series of two-sample t tests, matching the ranks
given in Table IV with the ages of the respondents, failed
to show any age bias in the rankings (all ps > .25).
Men, both young (<45) and old (>45), were equally
likely to pick, for example, control of “sexual urges” or a
fascination with the cosmetics of castration as reasons to
desire castration.
Data in Table V indicate how persistent the fascination
with castration was among uncastrated respondents.
Over a third of those respondents date their initial interest
in castration to when they were less than 25 years old.
Almost half of the subjects date their interest to before
they were 35 years old. Given the high mean age of the
subjects, this suggests that, on average, the respondents’
Table V. Age Respondents Were First Interested
in Castration
Age first interested N %
Prepuberty 9 7
Puberty to 25 38 28
25–35 18 13
35–45 12 9
45–55 11 8
Over 55 5 4
No answer provided 41 31
interest in castration endured for more than a decade, and
in many cases for several decades.
DISCUSSION
We are not the first to use an Internet survey to
explore psychosocial aspects of an otherwise uncommon
psychological presentation (e.g., Huang & Alessi, 1996;
Lipsitz, Fyer, Paterniti, & Klein, 2001; Mustanski, 2001;
Williams &Weinberg, 2003). The power of this approach
is that it provides simple, quick access to a large sample
from the targeted population. However, this convenience
is balanced against the difficulty of confirming the
validity of the anonymous responses obtained. Such
uncertainty concerned us because males are known to
provide less-than-truthful answers to questions about their
sexuality (see Siegel, Aten, & Roghmann, 1998) and,
until proven otherwise, this might include their castration
status.
Some reassurance as to the validity of our data was
provided by an independent survey posted to the Yahoo
“Psychemasculation” adult discussion group. That survey,
which was smaller than ours, ran some months after our
survey ended and, like ours, asked respondents if they
were castrated or not. Out of 32 replies received, the ratio
of castrated-to-noncastrated respondents was 1:3, which
was close to the 1:4 ratio we obtained with our larger
sample (z test, p = .25).
Classic Reasons for Seeking Castration
Themajor reason for the castration ofmen in modern
society is for the treatment of oncological diseases—most
notably advanced prostate cancer. On the basis of the
number of men that die of prostate cancer each year, and
the fact that castration is offered to virtually all of them
when primary treatments (e.g., prostatectomy, external
beam radiation, brachytherapy) fail, we estimate that
more than 44,000 patients with prostate cancer are either
chemically or surgically castrated each year in North
Motivation for Voluntary Castration 437
America. These men, however, are largely quiet about
their treatments. Few, if any, responded to our survey.
Although they are castrated, these men were castrated
out of medical necessity and are evidently not fixated on
the procedure. Many men on hormonal ablation therapy
do not equate this chemical castration with surgical
orchiectomy, although the resulting androgen deprivation
is the same.
If castration enters the public eye, we believe it is
mostly in the context of a procedure to control excessive
sexual urges amongst those whose sexual obsessions
are dangerous to themselves and/or others (Gawande,
1997). Controlling such urges was the majormotivator for
castration among the “eunuch wannabes” who replied to
our survey.We have no information, however, on howwell
these respondents are controlling their sexual yearnings
without castration.
There has been much debate about offering or
mandating castration for criminals convicted of sexual
predatory behavior (Spalding, 1998). Our search of the
data suggests that in states where castration is voluntary,
very few criminals choose this option unless it leads
to a reduced sentence (Baro Diaz, 2002; Marosi, 2001;
Moczynski, 2003). It is difficult to obtain an accurate
picture of how many men (convicted of sexual crimes
or otherwise) who have requested either chemical or
surgical castration for libido control ever get the treatment.
Circumstantial evidence suggests, however, that it is a very
small fraction (<0.5%) compared to the number of men
who are castrated to treat prostate cancer. For example,
in Texas the law permitting voluntary castration has been
used only once in 6 years (Anonymous, 2003), and of
53 sex offenders in Texas who recently requested castration,
most were ruled ineligible whereas eight await
surgery (Anonymous, 2003).
Thus, both our study of individuals found through
the Internet and reports about sex offenders in various
states suggest that the number of males desiring chemical
or surgical castration to control their sexual drive is
much higher than those who actually receive treatment.
One factor accounting for this discrepancy may be the
taboo nature of the topic. The fact that some 40% of
our respondents showed hesitancy to discuss castration
with their doctors reflects how socially unacceptable it
is to raise the topic, even in the confidential setting
of a doctor’s office. Concepts like Freud’s “castration
complex” (see Taylor, 2000) may have further demonized
voluntary castrations, making the surgical procedure
unpalatable to society and the medical system. In one
psychoanalytical view, castration is “the most severe
punishment that an individual. . . can be threatened with”
(Michel & Mormont, 2002). Thus, despite the popularity
of laws permitting or mandating castration for extreme
sex offenders, there is little evidence of acceptance for the
procedure on a case-by-case basis.
Another well-established reason for seeking a voluntary
orchiectomy is as part of SRS for MtF transsexuals
(e.g., Money, 1980; Sirota, Megged, Stein, &
Benatov, 1994). As with voluntary castration for the
control of sexual urges, it is similarly difficult to get
accurate numbers on how many of these operations
are performed in North America, but multiple informal
(unpublished) estimates place the number at fewer than
2,500 per year.
Although our survey was posted on a variety of
websites directed toward transsexuals and individuals
interested in transsexualism, we received relatively few
responses from individuals who wanted castration as part
of SRS. One possibility for this low response rate was that
most of the people in the transsexual community are not
interested in castration per se, but only seek castration as a
means to an end, that is, complete sex reassignment. Those
individualswho have successfully and fully transitioned to
female are not likely to be following Internet discussions
directed toward males who nurture castration fantasies.
They have achieved their goals. Transsexuals, like prostate
cancer patients, do not show the avid interest in castration
that most of the respondents in our study demonstrated.
Many of the people (approximately 40% in our
survey) whose interest in castration was intense enough
for them to participate in Internet discussion groups on
that topic believed in the idea of a “eunuch calm” (ranked
first in Table IV). It is worth noting, though, that this
concept is not well defined in either the Internet or the
medical world. A search in Google for “eunuch calm”
produced only 12 hits (excluding our questionnaire) and
half of those were either for www.eunuch.org or for a site
devoted to transsexualism. A search on PubMed on the
same word combination yielded no citations.
Despite a large volume of literature documenting
decreased libido with chemical and surgical castration
(e.g., Cheney & Peterson, 1997; Higano, 2003), the
psychological effects of androgen deprivation go far
beyond inducing a calm state vis-`a-vis libido (see Higano,
2003). Other common psychological reactions are neither
minor nor benign (e.g., depression, tearfulness, and
assorted cognitive losses; Cherrier, Rose, & Higano,
2003). From the discussions that we have been following
on www.eunuch.org and other Internet sites devoted to
castration, it is clear that many of the people who undergo
voluntary castration are neither informed, nor prepared,
for the plethora of additional long-term side effects of
castration. These include osteoporosis, loss of lean muscle
mass, increase in body fat, changes in body odor, and loss
438 Wassersug, Zelenietz, and Squire
of body hair (see Higano, 2003; Smith, 2002; Smith et al.,
2002). From following many Internet discussion groups,
like those footnoted earlier, it is our impression that many
voluntary eunuchs, who were castrated for reasons other
than cancer treatment or transsexualism, will eventually
take supplemental androgens to fight depression and
improve their health and sense of well-being (Bain,
2001).
Novel Reasons for Seeking Castration
The fact that a quarter of our respondents expressed
an interest in castration for cosmetic reasons came as a
surprise to us and, wewould argue, is a departure from traditional
reasons for seeking castration. In apotemnophilia,
a condition that is characterized by an obsessive interest
in having a limb amputated (Elliott, 2000; Johnston &
Elliott, 2002;Wise & Kalyanam, 2000), there is evidence
that a seminal event in these individuals’ lives was
exposure to an amputee in their youth. However, it is
unlikely that a similar experience influenced many of our
respondents, who were fascinated, if not obsessed, with
castration. For one thing, few, if any, of our respondents
would have had much exposure during their youth to
males without a scrotum (or penis). One might suggest,
somewhat whimsically, that Ken dolls, GI Joes, and
Mickey Mouse could have been surrogate models for
male mammals lacking conspicuous external genitalia.
However, we suspect that these cultural icons are not
sufficiently similar to humans to act as credible models
in the same way that real amputees may have seeded
thoughts of limb amputation in apotemnophiliacs.
The pop cultural rise of tattooing, body piercing, and
more extreme body modificationmay be influencing some
men nurturing their castration fantasies. The emergence
of “she-males,” individuals who blend male and female
secondary sexual characteristics (see Blanchard, 1993),
exemplifies the elective anatomical diversity that is now
not only possible but gaining exposure in the Western
world. Websites, like Bmezine (www.bmezine.com),
provide vivid images of extreme genital modifications,
including total genital removal. Images of genetic males
with a large variety of modifications to their secondary
sexual characteristics abound on both the Internet and
recently in printmedia aswell. Until recently, such images
were not widely available to citizens at large. The idea that
these images, particularly on the Internet where access is
not restricted, could influence health in a negative fashion
has been raised before (e.g., Ribisl, 2003; Ribisl, Lee,
Henriksen, & Haladjian, 2003;Wise & Kalyanam, 2000);
however, rigorous testing of such hypotheses is difficult.
Approximately 30% of our respondents claimed that
fantasizing about castration excited them sexually (ranked
third in Table IV; see also Israel, 1998). For some of
these individuals, their fantasies may be persistent and
intense enough to be considered paraphilias. In the past,
individuals with such extreme masochist ideations would
most likely have kept their thoughts to themselves and
rarely shared them with others. Indeed, because men
with other paraphilias tend to de-emphasize them, our
30% response rate may be a low estimate. The Internet,
however, allowed us to find and correspond with a fairly
large number of people with these fantasies. It also allows
them to find and correspond with each other.
Adult Internet discussion groups may breed communities
of people who share deviant views and allow
them to find instant validation for their obsessions. This
point has already been made for apotemnophiliacs by
Elliott (2000, 2003), pedophiles by Quayle and Taylor
(2001), and zoophiles by Williams and Weinberg (2003).
It is worth noting that three of the discussion groups,
where we posted our survey, which focus specifically
on castration (i.e., theneuteringnews, eunuchshaven, and
menwithoutballs), all have over 1,000 members. Large
communities such as these allow people who share similar
paraphilias to correspond and reinforce each other’s
ideations, giving them a sense of communal acceptance,
if not normalcy (see also Deirmenjian, 2002; McGrath
& Casey, 2002); however we do not know whether
such “cyber-support” leads to increased obsessions by
individuals with such fetishes.
The fifth most common reason in our study for
seeking castration was a desire to be more submissive
to a partner (Table V). A quarter of our respondents
selected that as a reason for castration. Fictional castration
stories that devotees post on www.eunuch.org typically fit
this masochist fetish model and a belief that castration
produces extreme submissiveness. Endocrinology belies
this fantasy. Castratedmales have approximately the same
androgen titers as females and one should not expect
the castrated male to be any more (or less) submissive
than the average female in any particular society. The
thousands of males that are surgically or chemically
castrated each year for the treatment of cancer do not
stand out in our modern society as being exceptionally
submissive. Furthermore, studies of eunuchs in history
reveal that many were generals, chief advisors, powerful
administrators; hardly meek, malleable, or obsequiously
submissive in any obvious way (Scholz, 2001; Segal,
2001; Tsai, 1996, 2002).
Our survey identified a population of well-educated,
adult men fascinated with the idea of being castrated and,
in some cases, have evidently held such fascination for
Motivation for Voluntary Castration 439
decades.Assuming our respondents have been honestwith
us,many would voluntarily have orchiectomies if they felt
that the procedure was simple, safe, and inexpensive.
Themost common reasons that our respondents gave
forwanting to be castrated are all in accordwith the classic
motivation of ascetics, that is, to ascend above carnal
desires. Voluntary castration for this reason has been part
of religious rituals for millennia (Money, 1988; Scholz,
2001; Taylor, 2000). Our data were consistent with the
view that, for most individuals who desire castration, this
passionwas “not impulsive, but the result of long-standing
conflicts, usually involving difficulties . . . to cope with
sexual drives” (Sirota et al., 1994).
The interest in castration for a substantial number
of our respondents, however, was of a fetishistic nature,
reflecting fantasies ofmasochism and submissiveness that
do not match the psychoendocrinological realities of androgen
deprivation. Psychiatric research has documented
enough cases of self-inflicted genitalmutilation to indicate
that this psychopathology is hardly new (e.g., Aboseif
et al., 1993; Becker & Hartmann, 1997; Money, 1988;
Sirota et al., 1994; Wise & Kalyanam, 2000).
Whether the fact that the Internet now allows men
with such fetishes to correspond with each other is a
good or bad thing cannot be resolved with the little
information that we have. Internet support groups have
been shown to reduce depression and perceived stress
for women with breast cancer (Winzelberg et al., 2003).
But how these communities affect individuals when their
common shared feature is a paraphilia rather than an
oncological illness is not known (see McGrath & Casey,
2002; Williams & Weinberg, 2003, for possibilities in
this regard). On the one hand, it is possible that such
keyboard camaraderie may inspire some men to act out
their fantasies (Quayle&Taylor, 2001).On the other hand,
these cyber associations may be safety valves that allow
individuals with paraphilias, who could be dangerous to
themselves or others, to displace the risk of real mutilating
injury with the more benign symptoms of excess time at
the computer terminal.
One of the more surprising discoveries from our
survey was the large number of men who wanted to be
castrated because they liked the look of a castrated male,
that is, the appearance of the perineum with the scrotum
removed.We believe this to be a rather new (postmodern)
reason for seeking castration. The psychiatric literature
that we have reviewed does not list this as a motivation
for castration outside of transsexualism.
What accounts for this new motivation is unknown.
We speculate that it is fueled by the growing popularity
of body modification in general (i.e., piercing, tattooing,
cosmetic surgery) and the fact that images of surgically
modified genitalia are now easily accessed on the Internet
and in some adult magazines.
Should any of the eunuchwannabes in our study wish
to bring their fantasies to fruition, the Internet provides
them with all the information they need. The reality is that
one can now get detailed directions on how to perform and
where to obtain orchiectomies directly from the web (see
Wise & Kalyanam, 2000).
Several facts taken together present a disturbing
picture. First, a substantial number of men with castration
fixations (about 40%) are embarrassed to talk to their
doctors about their obsession (Table III). This increases
the likelihood that—should they decide to live out
their fantasies—the procedure will be performed in a
nonmedical setting. Some men, out of desperation, may
go to street-cutters6 or self-mutilate (e.g., Israel, 1998;
Murphy, Murphy, & Grainger, 2001; Sirota et al., 1994).
People who are not medically qualified offer their services
via the Internet to eunuch wannabes for free or at costs
below those ofmedically qualified personnel. Some of the
would-be eunuchs end up in emergency rooms as a result
of these illegal procedures (see Masson & Klein, 2002).
If trial runs with chemical castration were an option
for more men with castration fixations, perhaps fewer
would take matters into their own hands. Our survey
revealed that at least 25% of our respondents would happily
explore a short-term course of temporary chemical
castration before having an orchiectomy. This would give
them a chance to experience the effects of androgen deprivation
without the irreversibility of surgery. Of course,
this requires that the individual contemplating nonmedical
castration via either self-surgery or street-cutters first
discuss their desire for castration with their doctors
and seek counseling. Physicians can help these patients
by initiating discussions that explore, in a supportive
and nonjudgmental fashion, the castration fantasies and
medical options available to these men. As an adjuvant
to counseling, our data suggest that many men with
castration paraphilia would happily undertake chemical
castration if the opportunity were provided them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“One2dizzo” helped us format our survey for efficient
posting on the Internet. Laura Bennett, Michele
Byers, Ross Gray, Andrew Harris, Josie Johnston, Clyde
Olson, Jean Olson, Wendy Olson, Kerri Oseen, Steven
6The USA’s most recognized street-cutter, Gelding, by 2000
may have castrated >50 men (see www.sfweekly.com/issues/2000-
06-28/feature2.html/l/index.html). Details on his life can be
found at http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywo.../castrate.html and
www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/gelding.html.
440 Wassersug, Zelenietz, and Squire
Phelps, Lesley Roberts,DollyWadhwa, KarenWarkentin,
and Stephen Workman all offered insightful discussion
and comments on draft manuscripts. This research was
supported in part by a Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research grant to RJW.
APPENDIX
Question 1: What Is Your Castration Status?
1. I have been castrated for medical reasons and,
except for the treatment that it provided for my
medical condition, I regret the other changes it
has made in my life.
2. I have been castrated for medical reasons but
I don’t find the changes it made in my life
particularly surprising or regrettable.
3. I have been castrated for medical reasons and
coincidentally found the changes it made in my
life better than I expected.
4. I have been castrated as part of the sequence
toward sexual reassignment and now regret
having it done.
5. I have been castrated as part of the sequence
toward sexual reassignment and the changes it
has made in my life are neither surprising nor
regrettable.
6. I have been castrated as part of the sequence
toward sexual reassignment and coincidentally
found the changes it made in my life better than
I expected.
7. I was castrated to fulfill a sexual/emotional need
(other than transitioning from male to female)
and regret having it done.
8. I was castrated to fulfill a sexual/emotional need
(other than transitioning from male to female)
and find the changes it has made in my life not
particularly exciting or regrettable.
9. I was castrated to fulfill a sexual/emotional need
(other than transitioning from male to female)
and find the changes it has made in my life better
than I expected.
10. I plan to be castrated for medical/health reasons.
11. I never want to be truly castrated, but I fantasize
about it.
12. I think I would submit to castration, if I could
have a scene just like my fondest fantasy.
13. I would submit to castration only if my partner
truly wanted me to be their eunuch.
14. Iwant to be awoman’s (or man’s, if gay) eunuch,
but would consider castration only if my partner
sincerely shared my lifestyle ideal.
15. I wouldn’t hesitate to be castrated if an affordable
and medically safe operation was available.
16. I want to be castrated so badly I’m willing to
be castrated in a non-clinical environment by a
non-MD.
17. None of the above statements closely approximate
my situation or feelings. (If you choose
this selection, please send a brief explanation
with your response).
Question 2: Why Haven’t You Been Castrated?
1. Iwould like a trial runwith a reversible chemical
castration first.
2. I fear knowledge of my castration could cause
problems for me in the workplace.
3. I fear my wife/partner would disapprove of my
decision to be castrated.
4. I fear family members, other than wife or partner,
would disapprove of my decision to be castrated.
5. I have no partner and fear I’ll damage my
chances of finding one, if I become a eunuch.
6. A medically safe castration is too expensive for
my budget.
7. I’m embarrassed to talk to my physician or
urologist about this.
8. I fear an operation by a street-cutter would be
dangerous.
9. I would only want to be castrated in a BDSM
scene of my liking, not in a sterile, serious
clinical environment.
10. If castration was as cheap, safe, and painless as
a flu shot, I’d be much more likely to get it done.
11. I am concerned about long-term side effects
other than loss of libido.
12. Other. (If you choose this selection, please send
a brief explanation with your response.)
Question 3: Why Do You Want to Be Castrated?
1. For treatment or prevention of a medical condition
(i.e., prostate cancer, testicular cancer, or
any medical consideration).
2. Foolproof birth control.
3. Asense of control over one’s sexual urges and/or
sexual appetite.
4. A feeling of calm, often called the eunuch calm.
5. Partner’s sex drive is much lower, castration
of husband would make for more harmonious
marriage.
Motivation for Voluntary Castration 441
6. Perception that relationship with partner would
become more intimate if man were castrated.
7. As a symbol and token of total trust in his partner.
Giving partner control over HRT is important.
8. Feeling a deep desire to be submissive to partner.
9. Feeling a deep desire to become submissive to
women in general.
10. Male guilt. The perception that women in general
have suffered historically at the hands of
male-dominated culture.
11. Specific personal guilt. Something that individual
has done that warrants castration as a means
of atonement.
12. Guilt over one’s sexuality in general. Feeling
that all sexual thoughts and desires are wrong.
13. Castration for religious reasons.
14. A desire to become free of the power women
hold over me through sexual attraction.
15. Avoidance of military service.
16. Avoidance of male responsibilities or pressure
to be macho.
17. Increased chance of receiving unconditional
love, like a pet or baby.
18. A reaction to feelings of sexual inadequacy
(perceived or real)—needing to feel accepted as
less than a man.
19. Cosmetic effect. Just like the look.
20. As a transitional stage in sexual reassignment
surgery.
21. Retaining youthful soprano singing voice
(castrati).
22. The excitement of the castration scene itself.
23. The physical pain of castration.
24. Other. (If you list “Other” among your selections,
please include a brief description in your
reply.)
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Anonymous. (2003, May 5). Castration procedure not used on
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[vesal_mas]

Eunuchs in Historical Perspective
Kathryn M. Ringrose*
University of California, San Diego
Abstract
This article examines the meaning of the terms ‘eunuch’ and ‘castration’ and situates
these terms in an historical context. It divides castrated eunuchs into two groups,
those who castrate themselves voluntarily for religious reasons and those who are
castrated by others either as a punishment or in order to create an individual who
is significantly different from a whole man. This second group is further divided based on
the tasks for which the eunuch is prepared. These may be sexual or lie in the area
of personal service. Three major court cultures are compared, Islam, Byzantium,
and China, and several religious cults that encourage self-castration are also discussed.
Serious study of eunuchs as individuals and as social groups is relatively new.
Earlier historians often pointed them out, generally associating them with
the moral and political decline of whatever empire they were writing about.
One has only to look at the work of J. B. Bury to see this pattern. Thanks
in part to the new analytical tools developed as a part of gender studies, this
picture has changed dramatically and we can now recognize that eunuchs
were an integral component of many societies and that they were important
to the long-term stability of these societies. Some individual eunuch
communities have been given detailed consideration, others are still in need
of serious investigation. We now have studies of eunuchs in Late Antiquity,
Byzantium, Islam, and China, but little has been written about eunuchs in
the courts of Southeast Asia, India, or Africa. Since many western scholars
still approach the topic with revulsion, we also lack studies of eunuchs in
Muslim Spain, North Africa, or at the courts of Sicily and southern Italy.
Few scholars have attempted to study eunuchs within the larger framework
of the history of the Afro-Euro-Asian World. It is clear that there was a
worldwide trade in eunuchs and that it was a subset of the slave trade, but
the geography of the trade in eunuchs has not yet been clearly mapped
out. This will not be an easy task. As I will discuss later in this essay, an
important part of the tradition surrounding eunuchs is the fact that their
families must be forgotten, and so they are rarely mentioned in our
sources. This makes it difficult to identify eunuchs’ place of origin. The facts
of their castration also must remain hidden. We have biographical data on
a few Chinese eunuchs, but information of this kind is rare regarding the
eunuchs of Islam or Byzantium.
© 2007 The Author
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At the same time the direct sources from societies that included eunuchs
contain a large amount of pejorative commentary about them, commentary
that is invariably written by whole men. While the study of eunuchs
inevitably is enriched by a linguistic study of that pejorative literature, little
that is good is ever said about eunuchs, and what is said is often expressed
in highly coded language. This reflects the fact that eunuchs fell outside of
clearly defined gender categories yet had access to positions of great status
and power. Thanks to newer techniques for reading texts as layered sources
we can now analyze what eunuchs were accused of being and grasp what
they actually were.
Today many scholars are asking whether eunuchs represent a third gender
or a third sex category. I am inclined to believe that this is not a valid
question to ask about historical eunuchs. Contemporary society tends to
look at issues of sexuality and gender in terms of male, female, and
other. Today we usually determine these categories based on biology and
gendered attributes. It is risky to assume that tenth-century Chinese,
Byzantine, or Moslem societies used the same categories that we now use.
Despite pejorative rhetoric that compared Byzantine eunuchs to women,
for example, it is clear that they were considered to be men, though men
with different attributes, talents, and physiology when compared to whole
men.
The term eunuch is very old. It derives from the Greek word for bed,
and refers to the oldest role that eunuchs played in aristocratic society:
guardians of the bedchamber. In a very general sense, the term eunuch, even
today, is used to refer to a man who has lost the ability to or chooses not to
engage in sexual intercourse which will result in procreation. Such men
are usually sterile, though they may choose to be sexually active. Ancient
societies distinguished between natural eunuchs and eunuchs who were
created through various kinds of castration. The term ‘natural eunuch’ or
‘eunuch by nature’ referred to individuals, male or female, young or old
who elected to remain celibate throughout their lives. It could also refer to
men who were born with underdeveloped sexual organs due to chromosomal
abnormalities, rare genetic conditions like 5alpha-Reductase Deficiency and
Klinefelter Syndrome. In some ancient societies natural eunuchs who had
defective genitalia were destroyed at birth. In others, like Byzantine society,
natural eunuchs were revered. Many Byzantine churchmen believed that
God had freed these men from the troublesome sinfulness of sexual congress.
In India natural eunuchs with deformed genitalia were turned over to a
special eunuch community, the hijra, for rearing. While natural eunuchs
appear in modern society, they are now difficult to identify because surgery
and testosterone treatments ‘normalize’ their condition.
The majority of eunuchs are men who have been intentionally castrated
or suffered a severe genital injury. Castration, like eunuch, is a very broad
term. It can refer to the removal of the testicles, the removal of all the male
sexual organs, or, in modern times, the use of drugs that destroy testosterone.
496 . Eunuchs in Historical Perspective
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Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Drug or chemical castration is sometimes used to ‘cure’ serial sex offenders.
Recently new testosterone destroying drugs have proven to be an effective
treatment for advanced prostate cancer in elderly patients who cannot
withstand surgery.
Types of castration vary from one society to another and from one
historical period to another. We find examples of eunuchs whose scrotum
and penis were removed (total ablation) in order to create an individual
who resembles a woman, while not being a woman. Some of these eunuchs,
who often died as a result of the surgery, were intended to serve as objects
of sexual pleasure in brothels. Others were destined to serve women. Chinese
and Islamic cultures frowned on expressions of sexual pleasure of any kind
between women of the court and their servants, making total ablation
necessary. Candidates for service at court in China were required to display
their severed and preserved genitalia as proof of total ablation. Total ablation
is a drastic kind of surgery, yet it was the most common type of castration
practiced among the Chinese. They were skilled and had developed surgical
procedures that had a relatively low mortality rate. The eunuchs who served
in the inner courts of the Islamic world were also totally castrated. Referred
to as the ‘Black Eunuchs’, most of them were brought from Africa as part
of an active slave trade. They were usually castrated in Africa, near ports of
debarkation or in specialized castration centers in Egypt. Mortality rates for
these castrates were very high.
A more common type of castration involves the destruction of the testicles
alone. This can be accomplished by removing them from the scrotal sack
or through ligature – tying off the base of the scrotal sack so that the testicles
atrophy. This surgery is understood by most cultures that deal with large
animal husbandry. Castration of this sort was practiced on adult men and
pre-adolescent boys, with very different results.
Adult castration was usually a punishment. From antiquity until modern
times soldiers have castrated their fallen enemies and governments (or
community vigilantes, as in the famous case of the castration of Peter
Abelard)1 have used castration as a punishment for sexual transgressions. Adult
slaves might also be castrated to improve their market value or to prepare
them for positions traditionally held by eunuchs.
Childhood castration, castration before puberty, was done in hopes of
creating an individual who was significantly different from a normal man.
Boys castrated before puberty developed a distinctive appearance and perhaps
a distinctive personality. Because they never completed normal puberty and
missed the developmental changes brought about by the adolescent phase
of testosterone production, men castrated as children remained beardless
with fresh, clear complexions and had patterns of fat deposition characteristic
of women. The epiphysial plates, that is the growth plates, in their long
bones did not close at puberty, resulting in an individual with unusually
long arms and legs and a tall, though frail stature. The bones of the lower
face did not mature, resulting in a triangular face with a small chin. Their
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Eunuchs in Historical Perspective . 497
hair was thick and luxuriant and did not fall out as they aged. Their voices
remained high pitched, and their musical ability was admired and cultivated
in Europe from the fourth into the nineteenth centuries. While these
eunuchoid characteristics are not necessarily aesthetically favored today, they
have been appreciated in some cultures in the past. Prepubescent castrates
acted as courtiers in Hellenistic, Byzantine, Muslim, and Chinese courts. In
cultures that admired the beauty of boys at the cusp of manhood, castration
offered a way of preserving their appearance, if only for a time. The beautiful
soprano voices of castrated men were recognized and appreciated as early
as the fourth century. Castrated singers performed in both church and court
settings in the Byzantine world, a tradition that continued in the west until
the nineteenth century.
Eunuchs usually suffered from long-term medical problems as a result of
castration. Chinese and Muslim eunuchs who had suffered total ablation
were fitted with a small lead pipe that kept the urethra open after the removal
of the penis. This frequently led to lifelong urinary tract problems. In these
cultures pejorative rhetoric often mentions the foul odor that surrounds the
eunuch’s body. Even eunuchs who had been deprived of only their testicles,
and thus testosterone production, suffered from premature aging,
osteoporosis, diseases of the heart and circulatory system, and diabetes.
Eunuchs were sterile and most, but not all, of them lost all interest in sexual
activity. The sexual abilities/disabilities of eunuchs were regularly debated
in the literature of all the cultures that had eunuch servants.
Historically eunuchs could be found in many parts of the Africa, Asia,
and Mediterranean Europe. In China they can be documented as early as
the Shang dynasty (1765–1222 BC). By the Later Han dynasty (AD 25–219)
they were an important element of Chinese government, but later were
repressed. Another apogee of eunuch power appears in the Tang dynasty
(618–906), followed again by decline. By the end of the fifteenth century,
during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), it has been estimated that there were
10,000 eunuchs serving in the Forbidden City, the closed political and
courtly nerve center of the Chinese Empire. In 1644, the beginning of the
Quing dynasty, this number had risen to 100,000.2
Most Chinese eunuchs were drawn from poor families that castrated their
children in order to help them attain a secure position at court. Others were
drawn from among those punished through judicial castration. As the
Chinese Empire grew eunuchs were increasingly drawn from outlying
provinces, often as diplomatic gifts. At the end of the fourteenth century,
when the Mongols were pushed out of China, beautiful castrated boys were
sent as diplomatic gifts from Korea, the Annam and Ryukyu Islands,
Cambodia, Central Asia, Siam, and Okinawa.3 In China eunuchs’ roles seem
to be associated with the court and its administrative and ceremonial
functions. They also commonly acted as the servants and guardians of
women. In the Ming period they held important posts in virtually every
part of the government.
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There is evidence, though disputed by some scholars, that eunuchs served
as courtiers in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (934–610 BC). There were certainly
eunuchs in Ancient Egypt and in the later Persian Empire, and the practice
of making and having eunuch servants was continued in the Hellenistic and
Roman worlds. Eunuchs were very important in the Late Roman world
and in Christian Byzantium centered on the court at Constantinople. The
Byzantines bought eunuchs from tribal peoples along the Black Sea coast
and in the Caucasus Mountains. Abchasia, on the eastern coast of the Black
Sea, is frequently mentioned as a source of eunuchs. Later eunuchs were
brought from Slavic lands and even from Western Europe. Although the
mythology that Christians did not castrate was fiercely maintained, and
legislation provided severe penalties for those who performed castrations, it
is clear that castration was regularly practiced in the Byzantine world. The
practice was partially protected by legislation that allowed castration
for medical reasons, more specifically, hernia. In Byzantium eunuchs
served at court, in large aristocratic households, and in churches and
monasteries. Although Byzantium did not have the kind of elaborate harem
structure that is later found in Muslim courts, eunuchs were prized as
guardians of women and children and personal servants for both men and
women.
While eunuchs were not a prominent feature in early Islam, the Islamic
world adopted the practice of having eunuch servants from earlier Near
Eastern cultures. As Islam spread west across North Africa, southern Spain,
and southern Italy and Sicily the custom of having eunuch servants was
carried with it. Eunuchs served as trusted servants at court and in the harem
and as guardians of Islam’s most sacred shrines. Black eunuchs were brought
from Africa by way of Egypt. White eunuchs from Western Europe and
Slavic lands were purchased at slave markets, brought to Spain for castration,
then shipped east. Others, castrated in Byzantium and captured in war, were
sent to serve in Islamic courts in the East.4 The practice of having eunuch
servants still exists in modern Islam. As of 1990, thirty-one elderly eunuch
tomb guards were still serving at shrines in Mecca and Medina.
While castration was often involuntary, we also have extensive evidence
that men long have castrated themselves or had themselves castrated for
religious reasons, and this practice continues into modern times. Castrated
priests served the mother goddess Cybele, a very old cult the Greeks adopted
from the Phrygians about 700 BC. Texts that refer to self-castration among
cult members date from the fourth and fifth centuries BC, and suggest
that ritual self-castration was required for membership in the cult’s
priesthood. The cult flourished in ‘holy cities’ like Hierapolis in Asia Minor,
where eunuch priests guarded holy shrines. In 204 BC the cult of Cybele,
the mother goddess, her castrated companion, Attis, and her eunuch priests
who were called galli, was brought to Rome. Although conservative Romans
were not happy with this addition to their pantheon, the worship of the
Cybele became very popular at Rome.
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Eunuchs in Historical Perspective . 499
Ritual castration appears among some early Christian communities,
especially those with a severely dualistic view of the natural world, one that
saw human sexuality and reproduction as the work of the devil. For these
individuals castration offered a way to halt the imprisonment of new souls
in an evil world. Other early Christian men had themselves castrated so that
they could minister to women in their congregations. These seem to have
been Origen’s5 motives for his own castration. While castration continued
to appear among Christian communities, it was never officially condoned
by the church. Many early Christian monks and nuns were referred to as
eunuchs, but we have no way of knowing whether this is a reference to
their celibacy or their physical condition. We know, however, that castration
was relatively common among monks and churchmen of the Byzantine
world. The lives of Byzantine saints talk about children destined for the
religious life who were castrated at their parents’ request in preparation for
entering monasteries or special schools that trained them to serve as musicians
or church functionaries. Several important leaders of the eastern church
were eunuchs. The hagiographical writings associated with this tradition
make it clear that, despite legal prohibitions, castration in preparation
for a religious career had become an accepted practice by the nineth
century in Byzantium. During the Middle Ages, in both Eastern and
Western Europe, a common theme in the writing of the lives of Saints
describes a dream in which the saint is castrated and thus relieved of all
sexual desires.6
In the eighteenth century a self-castrating Christian cult, the Skoptsy,
appeared in Russia. Elite cult members practiced total ablation, seeing it as
a mark of holiness.7 Their motivations were not unlike those of the early
Christians who wanted to depopulate a world ruled by demonic forces. The
cult was not suppressed until the twentieth century. As recently as the 1990s
voluntary castration appeared among members of the Heaven’s Gate cult in
the United States.
A religiously based cult practicing self-castration known as the hijra has
been known in India since the second century BC. Traditionally the cult
provided a refuge for male children born with malformed sexual organs and
intersexual children. The hijra community is dedicated to the Hindu goddess,
Bahuchara Mata. Cult members are believed to have the power to bring
fertility to marital unions and good luck to new-born children. Like the
Skoptsy many hijras have themselves castrated in order to demonstrate the
depth of their religious commitment. The hijras traditionally support themselves
by singing and dancing at weddings. More recently some members have
begun to support themselves through prostitution, though this is frowned
on by older, more traditional members of hijra communities. The cult
continues to exist today – a member of a hijra community recently ran for
a high political office in India. In modern India membership in a hijra
community has offered a refuge for intersexuals, cross-dressers and
individuals who wish to change their sexual orientation.8
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Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
All historical eunuchs were ambiguous figures. They were necessary to
the smooth functioning of society, yet they were often despised. Their
appearance was admired, yet that same appearance offered men a frightening
reminder of the fragility of their own sexuality. They were objects of desire
yet at the same time many found them to be repulsive. In the Late Antique
and Byzantine worlds the very language used about eunuchs was ambiguous,
and shared terminology with language used about both magicians and angels.
Whether drawn from slave or free communities, eunuchs were expected
to distance themselves from their natal families and concentrate their loyalties
on a master or patron. This is clearly articulated in Chinese, Byzantine, and
Islamic societies. Because eunuchs were traditionally separated from their
familial backgrounds, the idea grew up that they existed outside of normal
space and time. Their place of birth or time of death are rarely discussed in
our written sources. In general (and there are a few outstanding exceptions
to this rule) their natal families are never mentioned. Eunuchs existed outside
of the normal patriarchal family structure and they did not experience the
usual milestones of masculine life: birth, puberty, marriage, fatherhood, and
death. This reinforced their distinctive nature and suggested that they might
be able to cross spiritual boundaries.
In many cultures, and especially those that put religious value on enforced
celibacy, eunuchs were believed to be able to cross the boundary between
the material and spiritual worlds. This was especially true of Late Antique
and Byzantine society, where many literary sources regularly confused
eunuchs with angels. In these societies angels were painted with beardless,
eunuchoid faces and presented in roles that paralleled those assigned to
eunuchs at the Byzantine court: ceremonial escorts, messengers, official
representatives of higher authorities. In saints’ lives eunuchs escort the saint
to heaven, but cannot enter because they are not angels, they are mortals,
yet mortals of a special sort. In Islamic literature eunuchs are able to enter
the Prophet’s tomb, while whole men, no matter how holy, suffer blindness
or death if they attempt to enter this sacred place.9 In Islam, Byzantium and
China eunuchs regularly appear as guardians of tombs and other sacred
places. In India many of the ideas that support castration among the hijras
are based on Vedic traditions that teach that castration brings spiritual
power.10
Eunuchs played liminal roles in society. That is they were able to operate
at the boundaries between widely divided social groups. In all societies that
have eunuchs we find that they mediated between men and women, the
rich and the poor and served as guardians of the young and helpless. At court
they controlled the regalia that defined imperial authority, thus mediating
between the physical and spiritual signs of an emperor’s ruling power. Since
they controlled the imperial regalia, they had a great deal of influence in the
selection and validation of a new political leader. In Byzantium, China,
and Islam rulers were closely guarded and were separated from the rest of
society. Their residences were sacrosanct. Eunuchs inevitably served as
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Eunuchs in Historical Perspective . 501
guardians of these imperial spaces. The keeper of the door was always a
eunuch.
Eunuchs were assumed to be unfailingly loyal to their masters or
patrons. This was true of eunuchs in Byzantium, China, and Islam. They
could also act as surrogates for their masters, and usually suffered for their
masters’ mistakes. In my own work, which centers on the eunuchs of the
Byzantine court, I have suggested that they were castrated, acculturated,
and educated to become perfect servants.
Most sources that describe eunuchs suggest that they have unusual
personalities and talents. While it is easy to dismiss this as pejorative writing,
we need to test this assumption against modern scientific theories. Modern
neuroscientific research suggests that testosterone deprivation at puberty
might affect the developing adolescent brain, creating an individual with
specific talents and limitations. Historically eunuchs were certainly assumed
to have specific talents, to be skilled at organizational tasks like bookkeeping,
secretarial work, and accounting. Because of their liminal qualities they often
served as teachers, physicians, and guardians of women and children. Many
eunuchs were famous as military leaders, but when they were praised it was
for their fairness, strategical skill, and organizational abilities, not their courage.
While little comparative research on eunuchs has been attempted, if we
examine the structures of the great courts of the Middle Ages and the Early
Modern periods we find that there are remarkable parallels between the
positions assigned to eunuchs in the Chinese, Byzantine, and Muslim courts.
In China virtually all the men employed in the palace were eunuchs. They
handled all palace ceremonial, construction and repairs, guarded the imperial
records, decrees, and seals, supervised the preparation of meals, making and
cleaning of imperial clothing, the care of all animals connected with the
court, did the housekeeping, staffed the imperial messenger service and the
palace gates, prepared and distributed imperial gifts, and educated and
provided medical treatment for the imperial family. By the Ming period
their role had extended to service in the army and navy, the collection of
tribute, the making and supervision of armaments, the management of
imperial farms, estates, tombs, and shrines outside the city, and the
supervision of every pass, security point, trading post, and sacred mountain
in the country. They were infamous for their role in the imperial secret
service.11
In Byzantium the task of running the great palace at Constantinople was
shared with whole men. Specific court positions, however, were reserved
for eunuchs. They held the washing bowl in which the emperor washed
his hands and they ceremonially purified his food with drops of water.
They served him in his private quarters and attended him on ceremonial
occasions. Armed, they escorted him on parade. They guarded the palace
doors. They supervised the palace servants and were responsible for the
clothing and furnishings in the palace. They guarded the key to the oratory
of St. Theodore where the most important imperial regalia and insignia
502 . Eunuchs in Historical Perspective
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were stored. They served the emperor at his table, organized imperial
banquets, greeted guests and seated them at the table, orchestrated
entertainment, and saw to the emperor’s personal comfort. They cared for
the emperor’s wardrobe, dressed him and put on and took off his imperial
crown, an elaborate ceremonial that could not be viewed by any whole man
other than the Patriarch.12 They watched over the women and children of
the imperial family, playing a major role in the ceremony at which the
imperial heir received his first haircut. In China there is a similar ‘first haircut’
ceremony presided over by a eunuch. They educated the imperial children,
each of whom developed his or her own corps of personal servants, all of
whom were eunuchs. Eunuchs were frequently selected to serve on
diplomatic missions as surrogates for the emperor. They managed imperial
properties outside Constantinople. Many eunuchs used their wealth to
endow churches, monasteries, and other philanthropic establishments. Others
funded cultural activities.
The roles of the eunuchs of the Grand Seraglio in Istanbul, the center of
power for the Ottoman Empire, closely resembled those of the eunuchs of
the Byzantine court. The physical nature of these eunuchs, however, was
different. While the Byzantine eunuchs were only partially castrated,
Mohammed the Conqueror, when he took the city of Constantinople in
1453, demanded that all the eunuchs of the inner court be fully castrated
following Islamic custom. The eunuchs in the Grand Seraglio were in charge
of the handling, supervision, and guardianship of all of the ruler’s money
and property. They cared for his wardrobe, food and drink, and horses. They
supervised his harem and ran his messenger service. They served as educators,
envoys, secretaries, and judges. Like their counterparts in the Byzantine
world they were pious and philanthropic. Many were hadith transmitters
and recorded court ceremonial traditions.13
Since eunuchs cannot have progeny, how are these elaborate communities
of eunuchs maintained? In China there were important incentives for
castration. It was a substitute for capital punishment. For the poor, especially
during times of poverty, castration offered a path to economic security, an
alternative to the career path followed by the scholars who sought success
through the civil service examination. Castration was frowned upon within
the Confucian tradition, but, for the desperately poor, it was an option.
Additional eunuchs were brought from the Chinese provinces, often as
tribute or diplomatic gifts. There were always enough available eunuchs to
fill the needs of the court.
The supply of eunuchs in Muslim courts was directly dependent on the
success of the slave trade. Children or young boys were castrated well before
puberty, then brought to serve in Islamic courts. In general the Muslims did
not castrate their own children and criticized the Byzantines for doing so.
Not surprisingly the Byzantines leveled the same charge against the
Muslims. As long as the slave trade continued there were eunuchs available
to fill the needs of the court.
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Eunuchs in Historical Perspective . 503
In Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine empire, eunuchs often were
purchased from slave dealers. By the ninth century, however, there is
increasing evidence that young boys were being castrated within Byzantine
territories and sent to court for further training and, later, employment at
court. There is scattered evidence that seems to indicate that senior eunuchs
at court recruited promising young men for service. Once at court, the
senior eunuch would serve as the young eunuch’s patron, helping him to
build his career. We see here a kind of social reproduction. Although the
castration of a citizen was technically illegal, Christian teachings that favored
the celibate life gave castration and enforced celibacy an aura of acceptability,
especially in religious circles. There is no indication that the Byzantines ever
lacked sufficient eunuchs to staff the court.
It is interesting that there are so many cultural parallels among societies
that castrate men and then create specialized positions for them within the
court and aristocratic society. It would be interesting to look for links
between these traditions. Likewise the idea that celibacy brings spiritual
power is very widespread in religious systems of the Middle East, suggesting
a commonality between the hijra, galli, the early Christian sects that practiced
castration, and the skoptsi.
All of this brings us to the most important historical question about
eunuchs which is ‘Why eunuchs?’ In this article I have dealt with two
different castration traditions and each would answer this question in its own
way. Some religious systems believe that sexuality and fertility belong to a
lesser material world, or even an evil material world that is set in opposition
to a spiritual world. For those who think in this way castration becomes a
way of leaving the material world and accessing the power of the spiritual
world. The sacrifice that is represented by castration offers a very special
kind of status, whether it be the holiness of a Christian monk or the good
luck offered by a hijra.
The great courts of China, Islam, and Byzantium all were ruled by absolute
monarchs and were constructed to protect them from danger and outside
intrusion. Isolated from their subjects, these rulers took on an almost sacral
aura. Power lay with the ruler and those who were allowed to share his
sacred space. It was important that those who had proximity to the ruler be
totally loyal to the ruler alone and unable to procreate children or advance
members of their own families who might threaten the succession to the
throne. In the Byzantine case there is the added spirituality/magicality that
is ascribed to the eunuch because of his enforced celibacy. Within these
structures, castration could become a road to wealth and power.
Short Biography
Dr Kathryn M. Ringrose is a lecturer in history at the University of
California, San Diego. She has written extensively on Byzantine monks,
eunuchs, and court life.
504 . Eunuchs in Historical Perspective
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Notes
* Correspondence address: University of California, San Diego – History Department, Humanities
and Social Sciences Building, Room 5016, 9500 Gilman Drive MC0104, San Diego, CA
92093-0104, USA. Email: kringrose@ucsd.edu.
1 Peter Abelard (1079–1142), philosopher and monk, was castrated as a punishment for his indiscrete
conduct with his student, Heloise.
2 S. H. Tsai, The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press,
1996), 11.
3 Ibid., 15.
4 P. Scholz, Eunuchs and Castrati: A Cultural History (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers,
2001), vi.
5 Origen, a prominent philosopher and theologian, was born about 185 AD, probably in Alexandria
in Egypt.
6 J. Murray,‘Mystical Castration: Some Reflections on Peter Abelard, Hugh of Lincoln and Sexual
Control’, in J. Murray (ed.), Conflicted Identities and Multiple Masculinities (New York, NY: Garland
Press, 1999), 73–91.
7 L. Engelstein, Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1999), 11–24.
8 S. Nanda, Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijra of India (New York, NY: Wadsworth Press, 1990);
R. Gayatri,‘With Respect to Sex: Charting Hijra Identity in Hyderabad, India’, Ph.D. dissertation
(Emory University, 2000).
9 S. Marmon, Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1995), 48.
10 Gayatri,‘With Respect to Sex’, 98.
11 Tsai, Eunuchs in Ming, 30–110.
12 The primate of the Christian church in the Eastern Mediterranean. He lived in a palace close
to the imperial palace in Constantinople.
13 D. Ayalon, Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study of Power Relationships (Israel: The Magnes
Press,The Hebrew University, 1999), 330.
Bibliography
Anderson, M., Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books,
1990).
Ayalon, D., Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study of Power Relationships (Israel:The Magnes Press,
The Hebrew University, 1999).
Brower, G., ‘Ambivalent Bodies: Making Christian Eunuchs’, Ph.D. dissertation (Duke University,
1996).
Engelstein, L., Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1999).
Finucci,V., The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the Italian Renaissance
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003).
Gayatri, R.,‘With Respect to Sex: Charting Hijra Identity in Hyderabad, India’, Ph.D. dissertation
(Emory University, 2000).
Kuefler, M. S., ‘Castration and Eunuchism in the Middle Ages’, in Vern L. Bullough and James
A. Brundage (eds.), Handbook of Medieval Sexuality (New York, NY: Garland Pubishing, Inc.,
1996), 279–306.
——, The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Marmon, S., Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1995).
Murray, J.,‘Mystical Castration: Some Reflections on Peter Abelard, Hugh of Lincoln and Sexual
Control’, in Jacqueline Murray (ed.), Conflicted Identities and Multiple Masculinities: Men in the
Medieval West (New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999).
Nanda, S., Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijra of India (New York, NY: Wadsworth Press, 1990).
© 2007 The Author History Compass 5/2 (2007): 495–506, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00379.x
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Eunuchs in Historical Perspective . 505
Ringrose, K.,‘Living in the Shadows: Eunuchs and Gender in Byzantium’, in Gilbert Herdt (ed.),
Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History (New York, NY: Zone
Books, 1994), 85–109.
——, The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in the Byzantine Empire
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003).
Scholz, P., Eunuchs and Castrati: A Cultural History (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001).
Tougher, S., ‘Byzantine Eunuchs: An Overview,With Special Reference to Their Creation and
Origin’, in L. James (ed.),Women, Men and Eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium (London: Routledge,
1997), 168–184.
——, The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society (working title) (London: Routledge, forthcoming).
Tsai, S. H., The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty (New York, NY: State University of New York
Press, 1996).
Wyke, M. (ed.), Gender and the Body in the Ancient Mediterranean (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,
1998).
506 . Eunuchs in Historical Perspective
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Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

[vesal_mas]

The Last Days of the Castrato
Ted Dougherty
August 31, 2005
School 16 – Music History
MA Comprehensive Exam Essay
1
For more than a century, castrated singers dominated the landscape of opera. Indeed, their
popularity far transcended the art form itself, making them the rock stars of their age. Once their
hegemony began waning, however, it didn’t take long for them to be replaced entirely by other
voice types. There are many contributing factors to their departure from the opera stage, but the
crucial difference between the castrato voice and other voices was that the castrato could not
evolve with the changing times. They were their voices. Their lives were irreversibly devoted to
their style of singing. The female bel canto singer was, to be sure, replaced just as completely as
was the castrato, and women certainly did not disappear from the stage—quite the opposite! But
the castrati were products of their time, and when the musical, philosophical, and social climate
moved beyond them, they no longer had a reason to be.
The practice of castration originated in ancient times and survived to a small degree
throughout medieval Europe. In the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, women were
forbidden from singing (or speaking) in church, so the high vocal parts in the choirs were taken
by choirboys, male falsettists, and a few castrated monks.1 In Spain in the latter sixteenth
century a small group of castrati became well known for their singing, and Spanish castrati soon
spread beyond the Iberian peninsula and into the Papal choir in Rome.2 The power and clarity of
the castrato sound soon came to be preferred by many, including Pope Clement VIII. Thus, even
though castration was banned by Catholic doctrine and punishable by excommunication, their
numbers multiplied in the Papal chapel and before long they replaced the falsettists entirely. 3
The economic crash in Italy in 1620 lead to a sizeable increase in monastic orders, which
secured a living for many lower- and middle-class families, and there soon followed a
1 John Rosselli, Singers of Italian Opera (Cambridge University Press, 1992): 34.
2 Patrick Barbier, The World of the Castrati: the history of an extraordinary operatic phenomenon, Margaret
Crosland, trans. (London: Souvenir, 1996): 8-9.
2
corresponding proliferation of professional church choirs.4 As the demand for singers increased,
parents began to see the castration of their sons for careers in church music as an additional
means of financial security for their families.
Although the increase in the castrati’s numbers coincided almost exactly with the
development of opera, there is no obvious causal relationship either way. 5 In Rome and the
Papal States, where women were still forbidden from the stage, church castrati found work in
opera performing the female roles.6 The castrati became more and more popular among opera
goers due in part to the general Baroque taste for artificiality, the singers’ curiosity-provoking
sexual ambiguity, and above all the unique qualities of the voices which could not be replicated
by women or uncastrated men. 7 There also developed a particular fondness among the public for
higher voices, which were better able to execute the florid style of Baroque vocal writing. 8 As
Italian parents of modest means witnessed the surging popularity of the castrati in opera, the
temptation to emasculate their sons became even more pronounced, thus augmenting the supply
of castrati to feed the ever-rising demand.9 This upward spiral lead to a wild national obsession
with the castrato voice that would endure for more than a century.
In spite of their singular prominence in Italy from the mid-seventeenth to the mideighteenth
centuries, the castrato’s disappearance came as suddenly as had their emergence. The
castrato’s art was inextricably linked to the musical style of the late Baroque, with its filigreed,
freely ornamented melodies. As musical styles inevitably changed, the art of singing needed to
adapt, and by this time the institutions in which the castrati spent their lives training were
3 Enid Rhodes Peschel and Richard E. Peschel, "Medicine and music : the castrati in opera ,” Opera Quarterly
4,4 (1986/87): 21.
4 Rosselli, 35.
5 Rosselli, 33.
6 Rosselli, 41.
7 Barbier, 91-2.
8 Barbier, 91.
3
thoroughly entrenched in the old style. As contemporary opera became less well-suited to their
craft, the stigma that followed the m, which they had always had to endure to some degree, began
to overtake the high regard for them as artists by the public. Ridicule of the castrati became
more open and hostile which, along with decreasing financial prospects, made becoming a
castrato singer even less attractive to young boys and their families. The turbulent social and
political climate of the late eighteenth century finally put an official end to the practice, heralding
the last days of the castrato.
As with any immensely popular artistic style the pendulum of musical taste began swinging
towards the opposite extreme, and in the middle of the eighteenth century the vocal acrobatics
for which the castrati received their wild ovations came under fire from those who took opera
more seriously. Enlightenment philosophers who were interested in the arts spoke out against
such musical abuses and for dramatic truth in opera, launching the guerre des bouffons, a
pamphlet war in which opera seria was pitted against opera buffa.10 The operatic reforms
initiated by Christoph Willibald Gluck in the 1760’s were aimed at eliminating the excesses that
had come to dominate opera seria and bring a foundation of dramatic cohesion back to the
genre. While Gluck's reforms were not aimed at eliminating the castrati—his Orfeo ed Euridice,
largely credited as the beginning of the reform, owed its success largely to castrato Gaetano
Guadagni in the role of Orfeo—he did try to break the tradition of singers run amuck, of which
the superstar castrati were the principal exponents.11 Guadagni, however, was not the typical
castrato. He had little formal training, was most notable for singing oratorio for Handel in
London, and became a fine actor under the instruction of the greatest actor of the age, David
9 Barbier, 20.
10 Richard Somerset-Ward, Angels and Monsters: Male and Female Sopranos in the Story of Opera, 1600-
1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004): 82.
11 Somerset-Ward, 80.
4
Garrick. He "was thus singularly well equipped to provide the composer with both the musical
and dramatic performance he was looking for."12 It is ironic, however, that the singer perhaps
most responsib le for ushering in the end of the castrati’s reign was himself a famous castrato.
At their height the famous castrati could be seen in operatic productions in all the major
countries in western Europe, with one exception: France had never accepted castrati, and never
would. Since Lully began writing operas in the mid-seventeenth century the French had been
developing their own distinct operatic style, which evolved in isolation in the French courts and
palaces. French listeners valued the contrast between high and low registers, and therefore didn't
care for operas in which all the leading roles were sung by high voices.13 This opposed the
widespread taste elsewhere in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the upper registers,
which were better suited to florid ornamentation. 14 From the beginning the French seemed to
dislike everything about the castrati, seeing them as an offense against the natural order. Voltaire
summed up the national sentiment through the character Procurante in Candide: "Swoon with
pleasure if you wish or if you can at the sight of a eunuch warbling the roles of Caesar and Cato
and walking about the stage in a clumsy fashion. As for me, I long ago gave up these miserable
performances which today constitute the glory of Italy and are paid for so dearly by
sovereigns."15 Thus when foreign operas were performed in Paris the roles traditionally sung by
castrati were given to women or, as with Gluck’s Orfeo, rewritten for a natural male voice.16
The practice of other voice types replacing castrati had therefore already been well established
by the time the castrato began vanishing.
12 Somerset-Ward, 81.
13 Sheila Hodges, “A Nest of Nightingales,” The Music Review 54, 2 (May 1993): 84.
14 Barbier, 91.
15 Voltaire, Candide, ch. 25, quoted in Barbier, 223-4.
16 Somerset-Ward, 81.
5
By the century’s last decades, the formulaic opera seria compositions that had devolved into
little more than showcases for star singers were beginning to fall out of favor. Opera buffa, with
its portrayal of more mundane, earthy, comic situations than the heroic and classical themes of
opera seria, was more attuned to the brewing revolutionary spirit; many of the plots involved the
friction between the social classes, with the aristocracy usually receiving its comeuppance. The
trend away from Metastasian opera seria and towards opera buffa (a genre from which castrati
were almost entirely excluded) prompted prominent composers like Gluck, Salieri, Cimarosa,
and Mozart to favor operas in the comic style.17
The rise of opera buffa gained momentum with the help of Rossini's popularity in the early
nineteenth century.18 While Rossini continued to write opere serie—indeed, he reworked the
form into what would become the model for Italian opera for half a century—he only wrote one
leading role for a castrato. Giovanni Battista Velluti sang Rossini's Aureliano in Palmira in
1813, but infuriated the composer with the liberties he took in embellishing the score.19 The
castrati's virtuosic art of improvised embellishments were no longer acceptable in the nineteenth
century, prompting Rossini to begin writing out all of the ornamentation in his vocal parts.
Following this incident, Rossini insisted that all of the high roles in his opere serie be sung by
women.20 While opera seria in some form may have survived into the nineteenth century, the
subjects drifted away from the stories of antiquity and mythology towards more personal dramas.
As Barbier observes, “The true 'death' of the castrati had occurred at the start of the nineteenth
17 Somerset-Ward, 83.
18 Hodges, 93.
19 Hodges, 93.
20 Barbier, 233.
6
century, when opera had replaced the 'gods' by the 'divas', and romanticism had supplanted the
last surviving traces of the baroque world."21
As the first half of the eighteenth cent ury ended, the dire financial conditions which had
driven Italian families to castrate their boys were improving. 1730 began a period of economic
recovery in Italy, giving young men better prospects than being committed to a life of church
singing. 22 Indeed, overall membership in the monastic orders declined steeply, which meant
fewer choirs and hence less opportunity for church singers in general.23 Thus, even at the height
of their operatic dominance, the prospects for castrati singers began looking bleak, and the
number of parents choosing castration for their sons decreased even further. While making one's
son a church singer had carried a reasonable expectation of financial reward and high social
status, castrating him in the hope of his becoming an opera singer was much riskier.24 By 1740,
the castrati’s numbers had begun a marked decline that would continue through the rest of the
century. 25 Concurrently, the infrastructure in which these remarkable musicians received their
training began to weaken. In the mid-eighteenth century, a number of Neapolitan conservatories
were closed due to a combination of mismanagement, financial problems, and an increasing
hostility towards castration by Pope Benedict XIV, precipitating a deterioration in the quality of
vocal pedagogy and further dimming the allure of a career as a castrato singer 26
Though they were adored while on the stage, castrated men faced difficult lives filled with
public scorn and ridicule. There were, of course, significant physical repercussions associated
with castration, apart from the most obvious. Castrated men displayed conspicuous
deformities—elongated arms and legs, enlarged breasts, obesity, lack of beard and body hair—
21 Barbier, 240.
22 Rosselli, 55.
23 Rosselli, 50.
24 Rosselli, 55.
7
which increasingly became the objects of mockery. 27 Dispite rumor and legend to the contrary,
the castrati were probably also sexually disabled, as suggested by laboratory research on
castrated mammals.28 As financial security became less assured for a castrato, fewer families
were willing to force their children to endure such a life.
From the early seventeenth century until their disappearance, numerous satires and
pamphlets circulated throughout Europe ridiculing the castrati. 29 According to Todd Gilman,
castrati in London were both admired and reviled, and the revulsion stemmed from a pair of
paradoxical conceptions: their androgyny and their “hypervirility,” or supposed sexual prowess
with women.30 While it’s true that most of the scorn came from elsewhere in Europe where
castration was rare, Italy seemed especially susceptible to outside criticism since it was not a
unified country and had foreign rulers for many of its regions.31
Adding to the stigma was the fact that castration was officially banned by the church canon,
punishable with excommunication, and as a result, the procedure was shrouded in secrecy. No
one admitted to performing the operation, and castrated boys later invented all sorts of medical
rationalizations as to why their castration had been necessary. 32
Still, it is better to be ridiculed than to be pitied. In the nineteenth century, the castrato
began to be seen by the Romantics as a pathetic, suffering figure, as depicted in Balzac's novel,
Sarrasine (1830).33 The ridicule persisted, however. When Velluti sang in London in 1826, the
public there had not heard a castrato for twenty- five years; Heriot relates a story in which one of
25 Rosselli, 40.
26 Barbier, 225.
27 Bergeron, K. "The Castrato as History." Cambridge Opera Journal viii (1996): 173. See also Peschel, 27.
28 Peschel, 30.
29 Barbier, 166.
30 Todd S. Gilmann, “The Italian (Castrato) in London,” in Richard and Daniel Fischlin Della more, ed., The
Work of Opera: Genre, Nationhood, and Sexual Difference (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997): 49-50.
31 Somerset-Ward, 83.
32 Peschel, 23-4.
8
Velluti’s arias contained the phrase “il nostro casto amor” [our chaste love], whereupon an
audience member shouted, “What else could it be?”34
The permissive atmosphere in which Pope Clement VIII justified castration “to the glory of
god” was giving way under increased public revulsion to the practice, reflecting the new ways of
thinking that had begun undermining the established order. When Napoleon first entered Rome
in 1798, he enacted laws which closed monasteries an forbade castration. Although Napoleon
was an open fan of certain castrato singers, he thought the practice of castrating boys was an
abomination of natural law. 35 In 1806 Napoleon’s brother Joseph, then king of Naples, forbade
castrated males from entering the schools, including the famous Naples Conservatory, although
retired castrati singers would continue to teach there for decades.36
While the death knell may have sounded for castrati by the late eighteenth century, they
would continue to be active and appear in some important operas before finally vanishing from
the stage. Following the French Revolution, aristocratic courts preferred to put on productions of
conservative opere serie with castrati than risk opera buffa with its subversive themes.37 In
1791, Leopold II requested castrati for an opera to be performed at his coronation, and from his
list of suggestions he seemed to still have had many names to choose from. 38 The opera
eventually chosen, La Clemenza di Tito, was Mozart’s final opera, written concurrently with Die
Zauberflöte. It was a Metastasian opera seria, and as per Leopold’s request it featured a castrato
in the leading role of Sextus, whose aria “Parti, parti” became the most famous aria in Mozart’s
seria output.39
33 Bergeron, 173.
34 Angus Heriot, The Castrati in Opera (New York : Da Capo Press, 1975): 197.
35 Hodges, 93.
36 Barbier, 227.
37 Somerset-Ward, 83.
38 H.C. Robbins Landon, 1791: Mozart’s Last Year (Thames & Hudson, 1988; Flamingo, 1990): 88.
39 Peschel, 22.
9
The last decades of the eighteenth century saw two castrati achieve fame on par with the
most renown of the previous generation: Luigi Marchesi and Girolamo Crescentini.40 The role
of Romeo in Zingarelli's Giulietta e Romeo (1796) was written for Crescentini, and the opera's
success was largely a result of his involvement.41 Velluti, who had so infuriated Rossini in
Aureliano in 1813, created the role of Armondo in Meyerbeer’s Il crociato in Eggito in 1824.
Meyerbeer thereby composed what would be the last substantial role for castrato, and this only a
few years before his Parisian grand opéra period.42 “The composer,” Barbier writes of
Meyerbeer, “whose curiosity extended to everything, was trying out a vocal experiment which he
knew would have no future.”43 Long after castrati disappeared from the opera stage they
continued to sing in the church, and occasionally excited the curiosity of later composers.
Domenico Mustafa (1829-1912) was one of the last church castrati employed at the Sistine
Chapel. He was supposedly wanted by Wagner to create the role of Klingsor, the twisted villain
in Parsifal, but nothing ever came of it.44
Castrati were allowed to dominate opera for so long partly because singing on stage was not
considered a respectable profession for women in the eighteenth century. 45 In the late eighteenth
century, however, attitudes began to change, and many traditional castrati roles were being
assigned to female singers. In fact, rivalries were not so much among the castrati as they were
between castrati and women. 46 As the castrati’s numbers began to dwindle, the prominent
female sopranos eagerly filled the vacancies, demonstrating to composers and the public that the
40 Somerset-Ward, 85-6.
41 Heather Hadlock, "On the cusp between past and future: The mezzo-soprano Romeo of Bellini's I Capuleti,"
The Opera Quarterly 17, 3 (Summer 2001): 401.
42Somerset-Ward, 89. See also Peter Giles, The History of the Counter-Tenor, (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1994):
395.
43 Barbier, 235.
44 Giles, 396.
45 Somerset-Ward, xii.
46 Somerset-Ward, 83.
10
castrati were indeed replaceable.47 Just weeks after Mozart’s death in 1792, his sister-in-law,
Aloysia Weber Lange, sang the castrato role of Sextus in the Vienna premiere of La Clemenza di
Tito.48
In 1798 the Pope reversed the ban of women from the stage in Rome and the Papal States,
eliminating the castrati’s last monopoly where they were spared from having to compete with
females.49 The last decades of the eighteenth century saw the usurpation of the castrati from the
top of the operatic pyramid, a time eloquently depicted by Barbier: “In a quarter of a century a
change as rapid as it was inescapable had driven them from their heroic bastions to join the ranks
of ordinary singers, suffering from the vogue for tenors and women singers, as well as from the
decline of opera seria which had been the reason for their existence for nearly two centuries."50
Though there were still some composers writing for castrati in the first decade of the
nineteenth century (e.g. Cherubini, Cimarosa, and Zingarelli, who all wrote for Crescentini), they
were generally thought of as a dying breed.51 When Crescentini stopped singing his most
famous role, Romeo in Zingarelli's opera Giulietta e Romeo, it was taken up by two equally
famous women, Giuditta Pasta and Maria Malibran. 52 Zingarelli's Romeo was more feminine
than the older heroes of opera seria, and women continued to sing the role in revivals, making it
easier for Bellini and Vaccai to later assign the role in their operas on the same subject to mezzosopranos.
53
Though they vanished from the operatic stage early in the nineteenth century, their legacy
continued to exert a significant influence on singing and operatic writing. Many castrati retired
47 Somerset-Ward, 83.
48 Somerset-Ward, 106.
49 Barbier, 227.
50 Barbier, 228.
51 Somerset-Ward, 86.
52 Somerset-Ward, 87.
11
from the stage to teach their art in major conservatories, most notably Crescentini at the Naples
Conservatory (where Bellini was educated) from 1817 until his death in 1846.54 The term bel
canto today usually refers to the genre of Italian opera in the early nineteenth century typified by
the triumvirate of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini. The term came to be used later in the century
as new styles brought the old manner of singing under attack, and defenders mourned the loss of
“beautiful singing.” This manner of singing is the same one developed through the long tradition
of rigorous vocal training practiced by the castrati, a technique which emphasized beauty and
evenness of tone, masterful breath control, and flawless execution of the florid passages that
reigned during the Baroque period.55 That this method survived through the more musically
austere classical period—and indeed continued to be valued by many even as musical styles left
bel canto aesthetics far behind—illustrates just how the castrati’s art transcended the age of the
castrati themselves.
The literature on the castrati is surprisingly scant given their dominance in the genre for over
a century, but the secrecy surrounding the practice at the time and the social stigma attached to
the castrati may account for the paucity of contemporary first- hand accounts. The seminal
English-language book on Castrati is Angus Hariot’s The Castrati in Opera; first published in
1956, it gives a good account of the subject given the state of the research at the time, and is
liberally seasoned with evocative contemporary anecdotes. Patrick Barbier’s The World of the
Castrati, a translation from the original 1986 French edition, is a more comprehensive study
incorporating more recent scholarship. Barbier relies heavily on contemporary letters to, from,
and about castrati singers to give as closely as possible a sense of what the lives of these singers
53 Heather Hadlock, "On the Cusp Between Past and Future: The Mezzo-Soprano Romeo of Bellini's I
Capuleti" The Opera Quarterly 17, 3 (Summer 2001): 403.
54 Hodges, 92.
12
were like. The newest book dealing at length with castrati is Richard Somerset-Ward’s Angels
and Monsters: Male and Female Sopranos in the Story of Opera, released in 2004. While his
larger scope covers all high voices in opera from 1600 to 1900, significant space is given to the
story of the castrati and their place in operatic history.
John Rosselli’s Singers of Italian Opera is an indispensable book focusing on the profession
of opera singing through the ages. His chapter on the castrati is largely taken from his article in
Acta musicologica, “The Castrati as a Professional Group and a Social Phenomenon,” and is the
basis for his article on the subject in The New Grove Encyclopedia of Music. As befits an
encyclopedia entry, his account is very concise and thorough, focusing on the rapid progression
of the castrati from humble monks to superstars to relics. A History of Bel Canto by Rodolfo
Celletti concentrates on vocal technique and pedagogy in Italian opera from the mid-sixteenth to
the mid-eighteenth centuries. He draws from numerous documents, mostly contemporary
manuals by prominent teachers of singing such as Tosi and Garcia, to give a convincing account
of the art of the castrati being passed on to later generations.
Among journal articles, Sheila Hodges’s “A Nest of Nightingales” in The Music Review
gives the most comprehensive overview of the age of the castrati while lyrically depicting the
impression on the European public by some of the most famous singers. “Medicine and Music:
The Castrati in Opera” by Enid Rhodes Peschel and Richard Peschel and printed in Opera
Quarterly gives a standard overview but devotes most of its space to the medical consequences
and social repercussions of the procedure. Katherine Bergeron uses the 1994 film Farinelli as a
point of departure in “The Castrato as History” in The Cambridge Opera Journal. She discusses
the historical accuracy of the film as she surveys the history of the castrato, focusing of course on
55 Don Michael Randel, ed., The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (Harvard University Press, 1986), s.v. “bel
canto.”
13
Carlo Broschi, a.k.a. Farinelli. The Opera News article, “The End of an Era” by Stefan Zucker,
examines the castrato’s disappearance in terms of its effect on vocal writing: once the art of the
castrati stopped being taught, composers could no longer rely on the performer for the necessary
improvisations and had to thence write their own ornamentation. Heather Hadlock’s “On the
Cusp Between Past and Future: The Mezzo-Soprano Romeo of Bellini's I Capuleti” in The
Opera Quarterly examines the adaptation of the role from the model of Zingarelli, who assigned
it to the castrato Crescentini. This serves as an illustration of how the castrati were replaced
through the reconception of the musical and dramatic function of the high- voiced singer.
A favorite topic of discussion has concerned the castrato’s sexual image and what it
represented to those who were fascinated/repulsed by them. Roger Freitas’s recent article in The
Journal of Musicology, “The Eroticism of Emasculation: Confronting the Baroque Body of the
Castrato,” looks at the castrato through the paradigm of recent scholarship in the history of
sexuality. He contends that they were viewed as the embodiment of the ideal lover, and argues
that the roles for which they were used suggest as much. Leopold Silke’a article, “’Not Sex but
Pitch’: Castratos as paramours—For once a perspective that aims above the belt,” offers an
alternative to the castrato’s legendary sexual reputation, namely that their voices were musically
representative of male patterns of conduct at court.
Contemporary accounts of the castrati in letters and memoirs are fairly numerous, and give
us a good idea of the level of their fame as well as some details regarding their art. Most
illuminating are the letters of Charles de Brosses (1709-1777), a cultivated nobleman who would
later become the Président of Burgundy, describing in exhaustive detail his journey through
Italy. The letter he devoted to Italian opera is reprinted in Piero Weiss’s collection, Opera: A
History in Documents. In it Brosses devotes a great deal of ink on his impressions of the castrati
14
he encountered both on and off the stage, describing their voices as having “something dry and
shrill about them,” while he admired them for being “brilliant, light, dazzling, very loud, and
very wide-ranging.”56
56 Piero Weiss, Opera: A History in Documents (Oxford University Press, 2002): 85.
Bibliography
Barbier, Patrick. The World of the Castrati: the History of an Extraordinary Operatic
Phenomenon. Margaret Crosland, trans. London: Souvenir, 1996.
Bergeron, Katherine "The Castrato as History." Cambridge Opera Journal 8 (1996), 167-
84.
Brodnitz, Friedrich S. "The Age of the Castrato Voice." Journal of Speech and Hearing
Disorders 40 (1975), 291-95.
Bucciarelli, Melania. Italian Opera and European Theatre, 1680-1720 : Plots,
Performers, Dramaturgies. Turnhout: Brepols, 2000.
Celletti, Rodolfo. A History of Bel Canto. Frederick Fuller, trans. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1996.
Dellamora, Richard and Daniel Fischlin, ed. The Work of Opera: Genre, Nationhood, and
Sexual Difference. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Freitas, Roger. "The Eroticism of Emasculation: Confronting the Baroque Body of the
Castrato." The Journal of Musicology 20, 2 (Spring 2003), 196-249.
Giles, Peter. The History of the Counter-Tenor. Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1994.
Haböck, Franz. Die Kastraten und ihre Gesangskunst. Stuttgart: Deutsche
Verlangsanstalt, 1927.
Hadlock, Heather. "On the Cusp Between Past and Future: The Mezzo-Soprano Romeo
of Bellini's I Capuleti." The Opera Quarterly 17, 3 (Summer 2001), 399-422.
Heriot, Angus. The Castrati in Opera. New York : Da Capo Press, 1975.
Hodges, Sheila. "A Nest of Nightingales." The Music Review 54, 2 (May 1993), 79-94.
Kimbell, David. Itlaian Opera. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Landon, H.C. Robbins. 1791, Mozart's Last Year. Thames & Hudson, 1988; Flamingo,
1990.
Mamy, Sylvie. Les castrats. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1998.
McGeary, Thomas. "'Warbling Eunuchs': Opera, Gender, and Sexuality on the London
Stage, 1705 - 1742", Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research 7,1 (1992), 1 -
22.
Milner, Anthony. "The Sacred Capons", The Musical Times 114 (1973), 250 - 252.
Ortkemper, Hubert. Engel wider Willen : die Welt der Kastraten. Berlin: Henschel, 1993.
Pampaloni, C. "Giovani castrati nell’Assisi del Settecento." Musical Realtà viii (1987),
133–53.
Peschel, Enid Rhodes and Richard E. Peschel. "Medicine and Music : the Castrati in
Opera." Opera Quarterly 4,4 (1986/87), 21 - 38.
Rosselli, John. "Castrato." Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 22 August 2005,
<http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu>
Rosselli, John. “The Castrati as a Professional Group and a Social Phenomenon." Acta
Musicologica 60 (1988), 143-79.
Rosselli, John. Singers of Italian Opera. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Rudakova, Irina V. "Uncertain Nature: History of the Castrato Singer in the Early
Modern Gender Paradigm." Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1999.
Schneider, Amy Ann. "His or Hers: On Performing Heroic Male Roles in Handel's
London Operas." Thesis (D.M.A.), Boston University, 2000.
Scholz, Piotr O. Eunuchs and Castrati: a Cultural History. Princeton, NJ: Markus
Wiener Publishers, 2001.
Silke, Leopold. “Not sex but pitch": Kastraten als Liebhaber--Einmal "über" der
Gürtellinie betrachtet. ["Not sex but pitch": Castratos as paramours--For once a
perspective that aims above the belt.]. Provokation und Tradition: Erfahrungen mit der
Alten Musik (Germany): pp. 219-240.
Somerset-Ward, Richard. Angels and Monsters: Male and Female Sopranos in the Story
of Opera, 1600-1900. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Strohm, Reinhard. "Aspetti sociali dell’opera italiana del primo Settecento." Musical
Realtà ii (1981), 117–41.
Strohm, Reinhard. Dramma per musica Italian Opera Seria of the Eighteenth Century.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
Weimar, Eric. Opera seria and the Evolution of Classical Style, 1755-1772. Ann Arbor,
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Zucker, Stefan. "The End of an Era." Opera News 45, 12 (14 February 1981), 17-21, 43.

[vesal_mas]

1
Kathryn Ringrose
University of California, San Diego, USA
Perceiving Byzantine Eunuchs Through Modern Medicine
Byzantine eunuchs were perceived by their contemporaries as culturally,
psychologically, and physically distinctive. While eunuchs clearly were not
women, their infertility and distinctive physical appearance distanced
them from the gender construct Byzantine society assigned to adult
males. Byzantine observers routinely described eunuchs using pejorative
terminology, comparing them, unfavorably, to testiculated men. In my
earlier book, The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social construction of
Gender in Byzantium, I assumed that most of the pejorative comments
about the physiology and personality of eunuchs were part of a
generalized set of negative attitudes about both eunuchs and women.
More recently I have been prompted to question this assumption and I
have begun to explore current medical literature that deals with the
results of castration or with conditions that are analogous to castration.
This literature focuses on androgens and the effects of androgen therapy
and androgen deprivation on the human body and mind, on dental
research that discusses the changes in the anatomy and appearance of
the face in the absence of certain androgens, and on psychological and
neuroscientific research that explores the changes in the human brain
that take place at puberty.
It is risky to reach historical conclusions based on contemporary
evidence, but in dealing with the topic of Byzantine eunuchs we have two
problems: (1) Our primary sources are few, scattered, and often very
2
biased. (2) Our contemporary sources are limited by the fact that, unless
we believe whispers behind closed doors that will probably never be
opened, children are no longer routinely castrated in our modern world.
This rules out the possibility of direct comparison between Byzantine and
modern castrates.
Even so, modern medicine and experimental science may offer some
insights into the topic. In today's world individuals are born with
ambiguous genitalia which is often "corrected", but these children cannot
necessarily serve as a model for the Byzantine eunuch. Men with severe
prostate cancer are often castrated or treated with testosterone
destroying drugs. They can provide a partial model for us, though a
model that only deals with the later years of the adult male life. Finally,
there are a few rare genetic defects that produce males that can be
considered a kind of modern eunuch. Here, however, the literature about
these individuals, who are generally treated with testosterone, is focused
on "correcting" their defect rather than on exploring the results of nontreatment.
Despite these caveats, we can gain some intriguing insights
from today's medical and biological sciences.
Most studies of Byzantine eunuchs assert that the act of
castration, that is the removal of the testicles, penis, or both, deprives
the body of testosterone and thus changes the physical nature of the
individual. While this is an obvious truism, modern medical research
indicates that this approach is much too simplistic. A brief summary of
the findings of this research will facilitate further discussion of a number
of points.
The differentiation of the male and female begins in the womb with
the development of what is called the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis.
3
The hypothalamus and pituitary, both located at the base of the brain, are
formed by the 4th or 5th week of fetal life and soon are producing
gonadotropic hormones: luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating
hormone (FSH), and gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). By the 8th
week of gestation the Leydig cells (the cells that make testosterone) in
the fetal testes have differentiated. By the 12th week these cells'
production of testosterone is at its peak, effecting the further
development of the male sexual organs. It is believed that testosterone
also is involved in brain development during this period, flooding the brain
with hormones and "priming" it in a male direction. Sex differentiation in
the embryo is regulated by at least 70 different genes that govern the
mechanisms that differentiate the primordial gonadal tissue, which is
bipotential, that is, it can become either male or female. At this point in
fetal life irregularities of the genetic makeup, or external factors, like
chemical pollution, can produce individuals with ambiguous genital
development.
By the end of the fetal period the hypothalmic-pituitary-gonadal
axis is well developed, with a regulating system called the hypothalamic
GnRH pulse generator that discharges intermittent bursts of GnRh into the
system. In infancy this system operates at a frequency that is typical of
the adult male, and it stimulates the leydig cells of the child to secrete
testosterone. At about two years of age the above system becomes
quiescent until puberty. Given that castration rarely took place this early,
this phase of testosterone-related development in male children is
something experienced by virtually all potential eunuchs. The
mechanisms for turning this system on and off are not yet completely
understood.
4
There is considerable variation in the timing of male puberty. It
begins when the hypothalamic GnRh pulse generator again begins to
release GnRh, resulting in an increase in production of LH (luteinizing
hormone) by the pituitary. In male humans an elevation of LH and
testosterone signals puberty, the testis increase in size, producing
increasing amounts of testosterone, reaching adult values at 14 or 15
years of age. Spermatogenesis can be established at some time between
the 12th and 16th year of life.1 This is the phase of testosterone related
development that is missed by eunuchs castrated prior to puberty.
Recent studies in the areas of developmental neuroscience and
neuropsychology indicate that puberty has a significant impact on the
human brain, and especially the male brain. Just as testosterone in the
infant acts to differentiate neural circuits in the brain, it continues to act
on the brain during puberty. There is evidence that the male brain,
influenced by steroid hormones, and, in the male, testosterone in
particular, is significantly remodeled during puberty in ways that impact
higher-order brain functions, including cognitive functions and emotion
regulation.2 The brain is a very "plastic" organ and it develops new
circuitry and prunes unneeded circuitry throughout puberty and young
adulthood.
1 Audrey M. Cummings and Robert J. Kavlock, "Function of Sexual Glands and Mechanism
of Sex Differentiation," The Journal of Toxicological Sciences , vol. 29, no. 3, (2004):
167 – 178.
2 Judy L. Cameron, “Interrelationships between Hormones, Behavior, and Affect during
Adolescence: Understanding Hormonal, Physical and Brain changes Occurring in
Association with Pubertal Activation of the Reproductive Axis. Introduction to Part III,”
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021 (2004): 110-123 (2004); J. D.
Wilson, "Androgens, Androgen Receptors, and Male Gender Role Behavior," Hormone
Behavior , v. 40, no. 2 (Sept. 2001): 358-366.
5
What significance does this have for the study of eunuchs? Many
of the eunuchs in our sources are “artificial creations” in that they were
normal males who were deliberately castrated for a variety of very
specific purposes. Others, however, were individuals whose development
was congenitally faulty, leaving them with incomplete male sexual organs.
These are sometimes referred to as "natural" eunuchs in our sources.
Another group includes men who were castrated in an attempt to cure
one of several medical conditions afflicting the male genitalia. Finally,
there are eunuchs whose castration is the result of an accidental injury.
For all of these groups age of castration is critical for future physical and
neural development.
In the Byzantine world men must have known that the age at which
castration was performed effected the kind of eunuch that was formed.
Castration between infancy and puberty, for example, will profoundly
effect the appearance of the individual, but he will still be oriented in a
masculine direction, though just how is difficult to determine. He will not
experience normal puberty. His voice will remain high-pitched, he will
have little or no facial hair and the hair on his head will be thick and
luxuriant throughout his life. His face and body will have a very distinctive
appearance and his life will probably be short, since he will be afflicted
with osteoporosis, diabetes, and heart and vascular problems. He will
have little or no interest in sexual behavior. His personality will be
different from that of a normal man, though it is difficult, at this historical
distance, to determine exactly how it will be different.
On the other hand, if he is castrated at, say, 17, he will experience
much less change in appearance and, though infertile, may retain limited
sexual function. If castrated as an adult, a eunuch will retain most of the
6
qualities of an adult male, with the exception of those features that are
regulated directly by testosterone: fertility, sexual potency, maintenance
of muscular strength, and the growth patterns of body and facial hair.
When visitors from Western Europe began to visit Constantinople in
the early middle ages, one of the first things they noticed was the
presence of eunuchs. Castration was rare in the west, and the very fact
that castrations took place in Byzantium made this culture appear to be
eastern, suspect and "other." The reasons that the Byzantines castrated
healthy, normal boys and created a place for them in elite society are
complex. In my own work I have suggested that the Byzantines were
attempting to create a "perfect servant", attractive, obedient, educated,
unfailingly loyal, an individual without external family ties, and an individual
who was undefiled by sexuality (unless he was desired by his master). A
parallel construct existed within the world of the church and was validated
by the assumed ascetic qualities attached to the religious eunuch.3
While for centuries Byzantine society created important niches for
eunuchs, the authors of our sources were usually uncomfortable with the
act of castration. We know a great deal about the lives of many eunuchs,
but almost nothing is said about their castration. Even the great eunuch
patriarch Methodios claimed to have been castrated by God.4 The
historian Prokopios goes to great lengths to explain that the eunuch
Solomon had not been castrated but rather that his genitalia had been
damaged in a nursery accident.5 Rhetorically, at least, the Byzantines
claimed that they never did castrations – the castrators were always
3 Kathryn M. Ringrose, The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of
Gender in Byzantium (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), ch. 5.
4 Skyl. p. 86, l. 51; Kedrenos, Compendium historiarum, vol. 2, p. 147.
5 Prokopios, Wars, vol. 3, ch. 11, l. 5.
7
“others” –usually people like the Arabs or the Persians. Likewise the
Arabs claimed that they never castrated and that their eunuchs were
prepared and purchased in Byzantium. It is interesting to compare
attitudes toward castration in Byzantium to those in China. In China
castration was practiced both as a punishment and as a route to a career.
It had to be publicly proven through the display of the severed organs. In
Byzantium castration was almost never used as a punishment and the
severed organs were not preserved. It was a hidden act, a necessary evil,
and was never mentioned publicly.
Despite the rhetorical façade, however, we know that castrations
were performed in the Late Antique and Byzantine worlds. The seventh
century surgeon, Paul of Aegina, has left us a detailed description of a
testicular ablation, prefaced by the comment that he hated to have to
perform this surgery and only did so under pressure. Since castrations
were technically illegal, they were often billed as surgery to correct a
serious medical condition, hernia. It is quite possible that in fact this
practice was not exceptional.
Among the treatments that could result in castration was the repair
of both inguinal hernia, scrotal hernia, and umbilical hernia. Doctors began
with a less invasive attempt to cure hernias using compression and
bandages, but if this failed, physicians did resort to surgery. Paul of
Aegina describes a surgical technique that included cauterization. It was
probably reasonably effective and spared the testicles. Skilled surgeons
8
in the Hellenistic world had long understood these techniques, which can
be found in the writings of Celsus, a surgeon of the first century AD.6
Though testicle-sparing surgery for hernias continued to be
practiced in the Byzantine empire, practitioners were increasingly of the
opinion that castration was the best hope of curing hernia. This was
certainly true in Western Europe until the Renaissance, and was probably
true in the less urbanized parts of the Byzantine empire.7 This is the
inference we can draw from the many examples in Byzantine sources of
boys and men with hernias and ailments of the genitalia whose miraculous
cures saved them from the castrator. In the life of saints David, Symeon
and George of Mitilini on the island of Lesvos8 we find the story of Leo, a
friend of the holy man, who brought his youngest son to him for healing.
The boy was suffering from a hernia and was about to be turned over to
the castrator when he was saved by the saint, who healed him. The life
of St. Artemios offers a number of healing miracles involving male
genitalia.9 In the twenty-fourth miracle10 a man named George is urged to
see a doctor and have his testicles removed to heal a testicular disorder.
The saint heals him. In the twenty-eighth miracle,11 a child injures his
testicles and is cured by the saint. When his mother realizes that he has
been cured, she runs her hands along his thighs and assumes the cure
6 Niki S. Papavramidou and Helen Christopoulou-Aletras, "Treatment of "Hernia" in the
Writings of Celsus (First Century AD)," World Journal of Surgery, 29 2005): 1343 –
1347.
7 John G. Lascaratos, Constantine Tsiamis, Alkiviadis Kostakis, "Surgery for Inguinal
Hernia in Byzantine Times (A.D. 324-1453): First Scientific Descriptions," World Journal
of Surgery 27 (2003): 1165-1169.
8 J. van den Gheyn, Acta graeca SS.Davidis, Symeonis et Georgii Mitylenae in insula
Lesbo, AB 18 (1899): p. 240, l. 11.
9 Crisafulli, "The Miracles of St. Artemios"
10 Ibid., p. 145.
11 Ibid., p. 155.
9
involved removing his testicles. The forty-third miracle12 is similar. In the
forty-fourth miracle13 a man with diseased testicles is considering having
them removed but is healed by the saint. The saint appears to him in the
guise of a physician who did hernia surgeries. The saint bound up the
man's testicles with a cord, an action that mimicked one technique for
castration.
Thus there was in Byzantine culture an acceptable medical façade
that legitimized castration. Hernia certainly offered an excuse that could
be trotted out for rhetorical purposes. It is even feasible that hernia
problems were sufficiently prevalent to account for a significant number
of medically legitimate castrations. Just last year a group of Iranian
researchers published a study of 3205 elementary-school boys, aged 6 to
12 years.14 The subjects live in the province of Lorestan, which is
situated north and west of Tehran on the eastern slope of the Zagros
mountains. The boys were examined for abnormalities of the groin or
genitalia and abnormalities were found in 6.64% of the children. The
problems included hernia, retractile testes, undescended testes,
hydrocele, and hypospadia. This is a significant percent of this study
group. In the Byzantine world, with the exception of the child with
hypospadia (a condition in which the urethra does not exit the penis in a
normal way) any of these children who received medical treatment would
probably have been made eunuchs.
12 Ibid., p. 219
13 Ibid., p. 219.
14 R. A. Yegane, A. R. Kheirollahi, M. Bashashati, N. Rezaei, M. J. Tarrahi, and J. A.
Khoshdel, "The Prevalence of Penoscrotal Abnormalities and Inguinal Hernia in
Elementary-school Boys in the West of Iran," International Journal of Urology, v. 12, no.
5 (2005): 479-483.
10
A certain number of Byzantine eunuchs are identified as "natural
eunuchs" who presumably were not actually castrated. While these
individuals are rare in any culture, they do exist. They usually suffer from
genetic deformities that suppress the formation of external genitalia or
the utilization of testosterone. Ever since the publication of the Pulitzer
Prize winning novel Middlesex15 we have become more familiar with one of
these rare genetic conditions called 5alpha-Reductase Deficiency. In the
male it is the cause of male hereditary pseudohermaphroditism. During
fetal development, at the cellular level testosterone is converted to
5alpha-dihydrotestosterone and binds to a high-affinity receptor protein
in the cell nuclei. From embryogenesis through puberty 5alphadihydrotestosterone
is responsible for: (1) the development of the male
external genitalia, urethra, and prostate (2) at puberty, the growth of
facial and body hair and the maturation of the external genitalia (3) the
loss of scalp hair later in life. At birth individuals with this defect appear
to be girls or hermaphrodites with minimal male genitalia since they have
had little or no chance for the development of male genitalia during the
prenatal period. At puberty, however, the male external genitalia begin to
develop and these children are increasingly virilized. As children, if their
condition is not recognized, they are reared as females. After puberty,
when they develop noticeable male genitalia, some elect to live as infertile
males, following their chromosome makeup, others as females in
accordance with their rearing.
15 Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex: A Novel (New York: Picador, 2002).
11
In the Byzantine world individuals of this sort would be classified as
"natural eunuchs."16 In today's world, where infant and childhood
castration are no longer practiced, these individuals are the subjects of
much research, since their experience directly addresses questions about
the importance of nature versus nurture. Though most of these
individuals are reared as females, more than half of them elect to live as
males after puberty.17 For historians they serve as a research "stand-in"
for eunuchs.
Another group of potential "natural eunuchs" includes individuals
with the more severe forms of Klinefelter Syndrome. These men have the
usual 47 chromosomes, but have an added X chromosome (47XXY).
Today we know that about 1 in 1000 males are born with this genetic
anomaly, and it is a disorder that accounts for 3% of male infertility. Men
who are affected typically suffer from, in decreasing order of frequency:
infertility, small testes, decreased facial hair, gynecomastia, (the
development of small breasts) decreased pubic hair, and a small penis.
They have unusually long legs and may have a feminized body. In
adulthood, without diagnosis and androgen replacement therapy, they can
suffer from loss of libido, decreased muscle bulk and tone, decreased
bone mineral density, and a tendency to suffer from thromboembolism,
diabetes and cardiovascular complications. Most of these symptoms
16 Jean D. Wilson, James E. Griffin, and David W. Russel, "Steroid 5alpha-Reductase 2
Deficiency," Endocrine Reviews, v. 14, no. 5 (1993): 577-593; B. B. Mendonca, M.
Inacio, I. J. Arnhold, E. M. Costa, W. Bloise, R. M. Martin, F. T. Denes, F. A. Silva, S.
Andersson, A. Lindquist, and J. D. Wilson, "Male Pseudohermaphrodistism due to 17
Beta-hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase 3 Deficiency. Diagnosis, Psychological Evaluation,
and Management," Medicine, v. 79, no.5 (Baltimore, 2000): 299-309.
17 P. T. Cohen-Kettenis, "Gender Change in 46,XY Persons with 5alpha-Reductase-2
Deficiency and 17 beta-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase-3 Deficiency," Archives of Sexual
Behavior , v. 34, no. 4 (2005): 399-410.
12
match traits associated with eunuchs in our sources. In one regard,
however, they do not resemble eunuchs, who are often presented as
intellectually adept – men with Klinefelter Syndrome often suffer from
cognitive deficits, especially in language comprehension, speech, and
gross and fine motor coordination18
In the Late Antique and Byzantine worlds natural eunuchs were
rarely identified as such. An exception to this, however, was the famous
second century eunuch Favorinus. Favorinus appears to have been born
with at lease one of the many androgen insensitivity syndromes described
above. He is described as a eunuch having a penis but no testicles.
Rather than hiding his affliction, Favorinus capitalized on his unusual
appearance and high voice, setting a new style for orators of the period.
He is the eunuch who is the subject of Lucian's The Eunuch.19
Unless some hagiographer or biographer wanted to clean up the
origins of a famous eunuch by citing accident or medical necessity, our
sources rarely say much about how a man became a eunuch. Thus there
is no way of knowing how many eunuchs there were in Byzantium at any
given time, nor can we know what percentage of them were "natural"
eunuchs as opposed to eunuchs who were the result of deliberate
castration.
However ambivalent our sources are about eunuchs, it is clear that
a significant number were deliberately castrated before puberty, when the
surgery is much easier and safer than later in life. Eunuchs castrated
18 Daniel J. Wattendorf and Maximilian Muenke, "Klinefelter Syndrome," American Family
Physician, v. 72, no. 11 (2005).
19 Maud W. Gleason, Making Men, Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome,
(Princeton; Princeton University Press, 1995). p. 3.
13
before puberty or during early puberty developed a distinctive appearance
that, I would argue, was aesthetically favored at court. Here, too, modern
medical research supports some of the ambiguous evidence for
physiological distinctiveness. Individuals who suffer from extreme
testosterone deprivation develop a distinctive physical appearance.
During the neonatal period androgens react with growth hormones to
produce the male growth pattern that will emerge at puberty. At
puberty, after a quiescent childhood, growth and development begins
again. What triggers puberty is still a matter of conjecture.20
"In an uncastrated male puberty is characterized by a striking
increase in circulating testosterone, which is converted to
dihydrotestosterone, increases in circulating androgens associated
with an increase in muscle mass, enlargement of the testicles and
phallus, development of acne, and a male pattern of hair
development including facial hair, axillary hair, and pubic hair, as well
as an overall increase in the size and darkening color of most other
body hairs."21
At puberty various sex steroids mediate both the development and
maintenance of long-bone tissues and the development of the bones in
the face. Both estrogen and testosterone are important for this process,
and the lack of testosterone in eunuchs at puberty results in the
development of bone material that is porous. Since testosterone
regulates the circumference of the long-bones, in its absence they will
tend to be unusually thin and fragile, a condition I will come back to when
I discuss the aging of eunuchs. At the end of puberty testosterone
20 G. Bradley Schaefer, "Neuroendocrine and Neurophysiologic Changes of Adolescence,"
Cleft Palate-Craniofacial journal, v. 32, no.2 (1995): 95-98.
21 Ibid., p. 97.
14
regulates the closing of the epiphyseal (growth) plates in the long bones.
Lacking testosterone, these growth plates do not close promptly after
puberty. This is especially apparent in the long bones of the arms and
legs which, in a eunuch, appear to be unusually long compared to the rest
of the body.22 At the same time, in a eunuch, the bones of the jaw and
the part of the face that extends from the lower jaw to the ear tend not
to develop during puberty, creating an individual whose face appears to
be abnormally wide. In fact, its width is correct, since the measurement
between the eyes does not change from infancy. The eunuchoid face
appears to be wide because the lower face has not lengthened at
puberty. In our world of modern medicine, if a boy with a condition that
severely reduces the levels of his testosterone is diagnosed early enough
testosterone treatments will "normalize" facial growth in the vertical
dimension and will increase the anterior facial height.23
I am convinced that the Byzantines aesthetically appreciated the
appearance of boys at the cusp of puberty. Such boys were
stereotypically graceful, feminine without being female, and sexually pure.
Their skin was still clear, they had no beards, their voices were highpitched,
their faces, which had not yet taken on a masculine appearance,
were short and broad. Given the normal inevitability of puberty, these
22 D. Vanderschueren, L. Vandenput, and S. Boonen, "Reversing Sex Steroid Deficiency
and Optimizing Skeletal Development in Adolescents with Gonadal Failure, Endocrine
Development, v. 8 (2005): 150-165; M. K. Lindberg, L. Vandenput, S. Moverare, S.
Skritic, D. Vanderschueren, S. Boonen, R. Bouillon, and C. Ohlsson, "Androgens and the
Skeleton," Minerva Endocrinology, v. 30, n. 1 (2005): 15-25.
23 A. Verdonck, M. Gaethofs, C. Carels, and F. Zegher, "Effect of Low-dose Testosterone
Treatment on Craniofacial Growth in Boys with Delayed Puberty," European Journal of
Orthodontics , v. 21 (1999): 137-143; Ronald N. Spiegel, A. Howard Sather, and Alvin B.
Hayles, "Cephalometric Study of Children with Various Endocrine Diseases," American
Journal of Orthodontics, v. 59, n. 4, (1971): 362-375.
15
qualities were recognized to be ephemeral – present in a boy today and
gone from the young man tomorrow.
These are also the physical attributes of individuals who
transcended the pollution of the mundane physical world. Through
castration this aesthetic could be captured and preserved, at least for a
time. It is important that we not impose our cultural biases on the
Byzantine world. The eunuchoid face may not be desirable today, but it
seems to have had positive connotations in the past. Current
investigations of facial shape and its relationship to testosterone show
that, at least subconsciously, people notice facial shape as an indication
of "manliness." Women today, despite what we might assume, find
pictures of the faces of men who have very high testosterone levels to be
unattractive.24 The pubescent face of the Byzantine eunuch is readily
seen in the images of angels and youthful warrior saints in Byzantine art.
It is unmistakable in our one good portrait of a Byzantine eunuch, Leo the
Sakellarios.25 It is worth noting in this connection that Byzantine art
clearly contrasts that society’s two categories of non-reproductive
individuals. One, the ascetic holy man, is depicted with a long, narrow,
bearded face that would be typical of an individual with high levels of
testosterone. This reinforces the trope that says that holiness lies in
overcoming the pleasures of the world, including sexual pleasures. The
alternative image of holiness is the beardless, almost triangular eunuchoid
24 John P. Swaddle and Gillian W. Reierson, "Testosterone Increases Perceived Dominance
but not Attractiveness in Human Males," The Royal Society, Proceedings in Biological
Sciences, Nov. 2002: 2285-2289.
25 Die bibel des Patricius Leo: Codex Rginensis Graecus 1 B, ed. Suzy Dufrenne and Paul
Canart (Zurich, 1988), fol. 2v.
16
face we find in images of angels –beings by definition free of human
sexuality.
The use of castration to prolong youthful innocence is
complimented in Byzantine sources by the fact that they rarely talk about
the aging or death of eunuchs. For the Late Antique period, where our
sources are dominated by tales of evil eunuchs like Eutropius, we
occasionally learn how they died. Valentinian burned his chief eunuch in
the Hippodrome.26 Ammianus Marcellinus mentions Eutherius, whom he
considers an exception to the rule that all eunuchs are evil, who died in
comfortable retirement in Rome.27 Similarlty, not much is said about
eunuchs' health. An exception to this is found in Ammianus Marcellinus,
who describes "the throng of eunuchs beginning with the old men and
ending with the boys, sallow and disfigured by the distorted form of their
members."28 Ammianus is clearly making observations about the health
of eunuchs. There is also an intriguing tradition that compares a eunuch
to a rose – he is beautiful in youth, flowers, then withers and dries up. His
skin is compared to a crumpled, drying flower. He becomes wrinkled and
dried up with age. Themes like this appear in John Chrysostom's Vanity
of Vanities sermon on the eunuch Eutropius.29 This raises two interesting
questions. First, what can modern medical science tell us that might shed
light on the aging process among eunuchs, and second why do our later
Byzantine sources say so little about the end of life among eunuchs?
Recent advances in the treatment of prostate cancer have led to a
flood of relevant articles. Androgen destroying medications are now used
26 Eunapius of Sardis, Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, ed. K. Muller, vol. 4, n. 30.
27 Ammianus Marcellinus. Ed. and trans. John C. Rolfe. Vol. 1 (1935), XVI 7, 2-5.
28 Ammianus Marcellinus, vol. 1, 1935, XIV 6, 17.
29 PG 52, cols. 392-414.
17
to shrink the prostate and retard the growth of the tumor, a technique
that allows fragile elderly patients to avoid surgery. This has led to other
medical problems that appear to parallel those suffered by eunuchs as
they age. Osteoporosis is the most prominent. The bulk of adult bone
mass is laid down during puberty. If a child is castrated before puberty,
his chance of retaining sufficient bone mass to last into old age is slim.
Modern studies of prepubertal boys suffering from hypogonadism indicate
that with testosterone supplements bone mass can be rapidly laid down
during young adulthood.30 Conversely for elderly men treated with
androgen destroying drugs, bone mass is lost rapidly, even if it was
adequately laid down at puberty. The degree to which osteoporosis
might disable the Byzantine eunuch clearly depends on the age at which
castration took place. Chinese eunuchs, for example, seem not to suffer
from osteoporosis because they were usually castrated after puberty.
Since Byzantine eunuchs were castrated at a variety of ages, only some
of them would suffer from osteoporosis. Court eunuchs, were probably
castrated before puberty, both to preserve their youthful appearance and
to preserve their voices, which were valued in the imperial choirs.
Osteoporosis would be a serious problem for them. Peter Phocas,
however, a great eunuch soldier whose exploits on the field of battle are
described in several sources, was almost certainly castrated as an adult.31
For him osteoporosis would be a lesser issue, at least until extreme old
age.
30 Eishin Ogwa, Uriko Katsushima, Ikuma Fuiwara, and Kazuie Iinuma, "Testosterone-
Induced Changes in Markers of Bone Turnover in Adolescent Boys with Testicular
Dysfunction," Clinical Pediatric Endocrinology, v. 12, n.2 (2003): 81-85.
31 Leo the Deacon, Leonis diaconi Caloensis historie libri decem. ed. C.B.Hase, Bonn,
1828, pg. 107.
18
Elderly men treated with androgen destroying drugs often suffer
from weight gain, the result of a decrease in lean muscle mass and an
increase in fat. This is a phenomenon characteristic of castrated men and
animals. They also frequently suffer from anemia, perhaps explaining why
Ammianus Marcellinus describes eunuchs as sallow. With anti-androgen
therapy the body's metabolism changes, especially its sugar metabolism.
There is a rise in insulin indicating a decrease in insulin sensitivity, leaving
low androgen individuals at risk for diabetes. Recently scientists are
learning that there may be associations between low androgen and heart
and circulatory problems. Lack of androgens seems to lead to a stiffening
of the arteries as indicated by elevated blood pressure. In studies based
on castrated rats, lack of androgens leads to serious heart problems.32
As interesting as the physiological results of castration may be, the
most intriguing questions that modern medical science may help us with
involve the cognitive skills and personality of eunuchs. Today there is a
great deal of interest in the effect of gonadotrophic hormones on
puberty. This has been driven by the observation that some neurological
32 L. X. Oian, L. Hua, H. G. Wu, Y. G. Sui, S. G. Cheng, W. Zhang, J. Li, and X. R. Wang,
"Anemia in Patients on Combined Androgen Block Therapy for Prostate Cancer," Asian
Journal of Andrology, v. 6, n. 4 (2004): 383-384; T. Nishiyama, F. Ishizaki, T. Anraku, H.
Shimura, and K. Takahashi, "The Influence of Androgen Deprivation Therapy on
Metabolism in Patients with Prostate Cancer," Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and
Metabolism, v. 90, n. 2 (2005): 657-660; K. L. Golden, J. D. Marsh, Y. Jiang, and J.
Moulden, "Gonadectomy Alters Myosin Heavy Chain Composition in Isolated Cardiac
Myocytes," Endocrine, v. 24, n. 2 (2004); 137-140; J. C. Smith, S. Bennet, L. M. Evans,
H. G. Kynaston, M. Parmar, M. D. Mason, J. R. Cockcroft, M. F. Scanlon, and J. S. Davies,
"The Effects of Induced Hypogonadism on Arterial Stiffness, Body Composition, and
Metabolic Parameters in Males with Prostate Cancer," Journal of Clinical Endocrinology
and Metabolism, v. 86, n. 9 (2001): 4261-4267; M. R. Smith, "Changes in Fat and Lean
Body Mass During Androgen-deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer," Urology, v. 63, n.
4 (2004): 742-745; F. Debruyne, "Hormonal Therapy of Prostate Cancer," Seminar on
Urology and Oncology, v. 20, n. 3, supl. 1 (2002); D. Baltogiannis, X. Giannakopoulos, K.
Charalabopoulos, and N. Sifikitis, "Monotherapy in Advanced Prostate Cancer: An
Overview," Experimental Oncology, v. 26, n. 3 (2004): 185-191.
19
diseases, like schizophrenia, appear at puberty, and by the elevated death
rate of teen-agers in much of the world. Scientists have begun to ask
whether the use of steroids by young athletes or the delayed puberty
found among gymnasts and ballet dancers can effect the development of
personality and adult behavior.33 Studies of animals indicate that, in many
species, the neurotransmitter systems of the brain, and especially the
pre-frontal cortex, are significantly remodeled during puberty. In humans
this rearrangement is thought to be connected to adolescent changes in
decision-making, risk taking, planning, drug sensitivity and reward
incentive. Clearly, a male who fails to go through puberty will not have a
typically masculine personality – an aspect of the Byzantine eunuch that
is noted in many sources.
Scientists are still not clear about exactly what triggers puberty in
humans. It seems to be related to GnRH, a decapeptide produced by
specialized neurons in the hypothalamus. These act on the pituitary,
causing it to release LH and FSH which make the testes and ovaries
develop. These then release hormones that act on the brain. Obviously
this has serious implications for those eunuchs who are castrated before
puberty. Since they lack testes this circular hormone-driven system
cannot develop. To what extent might castration reshape these eunuchs'
mental processes and personalities? Perhaps the pejorative writings that
say that eunuchs have personalities that differ from those of testiculated
men should be given some credence.34
33 Russell D. Romeo, Heather N. Richardson, and Cheryl L.Sisk, "Puberty and the
Maturation of the Male Brain and Sexual Behavior: Recasting a Behavioral Potential,"
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, v. 26 (2002): 381-391.
34 L.P. Spear, "The Adolescent Brain and Age-related Behavioral Manifestations,"
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Review, v. 24 (2000): 417-463; C. L. Sisk, and D. L.
20
The most obvious neural developments that are of interest
regarding eunuchs are those that shape sexual behavior. The neural
circuitry that differentiates males from females is laid down during the
prenatal period. At puberty, however, the gonadal steroids both activate
and further organize this neural circuitry. If this does not take place, no
amount of hormone replacement or sexual experience can reverse this
deficit. This is clear in modern studies of animal models. Those castrated
before puberty never become sexually active, nor do they develop
behaviors that are associated with mating behavior, even if they are
treated with hormones. Those castrated after puberty, if treated with
hormones, develop some measure of sexual behavior. The ancients
realized this,35 even though they rarely make a linguistic distinction
between eunuchs castrated before puberty and those castrated after
puberty – at least they do not make a distinction that we can detect.
Leaving aside sexual behavior, which is fairly obvious, does lack of
normal puberty in the pre-pubertial castrate lead to any other differences
in cognitive ability or personality? Studies using tests that target the
orbital prefrontal cortex, an area that is extensively remodeled at puberty,
show that men with low levels of testosterone approach problems in a
careful, conservative way and resist the temptation to take chances.36
They also perform better when faced with spatial tasks, and may have
Foster, "The Neural Basis of Puberty and Adolescence," Nature Neuroscience, v. 7, n. 10
(2004): 1040-1047.
35 See, for example, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Problematum physicorum et medicorum
eclogae. Libri 1-2. In Physici et medici graeci minores, ed. J. L. Ideler, vol. I: p. 8, sec. 9.
1841-42. (Reprint, Amsterdam, 1963).
36 Rebecca Reavis and William H. Overman, "Adult Sex Differences on a Decision-Making
Task Previously Shown to Depend on the Orbital Prefrontal Cortex," Behavioral
neuroscience, v. 115, n. 1 (2001): 196-206.
21
superior mathematical ability.37 In rats lack of testosterone leads to an
increased fear response.38 These reflect characteristics attributed to the
Byzantine eunuch. He is credited with having certain specific intellectual
gifts and assumed to be "cowardly" in his behavior. As to the eunuch's
personality, modern neurosciences do not as yet offer enough information
for us to make any inferences. There is speculation, however, that during
adolescence a network develops in the brain that regulates the processing
of social information. If this regulatory process does not develop and
work properly, an individual can develop mood and anxiety disorders.39
It is easy to assume that the pejorative language that our sources
use about eunuchs reflects a social world that is dominated by masculine
values and thus devalues anything or any one who exhibits traits that
might appear to be feminine. It is also easy to assume that this
pejorative language has its roots in envy. Yet medical science offers
insights that urge us to reevaluate some of the rhetoric that our sources
use about eunuchs. To some Byzantine observers they appear to be
unhealthy and deformed. To others they exhibit youthful grace and
beauty. Both are medically possible, reflecting stages in a eunuch's life.
It is clear that many Byzantine observers find eunuchs' personalities
disagreeable. Given what medical science can tell us so far, it is quite
possible that many eunuchs had immature, unstable personalities.
37 Catherine Gouchie and Doreen Kimura, "The Relationship Between Testosterone Levels
and Cognitive Ability Patterns," Psychoneuroendocrinology, v. 16, n. 4 (1991): 323-
334.
38 J. A. King, W. L. De Oliveira, and N. Patel, "Deficits in Testosterone Facilitate Enhanced
Fear Response," Psychoneuroendocrinology, v. 30, n. 4 (2005): 333-340.
39 E. E. Nelson, E. Leibenluft, E. B. McClure EB, and D. S. Pine, "The social re-orientation
of adolescence: a neuroscience perspective on the process and its relation to
psychopathology," Psychological Medicine, v. 35, n. 2 (2005): 163-174.
22
In any case, it is clear that the Byzantine eunuch is different from a
normal man. His is a constructed gender category, and he, himself, is the
result of a deliberate act of creation, an act of man rather than of God.
This leaves us with a wealth of questions that can still be asked about the
Byzantine eunuch. To what extent did Byzantine society consider
castration to be a creative act? To what extent did the Byzantines
understand the importance of the age at which castrations took place?
Did they create eunuchs specifically for particular social roles – perfect
servant, skilled warrior, bureaucrat, attractive court decoration, etc.?
Why are the Byzantines so reluctant to talk about castrations, eunuchs'
medical problems, their deaths? Is it because eunuchs are perceived to
be created beings who are ephemeral, who live outside the normal human
life cycle of birth, reproduction, and death, with the result that these
facets of their lives cannot be mentioned? What does all of this suggest
about the Byzantines' attitudes about what is natural and unnatural,
whether it is morally right to manipulate a mans' body and use it to create
something new? Finally, what does it tell us about the Byzantines'
attitude toward sexuality? If we are to judge by the presence of eunuchs
in Byzantine society, sexuality is a privilege, not a right. It is something
that can legitimately be dispensed with in order to achieve higher spiritual
and aesthetic goals.

[vesal_mas]

MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY IN EARLY
MODERN SPAIN
By Edward Behrend-Martínez Appalachian State University
Not everything is a man that pisses on a wall, after all, dogs piss too.
(No es todo hombre el que mea a la pared, porque el perro mea también.)
—Traditional Spanish saying1
The above refrain suggests that manhood was a restricted status; it was granted
to a small part of society while it was denied to some males, all females, and yes,
dogs too. Being a “man,” however, was not only defined by reference to expressions,
rituals, and traditions; during the early modern period judicial institutions
took an increasingly prominent role in determining who was and was not
a man. During a year reading marriage litigation documents from between 1650
and 1750 in an ecclesiastical archive in northern Spain, I came across dozens
of trials that involved individuals whose masculinity became a central concern
of a local church court.2 These were cases whose basic question was anatomy—
regarding hermaphrodites, castrates, and impotent men—and they reveal much
about anxieties then prevalent concerning sexual categorization. In these court
cases judges, lawyers, families and communities looked for definitive proof of
manhood, and more and more they looked for this proof in physical medical
examinations rather than simply masculine behavior. The community, church,
and state all had a stake in defining manhood and controlling who would receive
its benefits. To do so they exposed people who were in-between genders
in order to cleanse towns and parishes of indefinite and non-reproductive men.
It was an ordering of society not only by behavior, but also by anatomy. In this
paper I take a similar approach to Angus McLaren, James Farr and Joan Scott,
agreeing with them that refining definitions of sexual difference has often been
a crucial way to reinforce social order and hierarchy. However, rather than examine
how the male/female hierarchy was clarified and reinforced, this study
argues that there was a greater scrutiny of the manly body itself in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. The state’s eye—represented in this study by
the church court doctor—exposed and concentrated on male bodies so it could
separate men from not-men.3
Scholars have long focused on the changeable cultural elements of masculinity,
rather than the importance of male physiognomy in defining manhood.4
The early modern Spaniards of these cases also assumed that manhood was revealed,
in large part, through a person’s behavior. Yet during the early modern
period in Spain there were efforts to ensure that men met actual physical requirements,
part of a broader trend of the Counter-Reformation to discipline society
more rigidly by sex and gender.5 Anatomical proofs of masculinity became more
and more sharply defined after the Middle Ages.6 Several studies have already
demonstrated the many ways that governments and parishes looked to anatomy
to define and control women. Institutions began physically examining women
1074 journal of social history summer 2005
during this period, for example, to discover illegitimate pregnancies; breasts were
inspected for signs of lactation, waists for signs of growth.7 By the seventeenth
century, communities, with recourse to legal institutions, had standardized procedures
to demarcate gender physiologically, to explain womanhood and manhood
through medical examination.
Before examining this new emphasis on the anatomical bases of gender it is
important to take into account the cultural ways that gender became sharply
defined during the early modern period. Ethnographers of rural Spanish communities
have tackled the task of demystifying the contours of “machismo.”8
Julian Pitt-Rivers, Stanley Brandes, and, more recently, David Gilmore have
provided many useful definitions of Spanish and Mediterranean masculinity.9
To be a “man” in Spain, they point out, includes keeping one’s word, supporting
one’s family, heading a patriarchal household, demonstrating sexual prowess,
sobriety, maintaining one’s independence of thought and action, and defending
family and personal honor.10 Ethnographers often stress cultural continuity, and
in many ways masculinity was, indeed, similarly defined in the seventeenth century
as they have outlined the contemporary idea of manhood. These definitions
are generally based on performance; gender depends primarily on how one acts,
not what one is physically. In fact, metaphorically, bodies can change to suit
gendered behavior. Stanley Brandes, for instance, explains that if a woman behaves
courageously enough, acts like a “man,” she can be said to be cojonuda,
she has “balls.”11
David Gilmore writes about how manhood was regulated in an Andalusian
village during the 1970s.12 The negative characterization of the unmanly was the
person who was lazy, anti-social, a drunkard, a liar, and one who lacked emotional
control.13 In the village of Gilmore’s study the community singled out,
ostracized, and gave demeaning nicknames to men who did not live up to the
shared standards of masculinity. Manhood was a reputation earned through adherence
to shared masculine ideals. But the type of scrutiny that has often been
downplayed by cultural historians as well as ethnographers is that which focuses
on the male body itself. Exceptions are Anton Blok and Stanley Brandes who
emphasize the importance of physical integrity and genitalia to masculinity.14
Blok, working on the phenomenon of cuckold’s horns in the Northern Mediterranean,
emphasizes the importance of testicles—cojones—for men living in the
pastoral societies of the Mediterranean.15 Brandes, who focused more specifically
on Andalusia, goes into great detail regarding the common references to
testicles, penises, and semen in popular Spanish folklore, jokes, and refrains. The
size of cojones, “balls,” is directly correlated with the degree of manliness; though,
again, it is the metaphorical, not actual size that matters. Semen, in Brandes’s assessment,
is the very source of the masculine virtue, will, and strength. The Devil
of the early modern period, in fact, lacking virtue, lacked semen, and emitted
none during his copulations with witches.16 For a man to waste semen, especially
to lose it to a woman, was to be sapped of a vital essence.17 Yet, however
timeless many peasant traditions, sayings and beliefs may seem, ethnographic
evidence cannot transport us to the world of three centuries ago. Cultural ideals
from the literature of the period affords another perspective.
Regarding masculine behavior, many genres and discourses in early modern
literature and art prescribed and proscribed proper manly behavior. There was,
MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1075
for instance, the Spanish church’s campaign to rejuvenate the image of St. Joseph,
husband of the Virgin Mary, throughout the seventeenth century.18 The
church commissioned hundreds of paintings and images in Spain carefully
planned to sell its image of the perfect domestic patriarch.19 By emphasizing
Joseph’s chaste virility, strength, fidelity and lack of suspicion and jealousy regarding
his inexplicably pregnant wife, the church attempted to reshape Spanish
masculinity. Through the example of St. Joseph the Church urged men, ordinarily
distrustful of the women whose honor they were to defend, to turn away from
passion and toward faith.20 This campaign to create young and virile images of
St. Joseph coincided with other types of publicity. Clerics delivered hundreds of
sermons that explained Joseph’s role in Jesus and Mary’s lives to lay men. This
Christian ideal of masculinity emphasized reason and faith over passion and suspicion;
it recommended that husbands give protection, affection and sustenance
for wives rather than the domination and jealous sexual control of women demanded
by the Mediterranean honor code.
There were also rhetorics in Golden Age Spanish literature that focused on
behavior improper for a man. To delineate masculinity it was constantly necessary
to define and proscribe unmanly behavior. Elizabeth Haidt has explored the
importance of the hombre de bien in literature, the virtuous and controlled man
of seventeenth and eighteenth century Spain. However, her discussion of the
effeminate petimetre in literature reveals even more of how eighteenth century
Spanish masculinity was defined.21 Haidt claims that “The strangeness of the
petimetre’s body is manifest within a gender hierarchy such that the petimetre is
that which is different from man, that which is not-man.”22 The petimetre was
everything a man should not be. He was, to begin with, unSpanish; clearly the
petimetre was an afrancesado, literally a Frenchified Spaniard. He was rarely married.
The petimetre was of a soft constitution and manners and, above all, vain;
he worked to draw attention to himself. A petimetre might, for instance, flaunt
his shapely calves by wearing tight breeches. He dressed androgynously, wearing
long, curled hair, and fashionable tight, high-heeled shoes. The petimetre used
perfumes to excite women. He was libidinous, and gave women pleasure rather
than taking his pleasure in women. In sum, although Haidt does not make this
connection, the petimetre displayed the androgyny and ability to sexually excite
that was the exceptional power of the castrato.
The amazing cultural popularity of castrati in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries must share some relationship with the petimetre. Both dabbled in the
realms of androgyny and gender instability to stimulate sexual and artistic curiosity.
A castrato could play a woman in one opera, and the following week
portray the Greek military hero Achilles. Many of their greatest admirers were
women, who were not infrequently found in their beds.23 Whether women were
attracted to the castrato’s femininity, the promise of sex without consequences,
or the truly enchanting castrati voice is impossible to know. Nonetheless, many
castrati gained reputations for being oversexed. Because castrati were known not
to be physically men, however, they provide a wonderful foil to understand how
masculinity was constructed during the early modern period. Castrati had the
reputation for frivolity, vanity, enjoying perfumes, using make-up, emotionality,
instability, and immoderation. Their castrated bodies were described as corpulent,
lanky, soft, and hairless. Conversely, whereas the castrato lacked wholeness,
1076 journal of social history summer 2005
a “man” had to be physically intact, unbroken.24 A “man’s” body was hard and
not smooth, it was possessed of a low-voice, and it had hair. This physical constitution
of a “man,” according to the Galenic theory of humors still dominant
in seventeenth century Spanish medicine, made him practical, reasonable, and
emotionally stable. As will be shown below, the castrate, the non-man, played
an important role in the ordinary figuring of masculinity and manhood in the
Spanish village.
In the small villages of early modern Spain a sharper image of “true” manhood
emerged through the social excision of adult males who did not fit the idealized
image. As Michel Foucault has explained, often “normal” or “legitimate” are first
distilled by exposing what they are not. Institutions focus on the “abnormal” or
“illicit” in an effort to control society and the people in it.25 Foucault used the
example of psychologists who first classified the myriad types of insanity rather
than defining what actually constituted sanity. In seventeenth century Paris the
insane were classified and forcibly separated from the sane. The court cases that
form the basis of my research served much the same negative function in characterizing
masculinity just as Foucault and Gilmore have described. But rather
than simply focusing on “unmanly” behaviors, the church court concerned itself
with a man’s body. The court exposed anatomically deficient or supposedly
abnormal men to reinforce a clearer concept of manhood increasingly based on
physicality. As a consequence of this tighter focus on the male body the institution
of the church court also surreptitiously effeminized male litigants.
Most overtly, the court violated male bodies through medical examination,
sometimes repeatedly. Doctors and surgeons hired by the court disrobed men,
touched them, and even sexually stimulated them to see if they could emit the
verum semen that only “true” men reputedly could produce. By subjecting an
individual to this intimate sexual examination, even if a judge confirmed the
defendant’s sexual ability, the person was publicly emasculated. The court and
its probing doctors and surgeons had made of him a passive sexual object, even
if the examinations were always portrayed in the documents as coldly objective
and rational. There was, as Pierre Darmon has noted, a clear affirmation in this
legal process of the court’s sexual power over the laity.26 Men became the passive
objects of court inquiries into their nature.
This anatomical scrutiny highlights the fact that a man’s body clearly mattered
in the early modern formation of masculinity, just as it did in ethnographic
descriptions from the twentieth century. Obvious secondary sexual characteristics
moderated manliness: height, strength, deep voice, dark hair and complexion
all imbued masculinity. Spanish medical knowledge of the age, still heavily
based on Galen and scholasticism, assumed that light-skinned men were colder
and phlegmatic.27 Two medical depositions suffice as quick demonstrations of
these assumptions: In 1692 Dr. Francisco Diez de Ysla attested to the obvious
virility of thirty-year-old Andres de Molino Balladar because he was bearded
and had a flush complexion.28 In 1712, however, the virility of Luis de Meñaca
was doubtful; along with other physical factors the doctor noted his red hair and
pale skin.29 Such statements from three hundred years ago echo what Anton
Blok has described as part of Mediterranean ideals of masculinity: “Adult males
must be barbatos, literally ‘provided with a beard’ : : : ”30
The physical and sexual requirements of masculinity can be favorably comMANHOOD
AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1077
pared to corresponding requirements for early modern womanhood. Sexual purity
was an obvious and essential quality of the model early modern woman,
as ubiquitous images of the Virgin Mary reminded Spaniards daily. The conservation
and protection of virginity, and chastity after marriage, were integral
to being a respected woman in the community, parish, and church.31 Virginity
was not simply a reputation for sexual behavior, but it was a physical state that
could be tested and proved. Virginity could be attested to by midwives through
an examination of the bride before a marriage. It might also be proved, supposedly,
by a display of blood-stained sheets from the marital bed the morning after
the wedding night.32 Whether or not these methods were flawed matters not;
what is important is that ideal womanhood was, in part, physical. The hymen
was not simply a sign or proof of chastity; rather, being physically “intact” supposedly
imparted strength, youth and holiness to the woman.Women who lost
their virginity, even legitimately in marriage, were invariably described as broken,
corrupted, and spoiled.33 Though not defined by sexual purity in the way
that women were, men’s bodies also had to meet sexual requirements.
Early modern manhood was defined through male sexual performance. Of all
the things a person had to do to achieve and maintain status as a man, sexual
penetration was the crucial physical act. Only penile erection, penetration,
and emission in the vagina completed and perfected a marriage, and aside from
ordination, only marriage elevated a man to full male status in early modern society.
The Basque Martin Guerre, made famous in our era by Natalie Z. Davis’s
The Return of Martin Guerre, was not able to perform as a man sexually during
the first eight years after his marriage. Martin’s unsatisfied wife nearly annulled
their marriage because of his impotence.34 Certainly, if he had not been able to
marry Martin would have lived as an auxiliary member of his father or brother’s
family, not being able to form a lineage of his own. Becoming a husband was
the crucial step that was part and parcel of other promotions in status; in English
the word “husband” originally meant, after all, the master of a house.35
Marriage for a man may have accompanied moving from journeyman to master,
mozo to vecino (adolescent to citizen), or dependent son to head of a household.
But clearly, marriage was critical to becoming a man.36 Even when the Catholic
Church accepted priests for ordination, it required them to be sexually intact
and able.37 And yet, because sexual intercourse usually occurred in private, behind
doors, and perhaps in the dark, a carnal proof of manhood was often, in
reality, unnecessary to attain manhood in seventeenth century Spain. Because
sexual behavior was most often hidden it was always difficult for church courts
to intervene in marriages and tie men to the sexual requirements of its definition
of manhood. Proudly displayed codpieces, after all, could be empty. Unlike
female virginity, there was not a standard public way to uncover the male body.
As an example that the hidden penis could be ignored when claiming manhood
in early modern Europe we have the great success of Antonio de Erauso,
born Catalina de Erauso in 1585. If we are to believe her tale, from 1600 to
1620 Erauso lived as a man, traveling to the Americas to seek greater opportunity
and, no doubt, anonymity.38 To everyone she met she proved her manhood
by her dress, romantic flirtations with women, and violence. Catalina boasted
of the fights in which she stabbed and/or slashed many an unfortunate man with
her sword. Eruaso lived as a man though she lacked a penis and testicles, and
1078 journal of social history summer 2005
could not sexually penetrate and emit the verum semen required by ecclesiastical
definitions of sexual virility.39 Finally, after one of her many confrontations
and murders, she escaped justice by revealing herself as a woman to a bishop
in Peru. Catalina de Erauso made for Spain and claimed respect and fame from
an admiring King, Church, and public; all were amazed that a woman could
have proved herself as manly as any man in the Spanish colonies. Yet Erauso’s
example became famous and acceptable because it was rare. More frequently,
individuals who did not conform to their place in the gender system were exposed
and ostracized. Their bodies would be uncovered and used to place them
outside gender norms. This is what usually occurred to hermaphrodites.
In its effort to order society the Church needed to help communities define
who was and was not a man. Hermaphrodites, those who were patently between
sexes and often derided as monsters, presented church courts with urgent and
difficult cases of ambiguity. In the diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada we have
the case of Juan/a de Leyda. In 1711 the tribunal of the diocese began an investigation
into the question of whether Juan/a de Leyda was able to marry or not.
Juan/a’s sexual ambiguity began to worry family and community members when,
at the age of twenty-one, s/he showed obvious interest in sex and marriage as a
man. Juan/a engaged in “an illicit exchange” with a girl of his parish with whom
s/he had also discussed marriage.40 Court physician, Dr. Lucas de Salas, physically
examined the young individual in the city of Calahorra on April 16, 1711.
Dr. Salas displayed his disgust in a medical report to the court.With the considerable
weight of his learned opinion he denied Juan/a any claim to a gender:
there being the virile member (if it even merits that name) . . . that nature (which
always is parted from one) divided to make two instruments from what should have
been one; two were made, and both with total imperfection . . . 41
Without a gender, Juan/a lost considerable opportunities in the community.
The tribunal did what it could to quarantine sexually Juan/a. The judge aimed
to protect the village of Salinillas from what he considered a horrific sexual
anomaly. Juan/a was ordered not to leave Salinillas, not to enter the service of
the Church, not to have illicit sexual contact with anyone, and s/he certainly
was not to marry.42 Juan/a was considered a sexual monster and therefore had
neither the rights of a man nor a woman, lay or cleric. Yet outwardly, Juan/a was
expected to reinforce and conform to the strict division of genders that ordered
society, even though it held no legitimate place for her/him. The court mandated
that s/he dress as a man, and commanded the local parish priest to doctor Juan/a’s
baptismal record. They changed her/his name at birth from “Juana” to “Juan.”43
With the preceding case in mind, it should be noted that members of the
community, not the church court, often brought people who might cause sexual
disorder to the attention of authorities. Direct accusation to the court, or quiet
denunciation to neighbors, a bailiff, or a local priest were the usual paths to judicial
scrutiny. The church court, in other words, did not search for and destroy
sexual reprobates, rather it relied on the active participation of the community.
Members of the community were anxious about individuals in their midst
who did not merit the rights pertaining to manhood; rights of inheritance, local
politics, and social stature. Womanhood, usually marked by entrance into marMANHOOD
AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1079
riage, was also guarded by ritualistic communal standards.44 Furthermore, even
though the church court required Juan to remain celibate, he/she could not join
the ranks of the clergy in the service of God. Those chosen to serve Him needed
to fit into His perfectly ordered creation. Despite some early modern literature
that suggested a place in creation for the hermaphrodite, at the local level Juan/a
was considered an anomaly, a monster, and his imperfect soul was revealed by his
imperfect body.45 But sexual imperfection was to be found in other conditions
as well, such as in eunuchs and monorchids.
Manhood in Spain has long been associated with cojones, “balls,” (testicles).
Ethnographer Anton Blok, perhaps, explains this connection best:
Hombría [manliness] implies a direct reference to the physical basis of honour:
those who live up to this ideal have cojones (testicles), while those who fail to show
fearlessness are lacking in manliness and are considered manso, that is, castrated,
tame.46
Into the twentieth century Basque mothers fed their boys rams’ testicles in soup
(“Rocky Mountain oysters”) to ensure they would grow into men. Charles II,
that last, sterile, pitiful Hapsburg who left Spain without an heir, was fed bulls’
testicles, again in soup, in the hope they might conjure his own virile spirits.
Obviously cases in which castrates appeared in court reveal better than any litigation
communal anxieties about manhood, marriage and gender status. Castration
in Spain has a long history. Historians interested in the development
of musical castrati in Europe often point to Islamic Spain as the source of early
castrates and the medieval practice of castration. Spain, however, cannot be singled
out as the originator of European castration, at least according to musical
historian Richard Sherr, who points to the long tradition of castrates in northern
France as well.47 For the purposes of this investigation what can be stated
more concretely is that in the early modern era the removal of either one or both
testicles from young boys was, apparently, not entirely rare in Spain.48 Whether
they lost testes to cure a hernia, become a castrato singer, or for another purpose
altogether, several men appeared in court lacking testicles. It should be of no surprise
that common health problems regularly left many early modern Spanish
men lacking testicles. Referring to Italy, Valeria Finucci has found a similar situation:
“Castration was hardly uncommon in the Renaissance, and not so much
because there were castrati singers, I would argue, but because at any given day
a number of men circulated in the streets with somewhat suffering or damaged
genitalia.”49 The presence of men who lacked one or both “cojones” (testicles)
in small communities meant that manhood had a discernable physical component;
no one could take it for granted that all men were, indeed, sexually intact.
One entertaining example of the sentiment that the possession of testicles
was sometimes to be doubted comes from the seventeenth century comedy The
Examination of Suitors. In search of an appropriate husband, Marquesa Doña Inés
interviews several male candidates. During one of the examinations a servant
turns to the audience and says “What a beautiful thing, a melodic and subtle
voice, from a man with such a beard!”50 The implication is that, given his soft
voice, there was the possibility that he might be a castrate. In this instance, all
doubt was removed by the suitor’s full beard.
1080 journal of social history summer 2005
Physically emasculated men, often pilloried by communities in small villages
as “capons,” provided important foils against which masculinity could be defined.
Regardless of their infamous local reputations, or perhaps to restore them,
these castrates occasionally attempted to marry. They were determined to claim
masculine status in court, thereby proving to their communities and families
that they were men. Of these married castrates, some were taken to court and
thereby entered the historical record.
As an initial example we have Juan de Aleson who, in 1685, was forced to
separate from his wife of twenty years, María de Lagaria, because their families
claimed Juan was a castrate. Why the families decided to denounce the couple
to court after so many years of marriage is unknown. Perhaps inheritance issues
were called into question; maybe the community had simply gradually grown intolerant
of the couple as an anomaly. Both were residents of the town of Nájera,
a small town that lies in the dry northern plain of Old Castile, just south of the
river Ebro, in the modern province of La Rioja. Aware that as a castrate Juan
was unfit for matrimony, family members took the case to the bishop’s court in
Logroño to annul the marriage.
In beginning its investigation the court first ordered Juan and María to separate.
The court discovered that Juan had long been widely known in the community
as a castrate—further proof that manhood required both cojones and a
reputation for having them. Not only had many people known him to be a castrate,
but even Juan had often candidly admitted that he lacked testicles. In one
of the many stories that witnesses recalled about Juan’s reputation as the local
eunuch, a man named Juan Izquierdo junior began a fight with Juan de Aleson.
During the squabble Juan “el capon” allegedly impugned Izquierdo’s masculinity
by saying that he regretted “that he didn’t have balls to give him.”51 Yet despite
his well-known reputation as “el capon,” Juan de Aleson and María de Legaria
had married and lived as man and wife for twenty years. There seemed to have
been some alarm at the time of their marriage. According to the testimony of
their neighbor Bernabe de Arriaza, when Juan’s older brother asked María de
Legaria why she married a castrate, she replied “that that way she would be free
from dying in childbirth : : : ”52 Though the marriage was undoubtedly unusual,
aside from posing these perplexing questions, no one of the family was concerned
enough about the marriage initially to bring the couple to court. Only
when María, failing to avoid the dangers of childbirth, begat a child did family
members finally interfere and work to bring an end to her false marriage to Juan.
The child might have kindled family anxiety about claims to their estate. They
may have needed to demonstrate that the child could not have been Aleson’s
and therefore had no right to his property and theirs.
Community and family members’ litigation to end Aleson’s marriage illuminates
the social issues that castration most affected. The community was asserting
its belief that manhood in their society should not be claimed by anyone
who was not physically capable of penetrative, reproductive sex. A neutered
man could not reproduce, could not have a lineage, and therefore should not
marry and maintain a household. Exclusion from these institutions resulted in
being barred from local politics because only heads of households could fully
participate in municipal government. Sexual capacities were the foundation for
gender distinctions and rights. The Catholic Church had long before defended
MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1081
this widespread concern for communal sexual order in Spain. Pope Sixtus V
unequivocally prohibited marriage to castrates in 1587 when he responded to
the Spanish papal nuncio’s question about several women in Madrid who had
married eunuchs.53

[vesal_mas]

MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1081
this widespread concern for communal sexual order in Spain. Pope Sixtus V
unequivocally prohibited marriage to castrates in 1587 when he responded to
the Spanish papal nuncio’s question about several women in Madrid who had
married eunuchs.53
The prevalence of castrated men is a crucial factor if we are to attempt to
understand early modern masculinity. Certainly more boys were castrated during
the seventeenth century in Spain than we might expect. Castration often
guaranteed an individual an education and thereafter a livelihood singing in
cathedral choirs. Such an income would not only have benefited the castrato but,
more importantly, the family that castrated him. The obvious conclusion that
many historians have drawn from the pervasiveness of castration in early modern
Spain, then, is that it was a means of social mobility for impoverished peasant
families. Poor Spanish peasant families, the scenario goes, with too many
mouths to feed, eking out a living farming the infertile soil of the Spanish central
plateau, saw the castration of a son as a means to better their material condition.
Castration would win for him an education, and an income, and thus
provide the parents with a means to escape poverty. If particularly talented, a
young castrato might hope to win entrance into the Royal School of Boy Singers.54
Of more than 250 marital litigation cases in the church court of the diocese
of Calahorra and La Calzada between 1650 and 1750 there were nineteen cases
of castrated men. Thirteen had had one testicle removed, and six lost both.
Admittedly, this is not an overwhelming number of castrates and monorchids
(monotesticular men); and it should not be surprising to find such people involved
in the primary focus of my investigations: cases in which wives sought
annulments using the accusation that their husbands were impotent. Yet several
characteristics of these suits demonstrate that such castrations were more common
than we might expect. For one seventeenth century French parish Patrick
Barbier claims to have discovered more than five hundred boys castrated under
the pretext of hernia operations.55 Aside from the many documented cases that
I have found in Spain, the court often treated missing testicles as ordinary rather
than extraordinary. The many men who were castrated but did not attempt to
marry, and therefore did not appear in the court records, can only be guessed
at. But by all accounts castration was common enough to be a characteristic of
early modern society that we would not recognize today. Michael McVaugh has
demonstrated the popularity of castration in Italy beginning in the fourteenth
century and clearly linked it to hernia surgery.56 The fact that hernista, “hernia
surgeon,” was a profession unto itself speaks to the prevalence of castration
throughout Spain. Up until the mid-eighteenth century hernia surgery usually
involved the removal of testicles.
Several musicologists have argued that hernia operations in the early modern
period were often pretexts for castration.57 Some contemporary Spaniards
held the same opinion. One eighteenth century Spanish surgeon painted a grim
picture of the dishonest hernia surgeon:
The day being selected, the parents abandon the house because they lack the
courage to listen to the cries of their son: some of the assistants are disturbed,
others are troubled, and no one looks clearly at the actions of the surgeon, in this
manner giving approval to what he does. He carries out his bloody show, pulling
out the balls, while pretending to have left them inside [the boy].58
1082 journal of social history summer 2005
According to this same author, one particular gelder had a hungry dog on hand to
which he would slip the severed organs during the operation, thereby destroying
the evidence.59 The above scenarios generally placed the blame for castration
on deceptive hernia surgeons and on the Church, which created a demand for
castrati voices. Such literature was, of course, part of typical eighteenth century
anti-clerical polemic, but the main thesis of such descriptions rings true: the
popularity for castrati necessitated the invention of common pretexts for castration.
Hernias were a common pretext.
A couple of cases in the diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada corroborate
the implication that at least some hernia surgeons purposefully castrated boys in
early modern Spain. Agueda Yzquierdo, for instance, could recall the castration
of Juan de Alesón, the full castrate who later married María de Legaria. Agueda
testified, somewhat matter-of-factly, that Juan’s father “arranged to castrate the
said [Juan de Alesón] his son and the gelder or hernia surgeon was in his house to
perform [the castration], as she was a neighbor the witness passed by the house
and saw how the said surgeon castrated and gelded of both sides the said Juan de
Alesón : : : ”60 Unfortunately the witness never stated exactly why Diego castrated
his son. In another case a witness claimed that, because the hernista was
conveniently in the village operating on his own boy, another man arranged to
have his son castrated too.61
Family members, more often than the church itself, worked to publicize the
genital deficiencies of their kin. In 1689 José Ruíz de Çorçano petitioned the
church court for a marriage license because family members were allegedly preventing
him from marrying: “ : : : some of his relatives, for hate and ill will and
for other personal ends have informed [the priest] that he suffers from : : : impotence
: : : [because] they removed both [of his] testicles.”62 José argued that this
was simply a lie, that he was fit for marriage, and asked the court to interview
the surgeon who had performed the operation. The tribunal did just that, and
brought master hernia surgeon Joseph Matute before the court to testify. The
hernia surgeon confirmed José’s claim, making it clear in his testimony that he
had left him with one healthy testicle. After a physical examination of José, a
separate doctor and surgeon team concurred, and the ecclesiastical court gave
the young man permission to marry. He was confirmed in his manhood.
Four months later, however, José’s older brother, Juan Ruíz Sorzano, hired a
lawyer to contest his younger brother’s right to marry. He urged the court to
reverse its first decision. Juan begged the court not only to forbid his younger
brother a marriage license, but to make him pay the court fees and order José to
be forever silent on the subject of any future matrimony. Juan, the older brother,
justified this meddling into his brother’s life “because my complaint is legitimate
and legal to contradict [my brother] because it looks to the defense and service
of God : : : ”63 Not only was Juan interested in stopping a castrate from polluting
what was a holy sacrament, marriage, he also asserted “ : : : that [my complaint]
prevents serious inconveniences that would occur if it would happen that [José]
marries.”64
This case shows how important full masculine status could be for a family and
community. Both brothers’ pleas to the court reveal a family feud over money,
land and possibly even petty political power in a small community. Their clash
was not just about this one marriage. Juan and the family, in fact, wanted José
MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1083
never to marry. Therefore the case did not arise because this particular bride was
a bad match for José. If José ever married he would apparently ruin an overall
family plan. Why? The motivations are only hinted at in the petitions and the
trial. José claimed that his family was preventing the marriage due to hatred,
ill will, and with “other personal goals” in mind. Juan argued that a marriage
by José would cause “serious inconveniences.” Economic motivations are the
most likely cause of the dispute. Juan, as an older brother, may have wanted
to preserve the family’s estate, keeping it for himself and his own children. An
unmarried brother would have lived off the estate, but would not have been able
to alienate any part of it to his own wife and children. There was little to worry
about if one’s younger brother was a reputed castrate. Perhaps the castration
of his younger brother had even been planned; though gruesome, this would
not have been such a bizarre practice and was not unknown in other parts of
Europe. According to Patrick Barbier, in Naples peasant families with four or
more sons were permitted to castrate one for the benefit of the Church.65With
his brother’s marriage Juan would also cede some of the family’s political standing
in the community. José, for his part, would become an independent vecino with
a voice in the community, as well as gain a family and household of his own.
The castration of José, then, was perhaps a way to prevent the alienation of the
family’s estate.
Two years earlier the court witnessed a similar quarrel from the town of Villar
del Rio. In this case Domingo de Viana was being prevented from marriage by
his father, Matheo de Viana. The seventy-year-old father, Matheo, personally
warned the local priest that his son, Domingo, at the age of twenty-seven, was a
castrate. The priest was thereby forced to stop the banns from being announced
for Domingo’s approaching marriage. In testimony to the court the priest stated
that, when Domingo’s father announced Domingo’s lack of manhood, the son
“for having been prevented [from marriage by his father] the said son placed
hands on [his father] and treated him very badly.”66 Domingo had been “castrated”
at the age of two, and again a year later (the word used was “castrated,”
but these were apparently hernia operations). His father believed that these two
operations had left his son fully castrated. Matheo had supposed that the hernia
surgeon only left one testicle within Domingo “for appearances : : : ”67 He had
been content to know that his young son had been left unmarriageable. Perhaps
the father in this case, so late in life, was intent on preventing the marriage of
a son because he hoped to keep an inheritance intact, perhaps in the hands of
another son. In any case, manhood was to be denied Domingo, as it would be
denied those who were impotent.
As demonstrated in the case of castrates, manhood clearly depended on physical
attributes: being a sexually intact male. But it also required continual, or
at least occasional, proof of the sexual operation. Impotence at any moment
threatened to rob a man of his virility, and through gossip and reputation, his
masculine status. Of course it should not surprise anyone that masculinity was
synonymous with sexual ability and prowess in the epoch and country of Don
Juan, the nearly mythical seducer and defiler of women. Like Don Juan’s feats,
male sexual ability had to be demonstrated and defended, especially when such
abilities were publicly doubted. Generally impotence was a private trauma that
occasionally became a communal concern through networks of gossip. But it also
1084 journal of social history summer 2005
often became a legal question when it impinged on the ability to effect marriage.
In such court cases a man would be forced to prove his virility to court, producing
detailed records that inform us today about the importance of virility in the
everyday lives of early modern Spaniards. The court made every effort to actively
link men to their sexual abilities by publicizing these proofs of manhood.
The use of banns and placards reinforced standards of masculinity by exposing
impotent men to their communities. A clear requirement of the Christian ideal
of masculinity exemplified by the model of St. Jospeh was not simply chastity,
but oddly enough, virility. The church court of Calahorra and La Calzada was
often engaged in routing out impotent husbands and dissolving their marriages.
Perhaps one of the most interesting and difficult elements of impotence cases
is trying to answer how the trial and its publicity affected the public reputation
of the allegedly impotent man. Any individual’s reputation depended largely on
community consensus. Just as a woman’s honor depended on her reputation for
modesty, seclusion, and being above suspicion of fornication in neighbors’ opinions,
a man’s honor depended on an aggregate public opinion that held him as
honest, direct, physically capable of defending his family name, and, most importantly,
as masculine. As has been emphasized time and again in regard to
women, sexual reputation was central to honor. Just as virginity and chastity
were essential to female honor, so virility was a fundamental element of masculine
honor. The church court used its control of the public sphere to participate
in the economy of sexual reputation.
Certainly an effective way to frighten and gain the attention of a husband
accused of impotence was to place his name in local parish placards. If a husband
accused of impotence fled, could not be found, or simply refused to respond
to his wife’s charges, his name and the charge would be displayed for the entire
community to see. Such notices were nailed to the doors of the local church and
then regularly announced to the parish. If more than one parish was involved
then notices would be sent to the appropriate parishes. These banns could easily
involve parishes outside the diocese. When the tribunal initiated an investigation
of an allegedly impotent husband its first order of business always stated that
if the man did not reply to the accusations within six days they would “publicize
[the charge] and declare [the charge] and place it on placards.”68 The court
would shame the accused into submission. Public humiliation was often a more
powerful method of control than even the sequestration of an individual’s money
and property. If the tribunal impounded a husband’s home he might still ignore
court orders by depending on friends or family for support. But it was difficult to
escape or ignore the ubiquitous shame caused by posters announcing that one
was impotent.
Even if an individual responded promptly and quietly to a judge’s initial letter
ordering him to appear before the court, the proceedings of an impotence trial
were not kept secret. The court’s simple administrative business spread information
about impotent men to local parish priests, notaries and perhaps other
officials in order to take testimonies and do its bidding. Often the local priest
or vicar, acting as a provisional judge (juez de comisión), needed to hire a doctor
and surgeon to perform the medical examination of the accused. The majority
of people charged with impotence were fortunate in that they were able to
have their hearings held far from their hometowns. There were, however, sevMANHOOD
AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1085
eral men called before the court who lived in Logroño and Calahorra, both seats
of the court’s operations. Their neighbors presumably could casually attend the
proceedings of the trials in which the most intimate details of their sexual lives
were revealed. In cases that concerned the rich and powerful it is possible that
transcripts of impotence trials were copied and circulated. In France, just to the
north, this was a common practice and became a literary genre unto itself in the
eighteenth century.69
Due to the public nature of impotence trials, husbands and their lawyers were
forced to deny flatly and consistently any alleged impotence and prove their
virility to the last, using all excuses, proofs and ploys necessary. During the fouryear
impotence trial of Antonio Francisco de Ydiaquez Velez Yqueziara, for instance,
the church court made public announcements calling on anyone to come
forward and give evidence about whether this Knight of the Holy Order of Santiago
was potent or impotent. After dozens of doctors had failed to corroborate
any independent movement of his penis, and several witnesses spoke against
him, his lawyer began a lengthy account of the magic spells that had been used
to douse his virility.70 Even if he lost the case, a man, especially one of Ydiaquez’s
public stature, had to save face at all costs; he had to assert that he was virile,
whatever the church court might tell the public.
If the church courts never attempted to keep impotence proceedings a secret
during the trial, after the trial an impotent person’s situation became much
worse. Once the court reached a decision it made sure to publicize its judgment.
The ecclesiastical tribunal needed to make decisions regarding impotence public
to prevent further scandal, illegitimate marriages and subsequent litigation.
When church officials were informed that a man was impotent they considered
it imperative that the community be warned. All these ways for the public to
learn about, and participate in, impotence trials made it impossible for men to
avoid the shame and alienation that accompanied impotence. The importance
of public shame in these trials demonstrates that the charge of impotence was
not merely a means to an annulment. The social stigma that went along with
impotence made such accusations more powerful. When a woman announced
to her community and church that her husband was impotent she not only began
a fight for her dowry, independence and rights, she necessarily attempted to
destroy her husband’s standing in that city or town. According to the church’s
reasoning, parishioners needed to know that he was sexually defective and not
marriageable.
Non-men—males who did not possess the biological and cultural requirements
of manhood—were increasingly defined and excised by Spanish communities
and institutions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A new
legal confidence in the medical profession in the eighteenth century focused attention
on the male body to accomplish this excision. The new faith in medicine
as the principal authority to define manhood stands out from these court cases
as much as the initial question of this essay: why did courts turn to a physical
definition of manhood in the eighteenth century. Wives, families, and parish
priests had come to doubt what definitively made someone essentially a man.
Via litigation they called upon an increasingly self-assured medical profession
to diagnose and classify the physical attributes of non-masculinity, in much the
same way they would describe the unhealthy, the abnormal, or the insane. This
1086 journal of social history summer 2005
trend, turning away from definitions of gender that placed the body on a continuum
from masculine to feminine to essential and particular requirements of
either gender, was part of the broader epistemological shift described by Thomas
Laqueur and Londa Schiebinger. A classifying science concerned with discrete,
definable sexual characteristics began to insinuate itself in the popular discussion
of masculinity. This is a trend, of course, that continues to our own day.
Western culture continues to turn to scientists to define the non-masculine for
us as we see in the ridiculous quest for the so-called “gay gene.”71
The ideas and sentiments that surround sexual differentiation today are increasingly
divided. There is a determined opinion in the medical and social sciences
that we are, fundamentally though not exclusively, our genes. Sociologists
and psychologists of a generation ago, one the other hand, urged us to consider
differences between men and women as products of socialization. Cultural historians
generally followed their lead, looking at the many ways that definitions of
gender have changed over the centuries. In so doing many have tended to ignore
how the material body determined one’s status and life in the past. Historically
the body and its frailty were much more difficult to escape than in our own age.
The people of Spain three hundred years ago, whom we have glimpsed in this
paper, were much more at the mercy of their bodies than are people in Europe
today. The body, like place and condition, arbitrarily determined who one was
and how one was treated. Only rarely could an individual deny their physical
attributes and become who they wanted, like the self-made man Catalina de Erauso.
As definitions of gender during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
came to rely more and more on observation of physical attributes rather than
behavior, individuals became even more defined by their bodies. Physical observation
not only came to be the basis for rigid sexual identities, but also new and
carefully defined racial and ethnic identities as well. Today the debate over body
and being continue, with the powers of observation extending to ourDNAwhile
the freedoms available for self-fashioning (plastic surgery, sex-changes, etc.) are
equally expansive.
Department of History
237 Whitener Hall
Boone, NC 28608
ENDNOTES
1. Luis Martínez Kleiser, Refranero General Ideológico Español (Madrid, 1953) refrain
64,551, p. 741. I would like to thank the J.William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board
and the Comisión de Intercambio Cultural, Educativo y Científico entre el Reino de España
y los Estados Unidos de América for providing funds for the research that forms the
basis of this article. Appalachian State University provided financial support for further
research at the Newberry Library in Chicago. I also thank David Reid, Mary Valante,
and JimWinders of the History department at Appalachian State University for reading
many drafts of this essay. Early and incomplete sections of this paper were presented at
the American Historical Association in Chicago, 2003 and at the Sixteenth Century
Studies Association in Pittsburgh, 2003.
MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1087
2. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada
included all of what are today the Spanish provinces of La Rioja, Alava and Vizcaya.
It also held jurisdiction over parts of western Burgos, eastern Guipúzcoa and Navarra,
and Northern Soria. In the early modern period the diocese was culturally divided. The
Basque culture and peoples predominated in the half of the diocese north of the Ebro
river, while the Castilian language and culture dominated the area south of the Ebro. The
majority of litigation took place in Logroño; not the seat of the diocese, it was its largest
city and was centrally-located on the Ebro River. For the three seats of the bishopric one
historian has estimated the population of Logroño to have been no more than 7,000 at
the end of the seventeenth century. The total of Calahorra’s residents hovered around
3,600, and Santo Domingo de La Calzada boasted no more than 3,000 citizens (Eliseo
Sáinz Ripa, Sedes episcopales de La Rioja, tomo III, siglos XVI–XVII [Logroño, 1995] pp.
22–25.)
3. Angus McLaren explores court cases and the definition of masculinity in the nineteenth
and twentieth century United States in The Trials of Manhood: Policing Sexual
Boundaries 1870–1930 (Chicago and London, 1997). James R. Farr, “The Pure and Disciplined
Body: Hierarchy, Morality, and Symbolism in France during the Catholic Reformation,”
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 21, no. 3 (Winter, 1991), pp. 391–414,
and Joan Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” American Historical
Review, XCI (1986).
4. Perhaps the most pertinent recent authors who have focused on the construction of
masculinity in the early modern period are Elizabeth Foyster’s excellent Manhood in Early
Modern England (London and New York, 1999), Valeria Finucci’s The Manly Masquerade:
Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the Italian Renaissance (Durham and London,
2003) (hereafter abbreviated “Finucci, Manly Masquerade”), and Sidney Donnell, Feminizing
the Enemy: Imperial Spain, Transvestite Drama, and the Crisis of Masculinity (Lewisburg,
2003).
5. James Farr has claimed that gender hierarchies became more acutely defined north
of the Pyrenees, in Burgundy, in the early modern period (Farr, “The Pure and Disciplined
Body”). A new emphasis on gender hierarchy and purity was caused, he argues, by the
reforms of the Counter-Reformation Church. Farr follows anthropologist Mary Douglas’s
examination of social pollution, arguing that excising female sexual pollution became a
greater concern in the seventeenth century than it had been earlier (see Mary Douglas,
Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, London, 1966). In
elaborating this thesis of excision he appropriately cites Joan Scott’s assertion that “conceptual
languages employ differentiation to establish meaning and that sexual difference
is a primary way of signifying differentiation” from her seminal article “Gender: A Useful
Category of Historical Analysis,” American Historical Review, XCI (1986), 1069.
6. Whether one accepts Thomas Laqueur and Londa Schiebinger’s argument that the
“two sex” model only became the dominant biological model in the early eighteenth
century or not, in these Spanish cases genital anatomy was always used as a definitive
marker of womanhood or manhood. Such a method of sexual determination fits either
paradigm, whether the model was a Galenic sexual continuum with man at one end and
woman at the other, or a two sex dichotomy that left no place between either sex. For
a thorough argument regarding the “one sex” model see Thomas Laqueur, Making Sex:
Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 1990).
See also Londa Schiebinger, The Mind Has No Sex ?: Women in the Origins of Modern
Science (Cambridge and London, 1989). Schiebinger and Laqueur’s thesis is by no means
1088 journal of social history summer 2005
definitive, and a recent refutation of their ideas, followed by their respective rebuttals,
can be found in Michael Stolberg’s “A Woman Down to Her Bones: the Anatomy of
Sexual Difference in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries,” ISIS 94:2 (June
2003), pp. 274–313. The debate seems to be as much about chronology as it is about
sexual models, as historians of the Enlightenment like Laqueur find a transition between
the models in the eighteenth century while historians of earlier periods argue for an early
transition or no evidence that the “one sex” model was entirely dominant before 1700.
7. MerryWiesner-Hanks, Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World: Regulating
Desire, Reforming Practice (London and New York, 2000) p. 84.
8. Machismo, importantly, as Angie Hart points out, is a word never used in Spain, at
least in the sense that it is used in English; see Angie Hart, “Missing Masculinity?: Prostitutes,
Philippines, Spain,” in Dislocating Masculinity: Comparative Ethnographies, Andrea
Cornwall and Nancy Lindisfarne, eds. (London and New York, 1994) p. 51.
9. For a pointed critique of Gilmore’s search for definitions of masculinity, Spanish and
otherwise, see Angie Hart, “Missing Masculinity?: Prostitutes’ clients in Alicante, Spain,”
in Dislocating Masculinity: Comparative Ethnographies, Andrea Cornwall and Nancy Lindisfarne,
eds. (London and New York, 1994). It must also be noted that many studies of
Spain have focused on Andalucia. Perhaps this is because foreigners have often viewed
Andalucia as the quintessence of Spain, rather than [as] one of many different Spanish
regions.
10. Ethnographers of Spain, as anthropologists often do, emphasize continuity over
change, referring to the timeless character of the isolated and enclosed Spanish village.
However, assertions that Spanish ideals have changed little over the past three centuries
fail to take into account the huge demographic, industrial and political shifts that Spain
has undergone. So it is with a healthy skepticism that I invoke these still important
ethnographic observations. The many excellent ethnographic works on Spain, however,
are invaluable for understanding daily life in Spanish communities. See, for instance,
Susan Tax Freeman’s Neighbors: The Social Contract in a Castilian Hamlet (Chicago and
London, 1970), and Julian Pitt-Rivers, The People of the Sierra, First Ed. 1954, (Chicago,
1971). The most suitable works for Spanish masculinity are David Gilmore’s Aggression
and Community: Paradoxes of Andalusian Culture (New Haven and London, 1987), and
Stanley Brandes, Metaphors of Masculinity: Sex and Status in Andalusian Folklore (Philidelphia,
1980) p. 92.
11. Brandes, Metaphors, p. 92.
12. Gilmore, Aggression, pp. 31–33. On masculinity see also Susan Tax Freeman, Neighbors:
The Social Contract in a Castilian Hamlet (Chicago and London, 1970).
13. Gilmore, Aggresion, p. 32.
14. Anton Blok, “Rams and Billy-Goats:AKey to the Mediterranean Code of Honour,”
Man, New Series, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Sept., 1981), 427–440, p. 433. See also the Ram/Billygoat
opposition in Brandes, Metaphors, p. 79. Valeria Finucci agrees that physical (sexual)
intactness is essential to masculinity, Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p. 256. Julian Pitt
Rivers, on the other hand, sees actual physical intactness as apart from or secondary to
the cultural language and symbolism of the male body in his discussion of cojones: “While
MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1089
it is not supposed that he is literally devoid of the male physiological attributes, he is, figuratively,
so.” Pitt-Rivers, People of the Sierra, p. 90.
15. Blok, “Rams and Billy-Goats,” p. 433.
16. The non-reproductive nature of sex with the Devil made it all the more perverted;
see Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p. 272.
17. Brandes, Metaphors, p. 85.
18. Though the concern of this essay is manhood, womanhood also became more clearly
defined, of course, over the same period. Many examples can be found in the literature
of the day: Fray Luis de León’s La Perfecta Casada (The Perfect Wife) of 1583 and Juan
Luis Vives’s De Institutione Feminae Christianae (On the Education of a Christian Woman)
of 1523, for example, both clarified ideal womanly behavior and character.
19. CarolineVillaseñor Black, “Love and Marriage in the Spanish Empire: Depictions of
Holy Matrimony and Gender Discourses in the Seventeenth Century,” Sixteenth Century
Journal, XXXII/3 (2001): 637–667.
20. Villaseñor Black “Love and Marriage.”
21. Rebecca Haidt, Embodying Enlightenment: Knowing the Body in Eighteenth-Century
Spanish Literature and Culture (New York, 1998) pp. 107–148. Haidt’s insights are fascinating
and, for the most part, extremely well reasoned. Haidt demonstrates, for instance,
the relationship between petimetre/mojo, unmanly/ manly, Frenchness/Spanishness as
constant oppositional themes in the literature of the day. The only aspect lacking in
her analysis, unfortunately, is an adequate consideration of masculinity and class/status.
The effeminate man, the petimetre, that Haidt shows was the continual fool in plays and
stories was obviously of the upper class, while the playwrights themselves must have originated
from, or appealed to an audience of a different class or strata of Spanish society.
22. Ibid. p. 110.
23. There were several famous cases of castrati who so captivated women that they
eloped and attempted to legally marry. See, for instance, the case of Giusto Tenducci
and Dora Maunsell in Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p. 241.
24. Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p. 256. Also, note that only virgins were understood
to be physically intact. Once a virgin was penetrated, she lost her physical and personal
integrity, her wholeness, and also her true virtue. In this sense both castrati and nonvirginal
women shared a status as not completely whole, corrupted. They were both nonmen.
25. Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of insanity in the Age of Reason,
trans. Richard Howard (New York, 1965) pp. 38–43. James Winders gives a succinct
explanation of this process in Gender, Theory, and the Canon (Madison and London,
1991) p. 31.
26. One of Darmon’s main arguments is that the Church and its courts used impotence
trials to emasculate lay men in an attempt to exorcize their own sexual neuroses, see
Pierre Darmon, Damning the Innocent: A History of the Persecution of the Innocent in Pre-
Revolutionary France, trans. Paul Keegan (New York, 1986) p. 2.
1090 journal of social history summer 2005
27. Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p. 247.
28. Archivo Catedralico y Diocesano de Calahorra (hereafter abbreviated ACDC),
Legajo 27/309/1, f. 6.
29. ACDC, Legajo 27/555/23, f. 12.
30. Blok, “Rams and Billy-Goats,” p. 433.
31. For an ethnographic explanation of the importance of virginity in the Mediterranean
world see Brandes, Metaphors, p. 181. For the historical development of the cult
of virginity in Europe see Kathleen Coyne Kelly, Performing Virginity and Testing Chastity
in the Middle Ages (London and New York, 2000).
32. As an example of the tradition of exposing blood stained sheets after consummation
in Spain see Pierre Darmon who quotes a witness: “the Spaniards, that are great observers
of ceremony, on the day following the wedding do have matrons show the sheets of the
nuptial bed in public with great acclaim, to parade the stains of defloration, crying out all
the while from a window: Virgin la tenemos [we’ve got a virgin],” in Pierre Darmon, Trial
by Impotence: Virility and Marriage in pre-Revolutionary France (London, 1985) p. 149.
33. Renato Barahona examines in depth the language surrounding the loss of virginity
in “Carnal Knowledge: The Language of Sex,” Chapter Two of his book Sex Crimes,
Honour, and the Law in Early Modern Spain: Vizcaya, 1528–1735 (Toronto, Buffalo, and
London, 2003).
34. Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (London and Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1983) pp. 20–21.
35. George Caspar Homans, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (New York and
London, 1941) pp. 72–73.
36. Haidt, for instance, emphasizes this connection in her discussion of the unmarried
petimetre. Haidt, Embodying Enlightenment, p. 112. See also Anne S. Lombard who also
demonstrates the early modern interdependency between marriage and becoming a man
in Making Manhood: Growing Up Male in Colonial New England (Cambridge, Mass., 2003).
37. This is according to the Council of Nicaea 325. See Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p.
256.
38. A great deal of skepticism surrounds Catalina de Erauso’s autobiography, which she
wrote or dictated between 1626 and 1630. Yet, that she lived, and lived as a man for
much of her life seems incontrovertible; several extant contemporary letters mention
her, as does the pension given to her from Philip IV for military service to the king.
However, many of the feats and adventures she describes in her book clearly seem to be
exaggerations or even inventions. See Catalina de Erauso, Memoir of a Basque Transvestite
in the New World, trans. Michele Stepto and Gabriel Stepto (Boston, 1996). Federico
Garza Carvajal includes a full, if uncritical, discussion of Erauso as the ideal Spanish
man in his Butterflies Will Burn: Prosecuting Sodomites in Early Modern Spain and Mexico
(Austin, 2003) pp. 18–21.
39. Joseph Bajada, Sexual Impotence: The Contribution of Paolo Zacchia (1584–1659)
(Rome, 1988) p.87, (hereafter abbreviated as “Bajada, Paolo Zacchia”).
MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1091
40. “una communicación ylicita . . . ” ACDC, Legajo 27/631/11, f. 2.
41. “allandose el mienbro viril (si merecer, ni el nombre deello) . . . por quanto diuidida
la naturaleza (que siempre es desunata ad unum) hacer dos instrumentos de lo que hauia
de hazer uno, hizo dos, y anbos con toda inperfeccion . . . ” ACDC, Legajo 27/631/11, f.
3.
42. The fact that Juan was not permitted to enter the clergy highlights a curious and
important point regarding how the body was connected to sanctity, order, and sexuality.
The canon law that required clerics to be physically intact dates back to the Council
of Nicaea (Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p. 256). That council found the self-castration
of certain aesthetic monks disturbing and worked to prevent them from entering the
Church hierarchy.
43. There has been a great deal of work on hermaphrodites over the past two decades.
Several famous cases have been unearthed and explored by historians of gender. Two
important overviews will provide interested readers with a point of departure: Patrick
Graille, Les hermaphrodites: aux XVIIe et XVIII siècles (Paris, 2001), and Alice Domurat
Dreger’s Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex (Cambridge and London, 1998).
44. Take, for instance, the importance of the coif that denoted the difference between
girl and married woman. Synodal decrees in early modern Spain chastised women who
took the toca de mujer without being legitimately married or after sexual relations: “que,
de aqui adelante, ninguna muger, despues que hiziere vida maridable con su marido, sea
osada de andar sino con toca de casada . . . ” “Sínodo de Antonio de Guevara,” Mondoñedo,
November 13, 1541, Synodicon Hispanum, Antonio García y García ed. (Madrid,
1987), vol. 3, p. 73. This change in women was particularly marked by a change in
hairstyle and headdress. As for men, passage into adulthood was accomplished by marriage
or entrance into religion. See Barahona, Sex Crimes, p. 33, also Farr, “The Pure and
Disciplined Body,” p. 406.
45. This idealization of the hermaphrodite is contained in the origin of the word in
Greek mythology: Hermaphrodite was the offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite. Thus the
original hermaphrodite was not a monster but a product of Hermes, clever messenger
of the gods, and Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love (Graille, Les hermaphrodites,
pp. 18–19). An early modern example of the hermaphrodite as a utopian sexual being,
containing in itself the best of both sexes there is Thomas Artus sieur d’ Embry’s
Les Hermaphrodites, 1605. Aside from a select literature and fables that idealized the
hermaphrodite, there was a pervasive sentiment that regarded her/him as a monster, not
only among the populace, but also increasingly among the educated of the Enlightenment
who, newly wed to the idea of a binary sexual system, saw no natural place in creation
for anything in between sexes (Graille, Les hermaphrodites, p. 60).
46. Blok, “Rams and Billy-Goats,” p. 432. See also Pitt-Rivers, People of the Sierra, p. 90.
47. Spain, once a part of and greatly affected by the Islamic world, had witnessed the
production of eunuchs over the centuries. Various historians have assumed that the creation
of castrati in Spain was a Christian Mediterranean version of the Islamic Mediterranean
production of and trade in eunuchs. Sherr argues that the Mediterranean or Muslim
worlds cannot be blamed for beginning the practice of castration in early modern
Europe. He points out that many of the early castrati came from Northern France and
the Low Countries long before Italy and Spain would dominate the castrati production
and profession. See Richard Sherr, “Gugliemo Gonzaga and the Castrati,” Renaissance
1092 journal of social history summer 2005
Quarterly, vol. 33, issue 1 (Spring, 1980) 33–56, p. 37. On the prevalence of castration
in the Eastern Mediterranean see Kathryn M. Ringrose, The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and
the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium (Chicago and London, 2003).
48. Contemporaries, social commentators and later historians have mainly settled on
two possible reasons for early modern castration: one medical and the other musical.
Clearly there were medical reasons that justified castration in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Childhood illnesses and accidents occasionally resulted in the removal
of testicles. Before 1772 childhood inguinal hernias frequently required surgery. In 1772
a protective belt called the manezuela was invented to prevent inguinal hernias (Nicolás
Morales, “El real colegio de niños cantors y una práctica discutida a finales del siglo XVIII
: la castración,” Revista de Musicología, Vol. XX, no.1, [Enero-Diciembre 1997], p. 7, hereafter
abbreviated as “Morales, ‘El real colegio de niños’ ”). Inguinal hernias occasionally
occur to young boys when the inguinal canal that separates the intestinal cavity from
the groin fails to close before the birth of the male infant. If open, part of the intestines
can descend out of the inguinal canal, producing a hernia. This condition required an
operation to prevent the hernia from growing and endangering the life of the child. Such
surgery usually involved the removal of at least one testicle; perhaps both were removed.
In fact, most court cases about castration focused on the question of what the hernia
surgeon actually did. According to the oft repeated testimony in these court cases, a surgeon
specialized in hernias called a hernista (hernia surgeon) or sometimes potrero (gelder)
would perform the operation. He would open the scrotum, remedy the intestinal hernia,
and then remove one testicle completely.
49. Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p. 248.
50. “Linda cosa, la voz sutil y melosa, en un hombre muy barbado!” Act One of El
Examen de Maridos, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, 1633.
51. “que no tenia coxones para darle . . . ” ACDC, Legajo 27/566/40, f. 7.
52. “que asi estubiera libre de morir de parto . . . ” ACDC, Legajo 566/40, f. 1 back.
53. Bajada, Paolo Zacchia, p. 16.
54. Interest in the castrati singers has been the main reason for historical investigations
of castration in Europe. Music historians and musicologists have provided the social background
of castration. Understandably, but unfortunately, their focus has almost exclusively
been the production of castrati. This leads to the assumption that the production
of castrati was the exclusive reason for castration of young boys. Patrick Barbier’s Histoire
des Castrats, for instance, emphasizes the prevalence of castration in early modern Italy,
and then takes for granted that all these boys had been castrated due to the popularity of
castrati. He simply does not deal with castration as a European phenomenon outside of
music. See Patrick Barbier, Histoire des castrats (Paris, 1989) p. 29.
55. Finucci, Manly Masquerade, p. 251.
56. Michael R. McVaugh, “Treatment of Hernia in the Later Middle Ages: Surgical
Correction and Social Construction,” Medicine from the Black Death to the French Disease,
Edited by Roger French, et al. (Singapore, Sydney, 1998), p. 134
57. For the common assumptions equating hernia surgery with castration see Finucci,
Manly Masquerade, p. 239, n. 36 as well as McVaugh, “Treatment of Hernia in the Later
MANHOOD AND THE NEUTERED BODY 1093
Middle Ages?” The most notorious cause for castration was the purposeful creation of a
castrato singer. The need for castrati in the late sixteenth century had arisen as a consequence
of the Church’s post-Tridentine efforts to enforce the cloistered life of religious
women. Women were prohibited from participating in many musical productions. Castrates
were used to replace high female voices. Later, new musical tastes in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries for Italian opera increased the demand for castrati. The castrato,
possessing the voice of a boy and lung capacity of an adult, was uniquely able to
perform lengthy ornamentation without taking a breath, a musical quality much desired
by wealthy patrons (Sherr, “Gugliemo Gonzaga”).
58. “Señalase el día, y los padres huyen de la casa, porque les falta el valor para escuchar
los clamores de su hijo: los asistentes unos se turban, y otros se desmayan, y nadie mira con
ojo sereno lo que se executa, con que aprovechandose de esta confusion, exerce sus titeres
sanguinarios, arrancando los Didimos, y aparentando que los dexa dentro.” A. Agüello
Castrillo, Disertacion chirurgica, Madrid, Ed. Pantaleon Aznar (1775), p. 15 Quoted in
Morales, “El real colegio de niños,” p. 9.
59. Ibid.
60. “trato de castrar al dho su hijo y estando el potrero o hernista en su casa para ejecutarlo
como tal bezino paso la testigo a ella y bio como el dho hernista castró y capó de
ambos lados al dho Juan de Alesón . . . ” ACDC, Legajo 27/566/40, f. 16.
61. Archivo Historico Provincial de Logroño, Legajo J 965/3, from an impotence case
before the local abbot’s court of the Abbey of Najéra, part of the diocese of Calahorra
and La Calzada, f. 4.
62. “ . . . algunos de sus parientes, por odio y mala voluntad y por otros fines particulares
lean informado de que padece . . . impotentia . . . [porque] le quitaron ambos testiculos.”
ACDC, Legajo 27/571/50, f. 2.
63. “porque mi pte lo es lexma y formal pa contradezir la pretenson contra pr lo que mira
al celo y seruo de Dios . . . ” ACDC, Legajo 27/571/50, f. 6.
64. “ . . . q se ataxen ynconbenientes graues q se orixinarian en caso de lleuar efecto el
casarsse” Ibid.
65. Patrick Barbier, The World of the Castrati: A History of an Extraordinary Operatic
Phenomenon, trans. Margaret Crosland (London, 1996) p. 20.
66. “por haber lo el dho impedido el dho su hijo pusso manos en el [su padre] y lo trato
mui malo.” ACDC, Legajo 27/714/65.
67. “para la conpustura del mundo . . . ” Ibid.
68. “lo publiquen y declaren pongan en tablillas.” ACDC, Legajo 27/450/1, f. 1
69. On the great curiosity and popularity of impotence trials in eighteenth century Paris
see Darmon, Damning the Innocent, pp. 77–81.
70. ACDC, Legajo 345/31, folios 231–233.
71. See Dean Hamer, The Science of Desire: The Search for the Gay Gene and the Biology
of Behavior (New York, October 1994).

[Paolo]

Barbier's "World of the Castrati" is a very good book for insight into how the castrati lived and what they endured in music school. Granted, some leftover notes may never tell us the whole story, but it sure puts a perspective on learning...

[Danya]

Folks,

Just a reminder: our very own authority in residence, Jesus, has published papers on voluntary eunuchs and wannabes (sp?) and their reasons for seeking castration. If you send him an email through his link, he'll be glad to send you copies.