Religion and Lust: or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire — John Shaqi
Religion and Lust: or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual DesireWeir, James, Jr.
Religion
Religion and Lust: or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire
Weir, James, Jr.
Sex -- Religious aspects
"In order to cultivate a mujerado, a very powerful man is chosen, and he
is made to masturbate excessively and ride constantly. Gradually such
irritable weakness of the genital organs is engendered that, in riding,
great loss of semen is induced. This condition of irritability passes
into paralytic impotence. Then the testicles and penis atrophy, the hair
of the beard falls out, the voice loses its depth and compass, and
physical strength and energy decrease. Inclinations and disposition
become feminine. The mujerado loses his position in society as a man. He
takes on feminine manners and customs, and associates with women; yet,
for religious reasons, he is held in high honor."[38] The phallic
ceremonies of the Pueblos take place in the spring, when the life
principle is exceedingly active throughout all nature.
[38] Krafft-Ebing: _Psychopathia Sexualis_, p. 201; see also
Hammond: _Impotence in the Male_.
In all probability the "botes" of the Montana Indians and the "burdachs"
of the Washington tribes serve as masculine hetaræ to the chiefs and
medicine men, though this has not been definitely determined. Dr. Holder
described a typical "bote" of the Absaroke tribe in the New York Medical
Journal, 1889. This androgyne, in many respects, resembled the mujerados
of the Pueblo Indians, and probably served a like purpose in his tribe.
According to Ross, a Konyaga woman, when she has a good-looking boy,
dresses him in girl's clothes and brings him up as a female. When he
arrives at a suitable age he is sent to wait on the priests of the tribe
and is introduced by them into the sacred mysteries of their cult; in
fact, he becomes a masculine hetara.
When we read of such things we feel pretty much as Herodotus felt when
he saw the naked women of Mendes submitting themselves openly ες
επιδειξιν ανθρωπων [Transliteration: es epideixin anthrôpôn] to the
embraces of the sacred goat.[J] To the Greek historian this act was
simply horrible (τερας [Transliteration: teras]); and yet these
Egyptians experienced no repugnance whatever. To them it represented the
incarnation of the deity, and was, therefore, a sacred and holy action,
just as masculine hetarism is regarded as a holy profession among the
Konyagas. Phallic hetarism is one of the sacraments of the Konyaga
church, and, as such, it is held in all that reverence and awe with
which the savage devotee endows the mysteries of his faith.[K]
[J] Herodotus: _Euterpe_, 46.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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