Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2: Sexual InversionEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2: Sexual Inversion
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
One might be tempted to expect that homosexual practices would be
encouraged whenever it was necessary to keep down the population.
Aristotle says that it was allowed by law in Crete for this end. And
Professor Haddon tells me that at Torres Straits a native advocated sodomy
on this ground.[18] There seems, however, on the whole, to be little
evidence pointing to this utilization of the practice. The homosexual
tendency appears to have flourished chiefly among warriors and warlike
peoples. During war and the separation from women that war involves, the
homosexual instinct tends to develop; it flourished, for instance, among
the Carthaginians and among the Normans, as well as among the warlike
Dorians, Scythians, Tartars, and Celts,[19] and, when there has been an
absence of any strong moral feeling against it, the instinct has been
cultivated and, idealized as a military virtue, partly because it
counteracts the longing for the softening feminine influences of the home
and partly because it seems to have an inspiring influence in promoting
heroism and heightening _esprit de corps_. In the lament of David over
Jonathan we have a picture of intimate friendship--"passing the love of
women"--between comrades in arms among a barbarous, warlike race. There is
nothing to show that such a relationship was sexual, but among warriors in
New Caledonia friendships that were undoubtedly homosexual were recognized
and regulated; the fraternity of arms, according to Foley,[20] complicated
with pederasty, was more sacred than uterine fraternity. We have,
moreover, a recent example of the same relationships recognized in a
modern European race--the Albanians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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