Taboo and genetics : $b A study of the biological, sociological and psychological foundation of the familyKnight, Melvin M. (Melvin Moses)
Science
Taboo and genetics : $b A study of the biological, sociological and psychological foundation of the family
Knight, Melvin M. (Melvin Moses)
Sex (Biology); Sex (Psychology); Taboo; Women
With the rejection of the idea of the sanctity of sex as embodied in the
phallic rituals of the pagan cults, the psychic power of woman became
once more a thing of fear rather than of worship, and her uncleanness
was emphasized again more than her holiness, even as in primitive times.
The power of woman to tell the course of future events which in other
days had made her revered as priestess and prophetess now made her hated
as a witch who had control of what the Middle Ages knew as the Black
Art.[23] The knowledge of medicine which she had acquired through the
ages was now thought to be utilized in the making of "witch's brew," and
the "ceremonies and charms whereby the influence of the gods might be
obtained to preserve or injure"[21: v.1, p.12] became incantations to the
evil one. In addition to her natural erotic attraction for the male,
woman was now accused of using charms to lure him to his destruction.
The asceticism of the church made it shameful to yield to her
allurements, and as a result woman came to be feared and loathed as the
arch-temptress who would destroy man's attempt to conform to celibate
ideals. This sex antagonism culminated in the witchcraft persecutions
which make so horrible a page of the world's history.
Among the pagans, witches had shared with prophetesses and priestesses a
degree of reverence and veneration. Medea had taught Jason to tame the
brazen-footed bulls and dragons which guarded the Golden Fleece. Hecate
was skilled in spells and incantations. Horace frequently mentions with
respect Canidia, who was a powerful enchantress. Gauls, Britons and
Germans had obeyed and venerated women who dealt in charms and
incantations. The doctrines of Christianity had changed the veneration
into hatred and detestation without eradicating the belief in the power
of the witch. It was with the hosts of evil that she was now believed to
have her dealings, however. When this notion of the alliance between
demons and women had become a commonplace, "the whole tradition was
directed against woman as the Devil's instrument, basely seductive,
passionate and licentious by nature."[24] Man's fear of woman found a
frantic and absurd expression in her supposed devil-worship. As a
result, the superstitions about witchcraft became for centuries not only
a craze, but a theory held by intelligent people.
Among the female demons who were especially feared were: Nahemah, the
princess of the Succubi; Lilith, queen of the Stryges; and the Lamiæ or
Vampires, who fed on the living flesh of men. Belief in the Vampires
still persists as a part of the folklore of Europe. Lilith tempted to
debauchery, and was variously known as child-strangler, child-stealer,
and a witch who changed true offspring for fairy or phantom children.[A]
The figure of the child-stealing witch occurs in an extremely ancient
apocryphal book called the Testament of Soloman, and dates probably from
the first or second century of the Christian Era.[25]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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