Asouade
An asouade is the involuntary ride on a donkey - upside down, i.e. with the face backwards. It is a ritualized collective punitive action similar to the Charivari - mainly in France from the 14th to 18th centuries, but also in England - and was intended to expose men who let themselves be oppressed and beaten by their wives.
It must have been preceded by the fact that the marital dispute became known outside the home and became a matter of the street. The tailoring profession was particularly popular with this grotesque action, as tailors, because they worked at home, were considered effeminate, weak and dominated by their wives.
If a man had exposed himself as particularly submissive to his wife, it could happen that the asouade was publicly announced and the whole village was invited to watch the spectacle. During the parade, the corresponding scene was re-enacted again and again by young men in costumes, with the intended violent wife being played by a young man. The event was commented on at the same time with correspondingly hearty songs.
A royal decree has come down to us that reports that in Senlis in 1375 the following common law was in force: “Husbands who allow themselves to be beaten by their wives are compelled and condemned to ride a donkey upside down, so that their face is to their tail of said donkey looks. "
In England the custom is known that men and women have to wear the clothes of the opposite sex.
Around the middle of the 18th century, the courts began to prohibit these and other spot rituals.
literature
- Philippe Ariès and Georges Duby (eds.): History of private life [1985]. Augsburg 1999, Volume 3: From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment [1986].
- Pieter Spierenburg and Herman Roodenburg: Social Control in Europe , Volume 1 (1500-1800), p. 290 ( excerpts from googlebooks ).