Sodomy

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The destruction of Sodom (mosaic, 12th century)

Sodomy (from the neo-Latin Sodomia ) is a religious, Christian construct for sinful sexual behavior that does not serve the purpose of procreation in marriage (non-regenerative). The term is based on the biblical Sodom tradition . Depending on the prevailing sexual morality of the respective time and culture , forms of sodomy have been and are criminally prosecuted. While in other languages ​​the terms derived from sodomia today mainly refer to anal intercourse , in modern German usage sodomy mainly refers to sexual practices with animals ( zoophilia ; Latin: Sodomia bestialis ).

Conceptual history in German

The history of the term sodomy in German is characterized by a strong narrowing of meaning . While sodomy today only refers to sexual acts with animals, in the Christian Middle Ages and early modern times the term still stood for a whole series of sexual practices that were canonically regarded as unnatural or perverse since they did not serve the purpose of reproduction .

"... who in careless arrogance decide to associate with a Jew , a Saracen or a wild animal or something else directed against nature ..." ( Council of Arles 1275)

In the Middle Ages and early modern times, sodomites were prosecuted and punished with death . Modern criminal law codifications from the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (Section 116) to the Reich Criminal Code ( Section 175 ) regularly recorded homosexual relationships between men and sexual relationships with animals in one and the same paragraph. In the course of the de- tabooing of sexuality, the original other meanings of the word have gradually been lost, except for sexual contact with animals. The term zoophilia has meanwhile established itself as a scientific term for sexual acts with or sexual attraction to animals .

The German verb sodomize , adopted from French , did not appear until the turn of the century, is used very rarely and is marked in the Duden as "educational language". It is most frequently found in texts influenced by foreign languages ​​for anal intercourse, much less often for zoophilia.

In other languages

In French , sodomy means any penetration of the anus in a sexual context and the verb sodomiser is also used. Sexual contact with animals is known in French as zoophilia .

In English too , sodomy is usually used to denote anal intercourse between two men or between man and woman, and the verb to sodomize is also common. However, the meaning can also include sexual practices such as oral sex ; H. any sexual act that is not heterosexual vaginal intercourse. The term bestiality (from Latin bestia: "animal, beast") is more used in English for intercourse with animals .

Cultural sodomy according to Sigusch

In 2005, the sexologist Volkmar Sigusch introduced the term “Kultursodomy” in his book Neosexualitäten in order to emphasize the importance of human-animal relationships in the sense of a “neo-alliance” or a love and life relationship in the rich countries of the West.

See also

literature

  • Susanne Hehenberger: unchaste against nature. Sodomy Trials in Early Modern Austria. Löcker, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-85409-430-2 .
  • Stefanie Krings: Sodomy on Lake Constance. On the social handling of sexual abnormality in the late Middle Ages and early modern times based on St. Gallen sources. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings . Issue 113, 1995, ISSN  0342-2070 , pp. 1-46, (digitized version ) .
  • Julius Rosenbaum : History of the lust epidemic in antiquity together with detailed studies of the Venus and phallic cults, brothels, Νοῦσος ϑήλεια of the Scythians, paederasty and other sexual excesses of the ancients presented as contributions to the correct explanation of their writings . [1839]. 7th edition. H. Barsdorf, Berlin 1904, pp. 274-277 ( sodomy ).
  • Dominik Lang: Sodomy and criminal law: history of criminal liability for sexual intercourse with animals (= European university publications , series 2: Jurisprudence , Volume 4750, ISSN  0531-7312 ), Lang, Frankfurt am Main, / Berlin / Bern / Bruxelles / New York, NY / Oxford / Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-58343-2 (Dissertation University of Tübingen 2008, 266 pages, 21 cm, table of contents ).

Web links

Wiktionary: sodomy  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Norbert Schnitzler: Contra naturam - Sexual deviance and Christian-Jewish coexistence in the Middle Ages. In: Ludger Grenzmann, Thomas Haye , Nikolaus Henkel, Thomas Kaufmann (eds.): Mutual perception of religions in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period. Volume 1: Basic conceptual questions and case studies. (Gentiles, barbarians, Jews). (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. NF 4). De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-021352-2 , pp. 251–281, here p. 260 .
  2. Duden. The large dictionary of the German language. In 6 volumes. Volume 5: O - So. Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim et al. 1980, ISBN 3-411-01359-1 , p. 2416.
  3. Volkmar Sigusch : Kultursodomie als Neoallianz. In: Volkmar Sigusch: Neosexualities. About the cultural change of love and perversion. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2005, ISBN 3-593-37724-1 , pp. 56-74.