Woman in the Sexual Relation, 4

 

 

IV. Prostitution

#

Sectio

Paginae

2.

"Ethnography of Professional Prostitution".

80-94

3.

"Compulsory Prostitution of Wives".

94

4.

"Temporary and Professional Prostitution".

95-96

5.

"History of Professional Prostitution in Europe".

96-105

6.

"Abolition and Re-introduction of Brothels".

106-107

 

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2.

"Ethnography of Professional Prostitution".

80-94

 

p. 80 words for 'prostitutes' in several parts of the world

"The Awalim in Egypt ... and the Nautch girls in India ... are the representatives of common prostitution, just as among ... the Puzen in Java and the Sivas in Polynesia."

 

p. 82 words for 'whore' and 'whorehouse' in the Pelew Islands

"On the Pelew Islands prostitution is quite ... common ... .  ... a girl ... goes as "Armengol" to a strange district, and there enters a Baj, where she lives as the paid mistress of a native; but ... she has to cohabit with all the other men of the Baj for money."

 

p. 82 prostitutes in two sorts of brothels in China

"In China ... the harlots ... are often lodged in brothels which ... On account of their blue blinds ... are sometimes called blue houses (Tsing Lao).

In those towns which, like Canton, lie on the river, specially built, firmly anchored ships, called "flower ships" (Hua Ch>uan) are also frequently used as brothels ... . ...

According to official reports there were in the year 1861, in Amoy, a coast town with a population of 300,000, 3,650 brothels which accommodated 35,000 girls."

 

p. 85 the usual motivation for prostitution in Japan

"The daughter takes it as a matter of course that she shall sacrifice {viz., prostitute} herself for her parents if their means are praecarious {viz., are not wealthy}. ... She becomes a prostitute with the full knowledge and consent of her parents. Thereupon, ... by her heroism as an obedient daughter she has earned ... respect ... ."

{Now-a-days, young women are commonly sent by their parents from Nepal to Mumbai (Bombey), expressly so as to prostitute themselves there, thus earning money to send back to their parents in Nepal.}

 

p. 92 prostitutes in Pegu (of Burma), in the Gilberts, and in Sumatra

"brothels in Pegu ... are closed houses in which only prostitutes live ... . To these establishments all those women who have been found guilty of adultery must go and surrender themselves.

On the Gilbert Islands ..., the fathers ... offer their daughters to men ... for a payment in money. Hence ... for a girl ... it is, however, considered shameful ... if she gives herself without receiving a reward for her family.

Prostitution occurs ... in Achin in Sumatra, more frequently in harbout and fishing districts ... . Those who become prostitutes are almost always fully developed girls and young widows for whom marriage or re-marriage respectively was impossible."

 

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3.

"Compulsory Prostitution of Wives".

94

 

p. 94 in Sumatra and with an AmerIndian tribe : prostitution of wives by their husbands

"Among some tribes prostitution is carried to the extent of wives being forced by their husbands to surrender their charms {viz., erotic features} for gain. Thus, in the Lampong (Sumatra) district ..., many men marry second and third wives ... in order to hire them out for payment.

The men of the Haida Indians [in the Queen Charlotte Isles off British Columbia], with their wives, undertake ... journeys to Victoria [on Vancouver Island] every summer, each trying his luck [at pandering his own wife] ... and then all returning home together.

The sad consequences are often serious diseases among the women."

{Venereal diseases result only from contact between genitalia. If care be taken that contact be restricted to between mouth and genitalia, venereal disease is not transmitted. (AmerIndians, however, may be unaware of this fact.)}

 

p. 94 in Borneo : in consequence of a husband's clandestinely encouraging his wife to commit adultery with whatever other man as may be willing -- the custom of payment to the husband of a mulct (fine) by whatever man as hath committed adultery with his wife

"Among the Olo-Ngadjoe, a Dyak tribe in South East Borneo, a husband gets a fine of from 100 to 800 guilder for adultery. "In order to gain this money the husband sometimes drives his wife to the same ..., to hadjaivet (to work), as he calls it.  ... he works with his wife, i.e., makeshis wife give herself to other men, so as to be able to claim the corresponding fine. ...

Among other Dyaks, too, and among the Olo-Ot-Danom, also in Borneo, there exists a custom ... that many men, especially decrepit ones, marry as a speculation from two to seven young girls, and often boast of their fine wives who have made their husbands rich."

 

p. 94 in the Kongo : with the additional provision that if unable to pay the mulct, the man committing the adultery with the wife is to become the "slave" (servant) of the husband's

"nearly everywhere in equatorial Africa the wife is regarded as a lucrative possession

whose charms produce even ... the work of slaves. Hence husbands are prepared to yield their wives at the first opportunity, even to offer her to a man, for, if the stranger ... is poor, he will become the husband's slave. ...

{The man committing the adultery may well be quite willing-and-eager to remain as servant working for the woman's husband, if the woman seem exceedingly erotically attractive to him (by being constantly inviting to any-and-all manner of erotic activities).}

"The crafty Songo often sends his wife into the camp of a trader and ... the beauty betakes herself to the hut of a bearer; he then appears immediately [after the beauty-and-bearer have started indulging in sexual activities] to accuse the bearer of the seduction of his wife and to claim from him ... payment for the 'milongo.'""

{Amongst the Australia aboriginals, no man is allowed legally to marry any woman until he be at least 40 years of age; men younger than this will maintain a sexual liaison with an older man's wife, by constantly working as a servant for the woman's husband.}

 

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4.

"Temporary and Professional Prostitution".

95-96

 

p. 95 in Ludia of Anatolia, and among the Ulad-Nail of al-Geria : prostitution of themselves by women in order to earn for themselves a dowry (possession to keep in their own financial account when marrying a man of their own tribe, so that in the event of any divorce, they are not immediately reduced to penury)

[Herodotos 1:93] "Among the people of Lydia, all the daughters become prostitutes in order to acquire a dowry, and they do this until they marry ... ."

"The Ulad-Nail are the most important of ... tribes ... . ... Their daughters, famed for their beauty, enjoy the ... privilege of ... prostitution which, in this tribe, is a veritable institution. Each girl, before marrying, goes, accompanied by her mother or elder sister, to abandon herself to public love. After a time, they go back to the tribe ...; and the rounder {greater} the sum they have amassed, the surer they are of finding a husband."

"The girls of the tribe Ulad-Nail, called Nailia, and also those of other tribes, are accustomed to go in great numbers to the oasis-towns frequented by foreigners and nomads, for the purpose of pursuing the profession of an alma ..., until they have earned so much that as women of means, they can get a distinguished husband in their native place."

 

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5.

"History of Professional Prostitution in Europe".

96-107

 

p. 96 whoredom is the basis of Classical civilization

"It was Solon who introduced regular prostitution into Greece, and especially into Athens ... . ... Moreover, there existed among the Greeks a form of common prostitution as appears in several passages from Aristophanes."

"The classical age of the Greeks and Romans ... is so closely interwoven with this prostitution that ... All the arts and even philosophy sprang ... out of ... prostitution."

 

p. 96 whores in Roma

"The Romans had public pleasure houses (Lupanaria [places of a \lupa\ 'she-wolf, slut'] and Fornices [places for fornication]) as well as independent "filles de joie" (Meretrices and Prostibulae) and prostitutes used to appear at the baths."

 

p. 97 prostitution mentioned in drama

"In the time of Emperor Otto, brothels were apparently widespread ..., as we know from the dramas of the nun Roswitha von Gandersheim."

 

p. 97 Magdalene orders for practice of lechery by confirmed whores

"The Crusades especially contributed much to the ... Magdalene orders of which Sauvel speaks. Any maiden who was satiated with sensual pleasure entered one of these orders so that she could give way to pleasure according to her taste and choice."

 

p. 98 numbers of whores at historic events

"At the Council of Constance in 1414-1418 there came some 1400 prostitutes to the town, and ... it was considered a matter of course."

"there were in the army of Charles the Bold, outside Neuss, ... 1600 prostitutes; and

in 1476 there were, following his army, even about 2000 harlots."

 

p. 100 male officials are gratuitously serviced by prostitutes

"the Council at Berne in 1414 issued an order to all brothels that the young women should receive amiably and without payment all gentlemen from the royal court ... ."

 

p. 100 gratuitous transportation of women whithersoever they are needed to serve as prostitutes

"Rostock merchants took vagrant women to ... Schonen;

Swabian [i.e., from Wuttemberg and Baden] prostitutes were taken to Venice,

Flemish to London, and

they were considered good samples in that city."

{A woman is considered a good example of what a prostitute ought to be, only if she be taking care to keep herself free from venereal disease. This is done by her using her mouth (instead of her vagina) in contact with the man's penis.}

 

p. 100 prostitutes are required to reside in designated brothels [Confined within brothels, they can readily be kept under surveillance, so that they cannot contract venereal disease : this is done by seeing to it that they always employ their mouth (in conjunction with their hand), and never their vagina, in contact with the man's penis).]

"The struggle against free prostitution, the adherents of which were called Bo:hnha:sinen (interlopers), was very often left in the hands of the brothel women. In Frankfurt in 1493 the council ordered the brothel women in Rosental to fetch a clandestine prostitute by force if she did not go voluntarily to the brothel within 14 days."

 

pp. 100-1 city-streets named for the abundance of brothels along them

p. 100

"the brothels were always situated in back streets, preferably near the city wall ... . Even to-day many street names in owr towns recall this;

Frauengasse (Nurenberg, Altenberg);

Frauenfleck (Vienna);

Frauenpforte (Frankfurt) ... etc.

 

Frequently they were in the streets where the baths were (e.g., in Dresden, the Lochgasse, later called Badergasse).

p. 101

Often, too, they lay ... close to convents. ...

The name "Rosenstrasse" (Rose Street) in German towns indicates the place where

 

they used to "pluck roses," i.e., have intercourse with prostitutes."

{The petals of a rose-blossom would be likened unto the nymphai (labia minora) of a woman, so that to "pluck roses" would naturally refer to a man's manipulating of a woman nymphai as part of the process of masturbating her.}

 

p. 101 articles of apparel customarily worn by whores in various cities (thus conveniently advertising themselves, so that any man can at that place and time accost them with a proposition)

"prostitution ... formerly people were obliged to make ... publicly recognisable. Thus, in 1506,

prostitutes in Leipzig had to wear yellow cloaks with blue trimmings;

in Vienna, a yellow kerchief fastened on the shoulder;

in Frankfurt[,] yellow trimming;

in Augsburg, a green band at the waist;

in Venice, Berne and Zurich, small red caps."

{evidently related with the modern pervasive utilization of red lights to denote a brothel}

 

{Because the red cap is also associated with the cardinal (Cardea, goddess of hinges), there would be a denotation of massaging of the hinge-resembling limb-joints. A woman wearing such a cap might expect her male clients to massage her limbs.}

 

pp. 101-2 depicted conspicuosity of prostitutes' garb

p. 101

"The dress prescribed for these women ... had, by its conspicuousness, at once to arouse men's attention ... . The famous work on costumes of the sixteenth century by the

p. 102

Venetian, Cesare Vecellio, contains examples ... . To the group ... of the "conspicuous" belong the prostitute of Rhodos ... and the Venetian harlot ... .

A very interesting garb for prostitutes is to be found in Holtmont's "Die Hosenrolle" (Mu:nchen, 1925, p. 19)."

 

p. 102 noteworthy categories of sluts : bath-house females, veiled ladies entring wine-cellars, and certain nuns

"For instance, there were bath-houses, in which the female attendants were very complaisant to the guests. ...

Ladies of quality, too, ... take part in this ..., for, according to Scherr, "there is authentic proof that in Lu:beck, about 1476, well-born burgesses, concealing their faces under thick veils, went to the wine-cellars in the evening to indulge there, unrecognized, in the pleasures of prostitution."

The nuns appear ... in the verses attributed to Hans Rosenblu:t (fl. 1460) ... :

"Loose women ...

Complaints ... have of the cloister nun

Who can so coyly kick the traces

When they must to ... bathe

They bid with them young gentlemen." (111, 1112)"

 

p. 104 instance of a clandestine whorehouse

"under the protection of the armoury there was a house full of clandestine whores and there the proprietress received married men in one room and young bachelors in another, day and night ... ."

 

p. 104 brothels' reception-room portraits of whores

"In many of the brothels of the seventeenth century there prevailed the custom that in the reception room portraits of the inhabitants were hung on the walls. From this catalogue the guest made his choice."

 

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6.

"Abolition and Re-introduction of Brothels".

106-107

 

p. 106 in ChrAira 13th century and 16th century

"we have early evidence of the abolition of brothels.

One of the first ... accounts is the abolition in France, at the beginning of the thirteenth century ... . Still more interesting, however, is the fact that they were reintroduced in 1254,

then abolished again in 1560, and almost immediately afterwards re-introducted."

 

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Herman Heinrich Ploss; Max & Paul Bartels -- revised and enlarged by Ferdinand F. von Reitzenstein : Woman in the Sexual Relation : an Anthropological and Historical Survey. Medical Pr of NY, 1964. [Translation of Das Weib, Band 2, in :- NATUR- UND VO:LKERKUNDE ANTHROPOLOGISCHE STUDIEN (edited by Eric J. Dingwall). Elfte, Stark Vermehrte Auflage, Berlin, 1927.]