Conquered and castrated adult men
Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2021 6:05 pm
In a post on Eunuch Central (http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... trated-men), feminized asked:
What happened to men in societies that were conquered by a hostile power, and then castrated?
I presume many of them were originally heterosexual, didn't consent to the process, some may have had wives/girlfriends and also many did not survive the process. Of those who survived, how did losing their testicles change their view of their conquerors, their women (now taken over by their conquerors) and their role in society?
Did they generally become more subservient, submissive and compliant?
How did they feel, seeing their wives/girlfriends/lovers taken by other men, knowing that they would never be able to impregnate them?
This is a very good question, but we really have almost no historical data from which it might be answered. We know that castration of the defeated precedes the first humans. Anthropologists have reported chimpanzees and bonobos ripping or biting the testicles off defeated rivals. Whether they live or die is, of course, irrelevant after their defeat.
When we get to humans, we can assume similar behavior, although there is, of course, no record of it before the invention of writing. Some early human writings describe castration of the defeated in warfare. The bas-reliefs and inscriptions at Thebes in Egypt celebrating the victories of Pharaoh Ramesses II (1303-1213 BCE) display piles of penises from the defeated. The text on one stele reads "conducting some prisoners into the presence of his majesty; they are a thousand in number; cut off penises, 3,000." Another stele gives the total number of penises cut off after a different battle as 2,325. We have oracle bones from Shang Dynasty China (about contemporary with the Egyptian case) where the gods are asked whether or not to castrate some defeated warriors. We cant read the gods answer, so we dont know what happened. The practice has continued to the present day in some warfare. Castration in the battlefield of a defeated enemy usually centered on the penis, not the testicles. It was probably done to dead enemies more often than to the living (most of whom probably died of blood loss from the mutilation).
Both of these cases are centuries later than the first written description of the castration of slave boys to use them for various tasks, however they are the earliest cases of adult castration for which I have found clear documentation.
The practice of slavery begins long before the invention of writing. From very early clay tablets, we know that slaves were considered a variety of domestic animal. There were, by the time of the Sumerians, a great many of them, both those captured in the many wars and raids between the small kingdoms of the period and those born to slave women. Census documents, recorded on clay tablets, from about 2100 BCE tell us that slave boys, born to slave weaving women, were treated like young male donkeys. They were castrated to haul barges on the canals. The word for eunuch in Sumerian is the same as that for a castrated donkey. Only later were other tasks found for eunuchs.
Other than after defeat in battle, there are very few documents from that early describing adults being castrated except for major crimes. Whether or not any of them survived is not noted and was probably not considered important. Neither was any task which they then performed. There is certainly little record of anything that they may have thought or done post castration.
The single exception for which I have been able to find good documentation is Qin dynasty China. Qin Shi Huang is generally considered to have been the first emperor of a unified China. He led the Qin kingdoms armies as they conquered all of the surrounding small kingdoms. It was his policy to kill the ruling king of any conquered area and to castrate all of his sons and grandsons. The son of the king of Zhao, Zhao Li, seems from scanty historical records to have been an adult when castrated in 222 BCE. Like other eunuchs from previous royal families, he was taken into palace service and gradually rose to become Chief Eunuch. After the death of Qin Shi Huang, he managed to bully the second Qin emperor, Huhai, into committing suicide in 207 BCE. The third emperor, Ziying, survived only days before the dynasty was deposed and Ziying executed. The long-lasting Han dynasty followed.
The Qin also castrated defeated soldiers and used them as slaves for manual labor. Some were sent to begin construction on the great Chinese Wall. Others worked on the great tomb for Qin Shi Huang, that of the terracotta Army. We have no written records to know what any of these early Chinese eunuchs thought.
Other than the Qin example, there are probably very few cases where adult men, defeated in battle, were castrated yet expected to live and work. Mostly, adult men were killed, and their sons and grandsons might be castrated. In some cases, all surviving young sons and grandsons. In at least three Greek-speaking areas that rebelled against Persian rule, that was the case. It was Ming dynasty policy in putting down rebellions in the south after the founding of the dynasty. Killing or castrating all males was seen as a way to exterminate the rebels. When the White Lotus Rebellion (by a religious cult) was finally defeated in China in 1804, all of the surviving males over the age of 15 were decapitated (about 1000 of them) and all surviving boys were castrated. When an originally successful independence war by Georgians was defeated by the Persian Qajar dynasty, all male combatants were executed, and some thousands of women and children were sent as slaves to be sold. (The most likely number Ive seen is 25,000.) The boys were castrated. The second king in the Qajar dynasty specifically had 100 Georgian boys castrated at that time to be trained for palace service.
If there is any good data on survivors of adult castration during military maneuvers, they are most likely to be modern and from places like the U.S. Civil War, where it seems to have been a reasonably common wound, frequently mentioned in medical documents related to the war. But only the medical/surgical aspects are mentioned in records that I have access to; never the psychological or social.
Another possible source might be from the Second World War as a consequence of German S-mines (also known as Bouncing Betties or frog mines) that launched about a meter into the air before exploding when triggered. The goal was to send shrapnel into the groin. How many men were castrated by S-mines is not known, but there ought to be some diaries or other documents about their lives afterwards.
All of this really does not answer the question, but it might lead someone else here to search the more modern literature on the consequences of war. Do we have any members interested in the Civil War or WWII who might contribute to this thread?
What happened to men in societies that were conquered by a hostile power, and then castrated?
I presume many of them were originally heterosexual, didn't consent to the process, some may have had wives/girlfriends and also many did not survive the process. Of those who survived, how did losing their testicles change their view of their conquerors, their women (now taken over by their conquerors) and their role in society?
Did they generally become more subservient, submissive and compliant?
How did they feel, seeing their wives/girlfriends/lovers taken by other men, knowing that they would never be able to impregnate them?
This is a very good question, but we really have almost no historical data from which it might be answered. We know that castration of the defeated precedes the first humans. Anthropologists have reported chimpanzees and bonobos ripping or biting the testicles off defeated rivals. Whether they live or die is, of course, irrelevant after their defeat.
When we get to humans, we can assume similar behavior, although there is, of course, no record of it before the invention of writing. Some early human writings describe castration of the defeated in warfare. The bas-reliefs and inscriptions at Thebes in Egypt celebrating the victories of Pharaoh Ramesses II (1303-1213 BCE) display piles of penises from the defeated. The text on one stele reads "conducting some prisoners into the presence of his majesty; they are a thousand in number; cut off penises, 3,000." Another stele gives the total number of penises cut off after a different battle as 2,325. We have oracle bones from Shang Dynasty China (about contemporary with the Egyptian case) where the gods are asked whether or not to castrate some defeated warriors. We cant read the gods answer, so we dont know what happened. The practice has continued to the present day in some warfare. Castration in the battlefield of a defeated enemy usually centered on the penis, not the testicles. It was probably done to dead enemies more often than to the living (most of whom probably died of blood loss from the mutilation).
Both of these cases are centuries later than the first written description of the castration of slave boys to use them for various tasks, however they are the earliest cases of adult castration for which I have found clear documentation.
The practice of slavery begins long before the invention of writing. From very early clay tablets, we know that slaves were considered a variety of domestic animal. There were, by the time of the Sumerians, a great many of them, both those captured in the many wars and raids between the small kingdoms of the period and those born to slave women. Census documents, recorded on clay tablets, from about 2100 BCE tell us that slave boys, born to slave weaving women, were treated like young male donkeys. They were castrated to haul barges on the canals. The word for eunuch in Sumerian is the same as that for a castrated donkey. Only later were other tasks found for eunuchs.
Other than after defeat in battle, there are very few documents from that early describing adults being castrated except for major crimes. Whether or not any of them survived is not noted and was probably not considered important. Neither was any task which they then performed. There is certainly little record of anything that they may have thought or done post castration.
The single exception for which I have been able to find good documentation is Qin dynasty China. Qin Shi Huang is generally considered to have been the first emperor of a unified China. He led the Qin kingdoms armies as they conquered all of the surrounding small kingdoms. It was his policy to kill the ruling king of any conquered area and to castrate all of his sons and grandsons. The son of the king of Zhao, Zhao Li, seems from scanty historical records to have been an adult when castrated in 222 BCE. Like other eunuchs from previous royal families, he was taken into palace service and gradually rose to become Chief Eunuch. After the death of Qin Shi Huang, he managed to bully the second Qin emperor, Huhai, into committing suicide in 207 BCE. The third emperor, Ziying, survived only days before the dynasty was deposed and Ziying executed. The long-lasting Han dynasty followed.
The Qin also castrated defeated soldiers and used them as slaves for manual labor. Some were sent to begin construction on the great Chinese Wall. Others worked on the great tomb for Qin Shi Huang, that of the terracotta Army. We have no written records to know what any of these early Chinese eunuchs thought.
Other than the Qin example, there are probably very few cases where adult men, defeated in battle, were castrated yet expected to live and work. Mostly, adult men were killed, and their sons and grandsons might be castrated. In some cases, all surviving young sons and grandsons. In at least three Greek-speaking areas that rebelled against Persian rule, that was the case. It was Ming dynasty policy in putting down rebellions in the south after the founding of the dynasty. Killing or castrating all males was seen as a way to exterminate the rebels. When the White Lotus Rebellion (by a religious cult) was finally defeated in China in 1804, all of the surviving males over the age of 15 were decapitated (about 1000 of them) and all surviving boys were castrated. When an originally successful independence war by Georgians was defeated by the Persian Qajar dynasty, all male combatants were executed, and some thousands of women and children were sent as slaves to be sold. (The most likely number Ive seen is 25,000.) The boys were castrated. The second king in the Qajar dynasty specifically had 100 Georgian boys castrated at that time to be trained for palace service.
If there is any good data on survivors of adult castration during military maneuvers, they are most likely to be modern and from places like the U.S. Civil War, where it seems to have been a reasonably common wound, frequently mentioned in medical documents related to the war. But only the medical/surgical aspects are mentioned in records that I have access to; never the psychological or social.
Another possible source might be from the Second World War as a consequence of German S-mines (also known as Bouncing Betties or frog mines) that launched about a meter into the air before exploding when triggered. The goal was to send shrapnel into the groin. How many men were castrated by S-mines is not known, but there ought to be some diaries or other documents about their lives afterwards.
All of this really does not answer the question, but it might lead someone else here to search the more modern literature on the consequences of war. Do we have any members interested in the Civil War or WWII who might contribute to this thread?