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"Eunuch"
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Ten for dying : a John the Lord Chamberlain mystery
In 548 CE Constantinople and Emperor Justinian, distraught from the death of Empress Theodora, has exiled John, the Lord Chamberlain. At the Church of the Holy Apostles, an Egyptian magician tries to raise the empress from the dead. As the unholy ceremony explodes into chaos, supposed demons vanish into the darkness with one of the city's holiest relics, a fragment of the shroud of the Virgin. Felix, Captain of the Palace Guard, is selected as John's successor. Already juggling his gambling debts, political maneuverings, and an ambitious new mistress, Felix is charged with finding the missing relic, as well. But before Felix's investigation even begins, someone deposits a corpse at his house. A botched attempt to dispose of the body leaves Felix looking suspect. To make matters worse, it seems as if half the city wants to possess the relic, see Felix dead--or both. If only Felix's friend, the shrewd John, were still in the city, but the former Lord Chamberlain has already sailed for Greece. Now Felix enters a fight for his very survival, a crucible in which he cannot cannot tell friend from foe--or worldly dangers from the supernatural.
BOOK
Unraveling the Eunuch Myth: Men, Eunuchs, and the Multifaceted Nature of their Roles
The purpose behind this study is to examine the factors contributing to the prevalence of large number of eunuchs worldwide, with specifically focus on Pakistan. The Eunuchs are marginalized subcultural groups that include those who identified as genderqueer women. Their unique begging techniques, such as slapping their hollow hands together, are one of their strategies to divert others attention towards them. Data for the paper was gathered from 12 semi-structured interviews with Eunuch and three semi-structured interviews with Guru in three Dera locations: Taxila, Wah, and Hasanabdal. Their live experiences were also recorded from childhood to old age across a wide range of settings, such as family, school, Guru, Dera colleagues, the workplace, and encounters with the public. The findings showed that, despite the fact that some of the eunuchs that come out in the market may look or behave in a manner that is often associated with eunuchs, most of them are male, and some of them were even married. They adopt it for economic reasons; however, adopting an artificial female role has caused role conflict in their lives. Traditionally, at household level, a male is supposed to take care of the home, such as finances, and appear masculine, but adopting an artificial female role for the male body increases the complications at social and family levels. The men by the name of Bread Winner have been facing exploitation, pushing them to adopt a character that is culturally and socially forbidden in the Pakistani community.
Journal Article
Murder in Megara
\"John, former Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, has been exiled from Constantinople to a rustic estate John has long-owned in Greece, not far from where he grew up. But exile proves no escape from mystery and mayhem. The residents of nearby Megara make it plain John and his family are unwelcome intruders. His overseer proves corrupt. What of the other staff--and his neighbors? Before long, John finds himself accused of blasphemy and murder. Now a powerless outsider, he's on his own, investigating and annoyingly hampered by the ruthless and antagonistic City Defender who serves Megara as both law enforcer and judge. Plus there's that corrupt estate overseer, a shady pig farmer, a servant's unwelcome suitor, a wealthy merchant who spends part of his time as a cave-dwelling hermit, and the criminals and cutthroats populating such a seedy port as Megara. Complicating matters further are two childhood friends whose lives have taken very different paths, plus the stepfather John hated. John realizes that in Megara, the solution to murder does not lie in the dark alleys where previous investigations have taken him, but in a far more dangerous place--his own past. Can he find his way out of the labyrinth of lies and danger into which he has been thrust before disaster strikes and exile turns into execution?\" -- Amazon.com
Book
Challenging Boundaries in Acts 8:26-40: Toward seeing “othered bodies” through Decolonial Feminist Eyes
Cartography, the scientific name for “mapping”, sets boundaries that separate people and places. As a metaphor, it is “another name for stories told by winners”, which may also refer to the politics of knowledge production captured in biblical texts. As such, stories mapped by hegemonic powers ignore the presence, knowledge, and insights of the marginalized “othered”. Reception history of the story mapped in Acts 8:26-40, and by implication sermons preached on this biblical text, primarily lends itself to the advancement of the Christian missionary task – proselytization. The story of the Ethiopian eunuch has generally served as a literary prop to “proclaim the Good News”. Explicit references to racial and sexual identity markers in the text are generally “glossed over” and the unnamed character is seen as the “other” in need of salvation. This paper explores how, when seen from a decolonial feminist perspective, a different picture of the unnamed Ethiopian eunuch emerges. The argument made here is that when hegemonic understandings of the biblical text are questioned, boundaries that separate people and places are challenged to reveal a theological map of radical inclusivity.
Journal Article
The castrato
The Castratois a nuanced exploration of why innumerable boys were castrated for singing between the mid-sixteenth and late-nineteenth centuries. It shows that the entire foundation of Western classical singing, culminating in bel canto, was birthed from an unlikely and historically unique set of desires, public and private, aesthetic, economic, and political. In Italy, castration for singing was understood through the lens of Catholic blood sacrifice as expressed in idioms of offering and renunciation and, paradoxically, in satire, verbal abuse, and even the symbolism of the castrato's comic cousin Pulcinella. Sacrifice in turn was inseparable from the system of patriarchy-involving teachers, patrons, colleagues, and relatives-whereby castrated males were produced not as nonmen, as often thought nowadays, but as idealized males. Yet what captivated audiences and composers-from Cavalli and Pergolesi to Handel, Mozart, and Rossini-were the extraordinary capacities of castrato voices, a phenomenon ultimately unsettled by Enlightenment morality. Although the castrati failed to survive, their musicality and vocality have persisted long past their literal demise.
eBook
Heads and Beds: On the Origin of the Akkadian Term for Eunuch or Courtier
Alongside the ongoing debate over whether the primary meaning of the Akkadian term
(lit. “he of the head”) is “eunuch” or “courtier,” various explanations for the origin of the term have been proposed. After reviewing the seven explanations encountered in the secondary literature, and assessing their respective strengths and weaknesses, this article makes a new proposal for the origin of the term, namely that it refers to the “head” of the king’s bed. It is observed that this hypothesis is consistent: (i) with Akkadian terminology relating to parts of beds, which uses
) to designate either a bed’s top end generally or its “headboard” specifically; (ii) with the perception, visible in Babylonian ritual texts, of the bed as a place of potential danger to its occupant; and (iii) with the Akkadian literary expression
(“lit. keeper of the head”) which, by analogy with well-attested expressions like
(“keeper of the gate”) and
(lit. “keeper of the bridle”), is more likely to refer to an inanimate “head” than part of the human body. The possibility that the term
(
) is equivalent to the Greek term εὐνοῦχος, as argued for example by (Briant, P. 1996.
. Paris: Fayard. = Briant, Pierre. 2000. From Cyrus to Alexander. A History of the Persian Empire. Translated from the French by Peter T. Daniels. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns), has been questioned by (Lenfant, D. 2012. “Ctesias and his Eunuchs a Challenge for Modern Historians.”
6: 257–97), but if the newly proposed origin of
is correct, it indirectly supports the case for an equivalency of the two terms: like εὐνοῦχος (lit. “bed-keeper”),
would literally refer to guardianship of the king’s bed. The new proposal nevertheless has no bearing on the debate over whether
primarily designates “eunuch” or “courtier.”
Journal Article
NE SPADONES FIANT: DOMITIAN'S EMASCULATION BAN
This article questions the prevailing opinion that Domitian's prohibition of castration was intended as a protective measure devised to check masters’ abuses on their slaves, as part of a larger trend towards more enlightened attitudes towards slavery among the Romans. While brutal, castration was the only type of mutilation which increased the monetary value of slaves. Banning it curtailed slaves’ chances of social climbing and narrowed their channels towards positions of power. The emasculation ban is, instead, better understood as one of the many measures directed towards the control of the sexual behaviour and the sumptuary practices of the Roman elite. Introduced as a censorial decree, the ban gave Domitian the opportunity to act as the upholder of Republican traditions at the same time as he impinged on the private lives of his subjects and put senators and equestrians under his thumb. The article also argues that, contrary to what is usually argued, the constant re-enforcement of the prohibition to castrate by Domitian's successors is an indication of the effectiveness of the Roman legal machinery and its capacity to reach the most distant corners of the Roman empire.
Journal Article
Differences in the Psychological, Sexual, and Childhood Experiences Among Men with Extreme Interests in Voluntary Castration
Some genetic males seek voluntary castration. We designed a survey to compare the psychological, sexual, and childhood experiences for subgroups of men with extreme interest in castration. The survey was posted on the Eunuch Archive, an online platform for individuals interested in the topic. Data from 822 individuals were included in the analyses. Respondents were divided into four groups: Interested (claiming only an interest in castration topics), Fantasy (fantasize about castration sexually, but not desiring castration), Wannabe (considering being castrated in the future), and Castrated (already castrated). More individuals desiring castration (Wannabe and Castrated groups) claimed equal attraction to both sexes than individuals in the Interested group. The Interested group was more religious than the other groups, and the Fantasy group had lower sexual guilt than those with castration desire. All groups had similar psychological well-being and body image acceptance, despite the Castrated group having lower sexual functioning than the others. Childhood trauma was more common in those with castration desire than those without. The Interested group had a lower desire for castration, lower erotic attraction to castration, and pretended to be castrated at a younger age than the others. Childhood trauma and sexual guilt are common, but not limited, predictors for castration desire and erotic attraction to castration, respectively. In conclusion, childhood experiences, as well as psychological and sexual parameters, may vary in different subgroups of males with interests in castration.
Journal Article
The Epitaph for Lady Li (793–842), Widow of the Eunuch Official Liu Honggui (775–826): A Translation with Introduction
The engraved stone epitaph of Lady Li 李 (793–842), a member of the Tang royal family and the widow of the high-ranking eunuch official Liu Honggui 劉弘規 (775–826), was recently discovered in her tomb in Xi’an. Their five adopted sons were eunuch-officials, of whom Liu Xingshen 劉行深 (b. ca. 790–d. after 877) was the most powerful. The long and florid epitaph text, written by the court litterateur Wang Qi 王起 (760–847), extols her chastity in widowhood and her promotion of the memory of her late husband, as well as her guidance to her sons on filiality and family love. This article offers a translation of the epitaph, which presents Lady Li as a paragon of the Confucian ideal of the “thrice-dependent” woman. In the Introduction, I offer my theory of how Lady Li used the framework of the “thrice-dependent” woman to assert her own agency. Her epitaph shows, in my analysis, that she maintained a powerful role by continuing the same political posture of loyalty to the throne that was modeled by her father, exhibiting utter devotion to the memory of her husband, and controlling the actions of her sons through her commands to filial behavior toward their father’s portrait.
Journal Article
Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire
From the author's preface: Sublime Porte--there must be few terms more redolent, even today, of the fascination that the Islamic Middle East has long exercised over Western imaginations. Yet there must also be few Western minds that now know what this term refers to, or why it has any claim to attention. One present-day Middle East expert admits to having long interpreted the expression as a reference to Istambul's splendid natural harbor. This individual is probably not unique and could perhaps claim to be relatively well informed. When the Sublime Porte still existed, Westerners who spent time in Istanbul knew the term as a designation for the Ottoman government, but few knew why the name was used, or what aspect of the Ottoman government it properly designated. What was the real Sublime Porte? Was it an organization? A building? No more, literally, than a door or gateway? What about it was important enough to cause the name to be remembered?
In one sense, the purpose of this book is to answer these questions. Of course, it will also do much more and will, in the process, move quickly onto a plane quite different from the exoticism just invoked. For to study the bureaucratic complex properly known as the Sublime Porte, and to analyze its evolution and that of the body of men who staffed it, is to explore a problem of tremendous significance for the development of the administrative institutions of the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic lands in general, and in some senses the entire non-Westerrn world.
eBook