Pederasty was once accepted in many cultures.
Pederasty is a (usually erotic) homosexual relationship between an adult male and a pubescent or adolescent male. The word pederasty derives from Greek (paiderastia) "love of boys", a compound derived from παῖς (pais) "child, boy" and ἐραστής (erastēs) "lover".
The Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Culture offers “The erotic relationship between an adult male and a youth, generally one between the ages of twelve and seventeen, in which the older partner is attracted to the younger one who returns his affection.”
Additionally, the term has been used to refer to any homosexual activity, regardless of the participants' ages. Jeremy Bentham used the term in this broader sense in an essay dating from the 18th century.
Historically, pederasty has existed as a variety of customs and practices within different cultures.
The status of pederasty has changed over the course of history, at times considered an ideal and at other times a crime.
In the history of Europe, its most structured cultural manifestation was Athenian pederasty, and became most prominent in the 6th century BC.
Pederastic practices were often paralleled by the commercial use of boys for sexual gratification, going as far as enslavement and castration.
While most Greek men engaged in relations with both women and boys, exceptions to the rule were known, some avoiding relations with women, and others rejecting relations with boys. The pederastic relationship had to be approved by the boy's father. Boys entered into such relationships in their teens.
In Rome, relations with boys took a more informal and less civic path, men either taking advantage of dominant social status to extract sexual favors from social inferiors, or carrying on illicit relationships with freeborn boys. Tacitus attacks the Greek customs of "gymnasia et otia et turpes amores" (palaestrae, idleness, and shameful loves). The emperors, however, indulged in male love — most of it of a pederastic nature — almost to a man.
Analogous relations were documented among other ancient peoples, such as the Thracians, and the Celts. According to Plutarch, the ancient Persians, too, had long practiced it.
Pederasty was notable in Moorish Spain, and Tuscany and northern Italy during the Renaissance, and also medieval and Tsarist Russia.
In 10th-century China courting male couples consisted of the older qi xiong (契兄) and the younger qi di (契弟). Men's sexual interest in youths was reflected in prostitution, with young male sex workers fetching higher prices than their female counterparts as recently as the beginning of the 20th century.
Elsewhere, it was practiced in pre-Modern Japan until the Meiji restoration.
Though early Mayans are thought to have been strongly antagonistic to same-sex relationships, later Mayan states employed pederastic practices.
Opposition to the carnal aspects of pederasty existed concurrently with the practice, both within and outside of the cultures in which it was found.
Among the Greeks, a few cities prohibited it. Likewise, Plato's writings devalue and finally condemn sexual intercourse with the boys.
Judaism and Christianity also condemned sodomy, a theme later promulgated by Islam and, later still, by the Baha'i. Within the Baha'i faith, pederasty is the only mention of any type of homosexuality.
The end of the 19th century saw increasing conflict over the issue of social acceptance of pederasty. A number of pederastic scandals erupted around this time, such as the one involving the German industrialist Friedrich Alfred Krupp, which drove him to suicide.
In the same vein, in a work that was to influence the evolution of communism's attitude towards same-sex love, the German political philosopher Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's collaborator, denounced the ancient Greeks for "the abominable practice of sodomy" and for degrading "their gods and themselves with the myth of Ganymede".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty
Pederasty is a (usually erotic) homosexual relationship between an adult male and a pubescent or adolescent male. The word pederasty derives from Greek (paiderastia) "love of boys", a compound derived from παῖς (pais) "child, boy" and ἐραστής (erastēs) "lover".
The Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Culture offers “The erotic relationship between an adult male and a youth, generally one between the ages of twelve and seventeen, in which the older partner is attracted to the younger one who returns his affection.”
Additionally, the term has been used to refer to any homosexual activity, regardless of the participants' ages. Jeremy Bentham used the term in this broader sense in an essay dating from the 18th century.
Historically, pederasty has existed as a variety of customs and practices within different cultures.
The status of pederasty has changed over the course of history, at times considered an ideal and at other times a crime.
In the history of Europe, its most structured cultural manifestation was Athenian pederasty, and became most prominent in the 6th century BC.
Pederastic practices were often paralleled by the commercial use of boys for sexual gratification, going as far as enslavement and castration.
While most Greek men engaged in relations with both women and boys, exceptions to the rule were known, some avoiding relations with women, and others rejecting relations with boys. The pederastic relationship had to be approved by the boy's father. Boys entered into such relationships in their teens.
In Rome, relations with boys took a more informal and less civic path, men either taking advantage of dominant social status to extract sexual favors from social inferiors, or carrying on illicit relationships with freeborn boys. Tacitus attacks the Greek customs of "gymnasia et otia et turpes amores" (palaestrae, idleness, and shameful loves). The emperors, however, indulged in male love — most of it of a pederastic nature — almost to a man.
Analogous relations were documented among other ancient peoples, such as the Thracians, and the Celts. According to Plutarch, the ancient Persians, too, had long practiced it.
Pederasty was notable in Moorish Spain, and Tuscany and northern Italy during the Renaissance, and also medieval and Tsarist Russia.
In 10th-century China courting male couples consisted of the older qi xiong (契兄) and the younger qi di (契弟). Men's sexual interest in youths was reflected in prostitution, with young male sex workers fetching higher prices than their female counterparts as recently as the beginning of the 20th century.
Elsewhere, it was practiced in pre-Modern Japan until the Meiji restoration.
Though early Mayans are thought to have been strongly antagonistic to same-sex relationships, later Mayan states employed pederastic practices.
Opposition to the carnal aspects of pederasty existed concurrently with the practice, both within and outside of the cultures in which it was found.
Among the Greeks, a few cities prohibited it. Likewise, Plato's writings devalue and finally condemn sexual intercourse with the boys.
Judaism and Christianity also condemned sodomy, a theme later promulgated by Islam and, later still, by the Baha'i. Within the Baha'i faith, pederasty is the only mention of any type of homosexuality.
The end of the 19th century saw increasing conflict over the issue of social acceptance of pederasty. A number of pederastic scandals erupted around this time, such as the one involving the German industrialist Friedrich Alfred Krupp, which drove him to suicide.
In the same vein, in a work that was to influence the evolution of communism's attitude towards same-sex love, the German political philosopher Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's collaborator, denounced the ancient Greeks for "the abominable practice of sodomy" and for degrading "their gods and themselves with the myth of Ganymede".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty