A Brief History Of Castration: Second Edition

by Victor T. Cheney

Victor T. Cheney has just published a BRIEF HISTORY OF CASTRATION 2nd EDITION. This book contains a five page index plus a two page glossary with numerous footnotes t aid the curious history buff and serious researcher. Readers unfamiliar with this subject (which is most of us) will be surprised to learn how important this operation was to many cultures of the world in times past, and to a lesser extent, even today. In Italy thousands of young boys were castrated to prepare their voices for the opera. In Arab lands slaves (both black and white) were castrated in order to become harem guards. Chinese emperors found castrated males to be extremely reliable for treasurers and other governmental posts. In the past their operation was very dangerous and many died from infections. Bur it also had its beneficial side effects. The average castrated male lives 15 years longer than "normal" men. This is because harmful hormones and other impediments were removed form the man's system. For instance, one cannot get testicular cancer if he has no testicles. Many ancient religions, as well as the early Christians, used their religious duties unhampered by impure thoughts and immoral deeds. Though Christians gradually abandoned this practice some breakaway groups continued to castrate young men in Russia and elsewhere even in this 20th century. The author believes that castration can still play an important role in modern society. He shows that it can be used to prevent serious crimes, diseases, and the loss of vital spiritual and moral values.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Emma Sea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative but not engaging. Became a long list of famous eunuchs and laws/rituals/customs pertaining to eunuchs, broken up by culture/historical era. The final chapter of the books examines the arguments for castration as a preventative measure for child abusers and rapists, including members of the Catholic clergy.

Cheney's basic argument is that "Castration has the potential to help alleviate sexual deviancy in the Catholic Church, as well as in the general population. Both history and modern medicine have proven that castration can effectively remedy the numerous problems associated with high levels of testosterone in males. Ultimately, the time has come for a serious consideration of the applications of such a simple and safe—if controversial—procedure."

Castrated men live longer, engage in less risky behavior, avoid baldness, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and prostrate cancer (I don't see this catching on as a cure), and Cheney points out that "Castration effectively circumvents the more than 25 sexually transmitted diseases". Hard to argue with that last one :{

[MeriBeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mr. Cheney's book, A Brief History of Castration, is often touted as one of the better histories on eunuchs and castration. Since it's one of a very small number of books on this topic, that is no surprise. However, the book suffers from several problems that make it difficult to accept any of the scholarship contained within it as factual. First, it has a number of factual errors, commonly known factual errors, which a simple Google search or a scan of elementary material - even an encyclopedia - would have pointed out. As a glaring example, Mr. Cheney states that Nefertiti had six sons by Akhenaten, though he uses a variant spelling not commonly accepted anymore, when she actually had six daughters. There are few notes used at the end of the various chapters despite him quoting liberal from a variety of authors in each of the essays which make up the book. Next, there are a vast number of editing mistakes including the much one of Mr. Cheney referring to the apostles Peter and Paul as "princesses of the church". And finally, it's obvious that Mr. Cheney had an agenda of touting castration as a "cure" for sexual aggression and violence as well as for pedophilia as much of the final sections of the book is spent in praise of eunuchs who were members of the early church and of the castrati who used to sing in religious services. He devotes on section on how castrated persons do not recommit crimes such as rape and pedophilia. In all, I am unable to recommend this book to anyone due to the problems and lack of proper sourcing of material.

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A re-read. This contains long lists of historical eunuchs. It also has the entire text of Theophylactus of Ochrida's twelfth-century Justification of Eunuchism (English only), more commonly known as "In Defence of Eunuchs". It seems that the author, Victor T. Cheney, personally translated it from a French version by Paul Gautier, which had in turn been translated from the original.

[Emma Sea]

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