This Article  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Castration and Religion

Vincent J. Derbes, MD

JAMA. 1970;212(1):97-100.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

I have chosen the phrase "keepers of the bed" to indicate eunuchs, for it is a literal translation of the word which comes from the Greek eune, bed, and echein, to hold or keep.

Partial or complete excision of man's genitalia, castration, eviration, or eunuchism, is the most cruel of all mutilations and not the least practiced. According to ancient tradition the knowledge of castration was obtained from an animal, the castor or beaver, who practiced it upon himself when being hunted, abandoning his testicles rather than allowing himself to be captured. The Romans formed the word castorare, to act like the castor, and modified it slightly to castrare.

The organs of generation were regarded as sacred and noble, a symbol of divine power; one swore by them, and on swearing an oath to someone, he placed his hand on the testes. In the Bible the euphemism for testicles is . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Section of Allergy-Dermatology, Department of Medicine, the Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to 1430 Tulane Ave, New Orleans 70112 (Dr. Derbes).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?