Evolució i expressió de la sexualitat medieval

Abstract

New interpretations were brought forward by going again over the expression of human sexuality during the Middle Ages. While the high Middle Ages is characterised by mistrust in front of sexe, low Middle Ages accepts sexuality as a necessary function for procreation, probably influenced by arab medicine, by Aristotle's physics and by philosophic and theologic statements derived from scholasticism and, afterwards, nominalism. A theleological vision of sexual function imposes itself: it is considered as good if it fits its only purpose, procreation. From this idea derives an obsession about the conduction of the sperm. Sexual expressions that garantee the sperm transfert from the body of the man to that of the woman, where it will germinate, are correct. Different sexual habbits are considered against nature, starting from male homosexuality and including all the ways that waste the semen (male masturbation, use of animals, etc.). Sexual relations considered as normal have in common to be heterosexual and exogamous, to be alien to deals with different ethnico-religious groups and to use exclusively vaginal penetration. This relation has to find place within christian marriage, as it has been stipulated and imposed since halfway through the Middle Ages. Dominant roles are attributed to man while woman takes care of domestic tasks. The way to consider woman begins to degradate during low Middle Ages, from both rural areas of feudalism and urban groups, by agnation on the male firstborn and through a contrary intellectual speech.