Eunuchs

Andrew Pedersen

**Eunuchs**

**History** The term eunuch refers to those who were castrated without consent originally to serve a religious or social purpose. The earliest recorded documentation of a eunuch comes from the Sumerian times in the 21st century BC. The practice also was done do males who were impotent to women, or done to those were celibate. Depending on the culture, the process either included the removal of both the penis and the testicles, the removal of only the testicles, or the sterilization of the man. The practice also was reserved to those captured at war. Since the process was deemed humiliating, it was usually done to captured young men who had not reached puberty yet and who would be turned into servants. Through the times, the practice has changed and matured to a practice done sometimes willingly in the cases of singers, military officers such as those in the Ming Dynasty1, government officials, and religious leaders such as those in Christianity2. There are many different reasons as to why someone would want to become a eunuch with the most common reason being a sign of loyalty to a culture or cause.

//An artist's depiction of a eunuch from the 18th century//

**Cultural Importance** The term “eunuch” comes from the Greek words for “bed” and “keeper.” It is believed this was the term used because eunuchs were commonly slaves or workers for royalty who in many cases would be trusted with close jobs to the family such as keeping the bed and such. Eunuchs were deemed trustworthy because they usually had no family and no lover usually since they were celibate. Early cultures cherished eunuchs for these reasons, and they became to be known as indispensable to royal families. Besides the practice of castrating a man for punishment, it was used to hold a man in a position in society. In the ancient times, men were castrated to keep them in the roles of servants to the powerful. They were trusted with the closest of deeds to the ruling party. Eunuchs could not have families so they were deemed to not have the intention of killing the ruling court because they could not take over3. This practice can be seen through many different cultures of the past such as those in India, China, Greece, and with the Ottoman Empire.4 In religion, most importantly Christianity, priests and others who were to be celibate would sometimes become eunuchs to show their devotion and honesty to God. The practice died out as cultures changed and dynasties started to end and countries turned to modern forms of government where the practice was banned or looked down upon. For this reason, the term has become faded out in cultures today, with few even having heard it. **Castratos** The process of making a man into a eunuch also has another voluntary aspect. Eunuchs were valuable to the music world because if done before puberty, the man's voice could be maintained at the higher pitch for the rest of his life. There were risks involved including the chance that their voice would still change after the surgery. One problem with this practice was that since the process needed to be completed at such a young age, it is widely believed the child could not make an educated decision for himself and sometimes the parent or choir leader would make the choice for him. These men were known as Castratos once the procedure was done. It was a common practice in European countries such as Italy where operas were famous. This practice dated until the 19th century, with very few surviving into the 20th century. Castratos were vital to the survival of choirs as the singers job was to replace a woman voice in the choir since they were banned from participating in churches at the time. The last known castrato was Alessandro Moreschi, a singer for the Sistine Choir, who died in 19225. He also is the only castrato to be on recording. Today there are some singers who are considered “natural castratos” because they may have a disease which forced their body to not develop a lower voice however they still possess both of the male genitalia. **Eunuchs of Contemporary Times** Today, the term eunuch has been mostly forgotten with different terms being used to replace it such as transgender and such. The largest surviving community of eunuchs now resides in India. They are referred to as the hiraj and number close to two million. Their reason for practicing castration is because they identify themselves as members of the transgender community. They commonly dress as women and wear heavy makeup to hide the fact that they are truly men and to also identify themselves as the opposite sex. The practice in the United States and other modern countries around the world has now been reserved to those in need of castration such as cancer patients, most commonly those with prostate cancer since it can get rid of the cancer all together. The process is only done voluntarily if the patient seeks the treatment. Each year about two hundred thousand men are diagnosed in the United States and around sixty thousand of those will result in eunuchs although the term is not applied to them in modern culture. The only other major group of eunuchs left in the world today are those with mental diseases. According to Wikipedia, “most of them are males who have a Male-to-Eunuch Gender Dysphoria. While they are born with male genitalia, their brain tells them that they are not male, but neither are they female. They seek castration to align their bodies with their brain sex. A second large group of the contemporary eunuchs have a Body Integrity Identity Disorder. This occurs when the brain does not accept the presence of some specific body part.”6 The people who do this complete the castration on their own usually because surgeons will refuse to help them since they have a disorder. These eunuchs number much smaller, with only about seventeen hundred in the United States and a few thousand more around the world. 1 http://www.sunypress.edu/p-2229-the-eunuchs-in-the-ming-dynasty.aspx 2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunich 3http://fascinatinghistory.blogspot.com/2008/05/eunuchs-in-byzantium.html 4http://www.well.com/user/aquarius/pharaonique.htm 5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrato 6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunich