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A eunuch is a castrated human male. The castration can be only of the testes, or also include the penis, known as a penectomy (often with a tube inserted to keep the urethra open, called a urethral rerouting). The practice was established before 700 BC and accounts of eunuchs are known throughout history.
The English word eunuch is from the Greek eune ("bed") and ekhein ("to keep"), effectively "bed keeper." This indicates the traditional role of the eunuch—as a reliable keeper of a ruler's harem. Other servants or slaves were also castrated in order to make them 'safer,' either in childhood or later.
History
In ancient China castration was both a traditional punishment (until the Sui Dynasty) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service. At the end of the Ming Dynasty there were 70,000 eunuchs (宦官 huàn'guān, or 太監 tàijiān) in the Imperial palace. The value of such employment—certain eunuchs gained immense power that may supersede that of the prime ministers—was such that self-castration had to be made illegal. The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ had fallen to 470 in 1912, when the employment ceased. The justification of the employment of eunuchs as high-ranking civil servants was that, since they were incapable of having children, they would not be tempted to seize power and start a dynasty. Concurrently, a similar system existed in Vietnam.
Eunuchs were also known in India and throughout the East.
The practice was also well established in Europe among the Greeks and Romans, although only rarely for court functionaries as in Asia. In religion especially, followers of the goddess Cybele practiced ritual self-castration, sanguinaria. Even in Christian times the practice continued; however the Church did not follow the example of the theologian Origen, who castrated himself because he wanted to avoid sexual sins.
As women were sometimes forbidden to sing in Church, their place was taken by castrati. The practice, known as castratism, remained popular until the 18th century and was known into the 19th century, the last famous Italian castrato (Giovanni Velluti) did not die until early in the 20th century.
The 18th-century Russian Skoptzy (скопцы) sect was an example of a castration cult, where its members regarded castration as a way of renouncing the sins of the flesh. Several members of the 20th century Heaven's Gate cult were found to have been castrated, apparently voluntarily and for the same reasons. It is still practiced in India by some members of the Hijra caste, although there is debate about what their gender actually is. Historically, however, they have been refered to as eunuchs, particularly in the West.
Disorder The body dysmorphic disorder or dysmorphophobia characterized by desire to be a eunuch is called skoptic syndrome, named after the Skoptzy sect. This desire is still present in modern populations, as evidenced in the large membership in message boards on the Internet related to the topic. Alternatively, some men derive sexual excitement from the idea of being castrated or otherwise having their genitals mutilated, usually by another person (see masochism and paraphilia). There have been frequent news coverage of incidents of self-castration (autocastration) and underground networks of people without medical licenses performing castrations. Most urologists have experience with patients who have attempted castration on themselves. According to a June 12 2002 article by Detroit Free Press: self-castrations tend to be more common than leaving the job to someone else, said Dr. Dana Ohl, a urologist at the U-M Medical Center who has operated on botched amateur castrations. "Usually, when these people just chop their own testicles off, they don't pay attention to the blood supply," he said.
Myths According to Tom Burnham's Dictionary of Misinformation, a common misconception about eunuchs is that, since they were castrated, they were either unable or unwanting to defile or perform sexual intercourse with the women in the harem they were employed to watch over. This was not always true, however. If a eunuch was castrated after puberty, which was common, he would still be able to achieve an erection and engage in coitus, though no pregnancy could result. According to Burnham, many women preferred eunuchs as lovers since they never ejaculated and could, therefore, maintain erections longer.
Famous Chinese Eunuchs
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