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Ever wondered about the origins of sex-negative culture?
Were there really guys sitting around room making up laws that punished sexual deviance?
What was the involvement of the church in sexual oppression?
If you’ve ever asked these kinds of questions, you too are curious about the history of sex.
We are fascinated by tracking the history of sex culture. Just when did these intergenerational patterns of sexual shame and fear begin?
We love finding books like Sex and Punishment, and the only thing we love more is sharing them with you!
On this podcast, Chris discusses one of the first recorded histories of sex-negative law. Is this where our thousands of years of sexual shaming originated? Tune in to find out just how extreme sex negative law was in 2000 B.C.
“All ancient civilizations were intent on controlling people’s sex lives. THe oldest extant written law, which hails from the early Sumerian kingdom of Ur-Nammu (circa 2100 BC), devoted quite a bit of attention to sexual matters. One of the earliest capital punishment laws on record anywhere concerned adultery.”
“Ancient societies influenced each other, and the laws of one group often were adopted by its enemies and then developed further. AS centuries passed, for example, the elementary sexual prohibitions of Sumerian kingdoms like Ur-Nammu evolved into the obsessively detailed rules of the Hebrews, which in turn became the foundation for the sex laws of the church and every Christian state.”
Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years Of Judging Desire by Eric Berkowitz