From the first to the fourth century AD, male perceptions of female sexuality
underwent a radical change with the advent of Christianity. This thesis is an
investigation into classical male and Christian male perceptions of female sexuality,
to determine the manner and extent to which this change in perceptions took place.
The investigation will be two-fold, studying both the laws that established these
perceptions, as well as representations of female sexuality within specific, subjective
male-authored texts. A study of the marriage legislation of Augustus and a male
writer of the early Empire, Apuleius, shows an underlying pattern of thought, or
paradigm, of female sexuality among classical males. Female sexuality was
perceived as existing for the sole purpose of procreation, and males in positions of
authority thought that it needed to be under male control in order to ensure
acceptable sexual behaviour. They believed this would be best achieved by situating
it under the authority of the family. With the advent of Christianity, however, a new
competing paradigm on female sexuality emerged, which challenged the perceptions
of men of the classical era. The church fathers spurned the classical view of female
sexuality by instead advocating lifelong celibacy. They too, believed female
sexuality had to be controlled, but they placed it under the authority of the church,
and outside the family. Since the basis of the classical and Christian patterns of
thought differed so markedly, especially when the Christian paradigm was first
being formulated in the second century, it was inevitable that they would come into
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conflict. Advocates of the classical paradigm tried to suppress Christianity by
persecuting its supporters. Some Christian women became victims of this conflict.
This thesis will also include an example of this conflict - the martyrdom of the
female Christian Perpetua, who left a record of her persecution in the form of a
diary. The conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity in the fourth
century brought about the end of the conflict ana a victory for the Christian
paradigm. The church fathers suggest that the shift from classical to Christian was
total and complete. However, closer examination of Constantine's legislation and
the work of the influential church father Jerome shows that while this shift was
complete in theory, it did not extend very far into social and legal practice.
Although the Christian ideals of the church fathers were a major component of thenew paradigm, it also came to be composed of classical notions - now motivated by
Christian thought - that were held by Constantine and the upper classes. It was
these classical notions that shaped the social reality of life in the fourth century AD.
The nature and extent of the paradigm shift was therefore radical and far-reaching in
theory, but not in practice. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/4523 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Haskins, Susan Louise. |
| Contributors | Hilton, John L. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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