Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/629

 RELIGIOUS DEDICATION OF WOMEN 613

the priest-proxy or male worshiper. The erotic activity of the priestess is thought to be inspired by the god. Among the same peoples conjugal proprietorship among men does not preclude the practice of sexual hospitality. 10

As female chastity in general becomes more valued, how- ever, divine, like human, proprietorship in women takes on a more exclusive character. 11 We may also note that, as adultery is forbidden to the royal wives, so chastity is required of the girls dedicated to the temple-service of a deified king. 12 The ideas and practices of the ancient Peruvians in regard to the sexual privi- leges of their Sun-god and their god-descended ruler represent

10 It may occur to the reader that at this point a discussion of temple- prostitution were pertinent. Temple-prostitution may contain elements of the form of worship that we are considering. The fact, however, that in phallic worship temple-prostitutes are even more frequently in the service of female than of male deities leads us to suppose that there are other ideas expressed in this practice besides ideas of sexual service. For the servant-priestesses of phallic goddesses, see Pearson, The Chances of Death and Other Studies in Evolution, Vol. II, pp. 106, 107 (London and New York, 1897).

Wilutzky has, in his Vorgeschichte des Rechts (Breslau, 1903), pp. 37-40, brought together the instances of temple-prostitution reported by the ancient writers. In a rather singular attempt to revivify the outcast promiscuity theory, he concludes that temple-prostitution was a tribute to the gods as supporters of primi- tive customs ; it was planned to please them as a return to ancestral promiscuity. Whatever may be the explanation of temple-prostitution, it appears that in religious as in human relations the juridical idea of sexual proprietorship was, in contrast to the idea of sexual promiscuity, the teleological line of development. And yet facts of religious proprietorship in women have hitherto passed unobserved or uninter- preted. This may be due to the disproportionate amount of attention that has been bestowed upon facts of religious promiscuity as a crop of the general " wild oats " theory of promiscuity.

u Ritualistic phrases are sometimes reminiscent of the earlier and grosser ideas and practices. In ancient Egypt, under the New Empire, female singers were employed in the temples in great numbers. Erman writes that " we scarcely meet with one lady .... whether she were married or unmarried, the wife of an ecclesiastic or layman, whether she belonged to the family of a high-priest or to that of an artisan, who was not thus connected with a temple " (Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 295). These singers were supposed to form the harem of the god. They held various degrees of rank, as in an earthly harem. Certain women of high rank had the honor of bearing the title of chief concubine of the god. At the head of the mystical harem at Thebes there stood the legitimate consort, called the " wife of the god," the " hand of the god," or the " adorer of the god," and to her house belonged the singers. She represented the heavenly consort of Amon, the goddess Mut. (Ibid., pp. 295, 296.)

" Ellis, The Ewe-Speaking Peoples, pp. 89, 90.