-Caveat Lector-
http://www.fibri.de/jus/westerma.htm
[Abstract]
Updating Edward Westermarck:
The "right of the first night" in the
evolutionary biology perspective.
Jörg Wettlaufer, Kiel
The cultural phenomenon of the right of the first night or jus primae
noctis is very closely related to the work of Edward Westermarck. His
concern with this custom has its origin in the discussion on Johann
Jakob Bachofens promiscuity hypothesis (1861) and the original state and
development of human sexual relations. Although E. Westermarck was right
in refusing the promiscuity hypothesis, his interpretation of the right
of the first night underestimates the difference between the alleged
right (the medieval jus primae noctis) and the ritual duty as
represented in the ethnographic accounts on ritual defloration. For an
updated view of these cultural phenomena the jus primae noctis has to be
investigated individually in Eurasian literature, customary law texts
from late medieval Europe and in ethnographic accounts.
The right of the first night seems to be a very old topos in Eurasian
cultures. The first explicit evidence can already be found in the
Gilgamesch-Epic (about 1900 BC) and in classical Greek and Latin
writers. Although it was often used to characterise tyrannical rulers,
there is also evidence from early Irish traditional epic that it was
used to describe powerful men or heroes.
In the later middle ages, the topos in literature became related to
tyrannical lords who claimed the first night unless the bride paid them
a major part of her dowry. We have good reason to assume that the
relation between European marriage payments of unfree people and the
topos of the right of the first night goes back to the early medieval
period and has its origin in Germanic marriage customs. In the light of
this thesis the historical evidence of the right of the first night in
late medieval customary law texts seems to stem from a very old oral
tradition which was misinterpreted in the 15th. and 16th. century for
example in Switzerland, France and Catalonia. In customal texts from
these regions, the jus primae noctis is closely related to specific
marriage payments.
We can also learn from these texts that in the late medieval period, a
time of disappearing status differences, the lords used the jus primae
noctis as a sign of superiority against their dependent peasants.
Sometimes the right was performed with symbolic gestures; the lord could
put a leg into the bride's bed (droit de cuissage / France), or he could
climb on the bed and pass over her (Catalonia). In this respect the jus
primae noctis in the later middle ages was "real", even though there is
not a single proven case of actual sexual relations between bride and
lord in the name of this "right".
The ethnographic evidence of ritual defloration is quite different from
the Eurasian topos. Medieval and early modern travel accounts for India
and South America relate prenuptial deflorations by the mother, an idol,
a chief, a priest or a stranger to "open" the bride for the first sexual
intercourse with her bridegroom. Very often this defloration ritual was
connected to superstition and hymeneal blood fear. Therefore, the
defloration was regarded as a dangerous duty rather than a privilege or
a right. Although reliable ethnographic information about sexual customs
in general are difficult to obtain, the apparently independent related
instances from different ethnographers seem to indicate that the custom
prevailed at least up to the nineteenth century in several non-European
cultures. Today it is probably extinct.
Beside these differences there is an interesting common trait between
the ethnographic evidence and the topic in Eurasian literature: the duty
was very often performed by persons of high status, a chief or a priest,
who were thought to be well protected against the danger of hymeneal
blood. Taking into account modern evolutionary psychology theory we can
understand better why men of high status seem to be the ones to perform
the custom in both cases.
Status is one crucial factor for the reproductive prospects of primate
men. In general high status allows men more matings and it can therefore
help to increase mating success. Demonstration of rank and status is
common in human societies and appears to be an adapted psychological
mechanism. In this context the topos of the "right of the first night"
seems to be a metaphorical description of the relation between status
and mating success. A man who claims to have the jus
primae noctis demonstrates his power through a privileged access to
young women who are about to marry and to enter the reproductive phase
of their lives. Due to recent research in evolutionary biology we know
today that power and polygynie is in fact closely related in many
cultures. In this respect the topos of the despotic right of the first
night may reflect very old Eurasian knowledge about this relation
between power and sexuality. On
