Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 Sexual Inversion

[1] Taking all its forms en bloc, as they are known to the police, homosexuality is seen to possess formidable proportions. Thus in France, from official papers which passed through M. Carlier's bureau during ten years (1860-70), he compiled a list of 6342 pederasts who came within the cognizance of the police; 2049 Parisians, 3709 provincials, and 584 foreigners. Of these, 3432, or more than the half, could not be convicted of illegal acts.

[2] The chief general collection of data (not here drawn upon) concerning homosexuality among animals is by the zoölogist Prof. Karsch, "Päderastie und Tribadie bei den Tieren," Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. ii. Brehm's Tierleben also contains many examples. See also a short chapter (ch. xxix) in Hirschfeld's Homosexualität.

[7] Féré, Comptes-rendus Société de Biologie, July 30, 1898. We may perhaps connect this with an observation of E. Selous (Zoölogist, May and Sept., 1901) on a bird, the Great Crested Grebe; after pairing, the male would crouch to the female, who played his part to him; the same thing is found among pigeons. Selous suggests that this is a relic of primitive hermaphroditism. But it may be remembered that in the male generally sexual intercourse tends to be more exhausting than in the female; this fact would favor a reversion of their respective parts.

[8] E. Selous, "Sexual Selection in Birds," Zoölogist, Feb., 1907, p. 65; ib., May, p. 169. Sexual aberrations generally are not uncommon among birds; see, e.g., A. Heim, "Sexuelle Verirrungen bei Vögeln in den Tropen," Sexual-Probleme, April, 1913.

[9] See Moll, Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis, 1898, Bd. i, pp. 369, 374-5. For a summary of facts concerning homosexuality in animals see F. Karsch, "Päderastie und Tribadie bei den Tieren auf Grund der Literatur," Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Bd. ii, 1899, pp. 126-154

[14] This has now been very thoroughly done by Prof. F. Karsch-Haack in a large book, Das Gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 1911. An earlier and shorter study by the same author was published in the Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Bd. iii, 1901.

[22] Bethe, op. cit., p. 440. In old Japan (before the revolution of 1868) also, however, according to F. S. Krauss (Das Geschlechtsleben der Japaner, ch. xiii, 1911), the homosexual relations between knights and their pages resembled those of ancient Greece.

[25] Among the Sarts of Turkestan a class of well-trained and educated homosexual prostitutes, resembling those found in China and many regions of northern Asia, bearing also the same name of batsha, are said to be especially common because fostered by the scarcity of women through polygamy and by the women's ignorance and coarseness. The institution of the batsha is supposed to have come to Turkestan from Persia. (Herman, "Die Päderastie bei den Sarten," Sexual-Probleme, June, 1911.) This would seem to suggest that Persia may have been a general center of diffusions of this kind of refined homosexuality in northern Asia.

[26] Morache, art. "Chine," Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Sciences Médicales; Matignon, "La Péderastie en Chine," Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, Jan., 1899; Von der Choven, summarized in Archives de Neurologie, March, 1907; Scié-Ton-Fa, "L'Homosexualité en Chine," Revue de l'Hypnotisme, April, 1909.

[27]Moeurs des Peuples de l'Inde, 1825, vol. i, part ii, ch. xii. In Lahore and Lucknow, as quoted by Burton, Daville describes "men dressed as women, with flowing locks under crowns of flowers, imitating the feminine walk and gestures, voice and fashion of speech, ogling their admirer with all the coquetry of bayaderes."

[31] C. F. P. von Martius, Zur Ethnographie Amerika's, Leipzig, 1867, Bd. i, p. 74. In Ancient Mexico Bernal Diaz wrote: Erant quasi omnes sodomia commaculati, et adolescentes multi, muliebriter vestiti, ibant publice, cibum quarentes ab isto diabolico et abominabili labore.

[37] Rev. J. H. Weeks, Journal Anthropological Institute, 1909, p. 449. I am informed by a medical correspondent in the United States that inversion is extremely prevalent among American negroes. "I have good reason to believe," he writes, "that it is far more prevalent among them than among the white people of any nation. If inversion is to be regarded as a penalty of 'civilization' this is remarkable. Perhaps, however, the Negro, relatively to his capacity, is more highly civilized than we are; at any rate his civilization has been thrust upon him, and not acquired through the long throes of evolution. Colored inverts desire white men as a rule, but are not averse to men of their own race. I believe that 10 per cent, of Negroes in the United States are sexually inverted."

[38] Among the Papuans of German New Guinea, where the women have great power, marriage is late, and the young men are compelled to live separated from the women in communal houses. Here, says Moskowski (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1911, Heft 2, p. 339), homosexual orgies are openly carried on.

[39] C. G. Seligmann, "Sexual Inversion Among Primitive Races," Alienist and Neurologist, Jan., 1902. In a tale of the Western Solomon Islands, reported by J. C. Wheeler (Anthropophyteia, vol. ix, p. 376) we find a story of a man who would be a woman, and married another man and did woman's work.