colouredin
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Joined: 2/2/2007
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So as not to derail another topic on BDSM and history. The post reminded me of a crime module I took at uni last year.
(for referance I am talking about Britian here)
Ok brief overview, basically the body used to be seen as the site of all problems, the four humours and all that. Therefore the body was the thing treated and punished. This gradually changed as the idea of humanity and the mind became more prominant (signified by the use of more mind based treatment in places like Bedlam and the use of prisons for punishment) this latter period is not what interests me but the former, namely the type of punishment used.
Branding - Branding was mostly used for people who had recieved benifit of clergy (first time convictions for the crime, only available to men) Manslaughter resulted in an M being branded on the thumb for Thiefs it was a T and for blasphemers it was a B on the cheek (interesting that it was seen as a worse crime than manslaughter due to the religious nature of the time) This was basically a decrease in the sentance from death.
Whipping - Most likely punishment for petty larceny, there were whipping posts in the centre of towns where people would gather to watch the punishment. Normally there was a stipulation that the whipping continued till the back was covered in blood.
Pillory/Stocks - The pillory was what we now often refer to as the stocks, where the head and wrists were put through the holes in the wood, often their ears were nailed to the wood and people would throw stuff at them, many people died this way. When they were removed often their ears would be ripped off. The stocks is where where the ankles were put through the holes. Again it was based a lot in humilation.
The Bridle - Often used for scolds, it was an iron cage that went over the persons head and often had a piece of metal pretruding into the mouth as a gag, the woman (it was almost always women convicted of being scolds) was walked through the town again to a central area where she had to stay for normally a few hours, it was uncomfy and could cut the tounge up.
Firstly it interests me that most of these punishments had the idea of humilation at its core. People loved to watch others be punished and it would add to the shame, which was meant to be a way to put off others and repeat offending. Also I remember at the time of the course being totally fascinated by the fact that a lot of the punishments are where many BDSM tools/acts originated. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the punishments, just a select few. Really I am not posing a question or anything just simply that it really interested me. Of course this is all very vague and you can fine out a lot more using the net I really recomend http://www.oldbaileyonline.org if you are interested, it outlines punishement and crime and also has lists of cases in the old baily. If parts of this post are not factually accurate I appologise, I tried to read up as much as possible but I couldnt find my uni notes and I didnt want to write a huge essay on it because number one I would bore you, number two it wouldnt be as eloquantly written as other sources and number three I wanted to just simplify it so that people could just see what i mean.
< Message edited by colouredin -- 4/9/2008 11:43:05 AM >
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Punishment in history - 
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