Title: 13 Reasons Cultures Throughout History Brutally Castrated People
Headings: 13 Reasons Cultures Throughout History Brutally Castrated People
Weird History
13 Reasons Cultures Throughout History Brutally Castrated People
During The Renaissance, Italians Castrated Young Boys To Turn Them Into Sexually Appealing Singers
Sex Offenders Are Still Surgically Or Chemically Castrated In Western Cultures
18th-Century Russian Christian Mystics Castrated Themselves
In The Byzantine Empire, Eunuchs Were Some Of The Best Military Generals
Rapists Were Castrated In Post-Revolutionary Virginia
The Normans Castrated Enemies To Assert Their Dominance
Early Christians Castrated Themselves To Prove Their Devotion
Castration Was A Long-Standing Punishment In China
Chinese Eunuchs Were Key Imperial Officials
The Ottoman Empire Used Eunuchs To Manage Harems
Ethiopians May Have Castrated Italian Soldiers In The Late 19th Century
Southeastern Tributary States Sent Eunuchs To China
Medieval Law Castrated Pederasts And Rapists

Content: These facts about castration throughout history are both disturbing and interesting. Whether it was accidental or self-inflicted, people who were castrated play fascinating roles across a number of distinct cultures and time periods. Photo: Francesco Ponte / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
During The Renaissance, Italians Castrated Young Boys To Turn Them Into Sexually Appealing Singers
Starting in the 16th century, thousands of young Italian boys were deprived of their male sex organs so they would sing in high voices for their entire lives - they were dubbed "castrati." The Vatican employed castrati in the Papal choir and recruited them in droves after women were prohibited from being onstage by Pope Innocent XI in 1686. The castrati were not unique to Rome or Italy, but the use of castration to create choir boys certainly was. Castrati existed in Eastern Europe as early as the fifth century, but many later became celebrities of sorts when they performed in opera houses and the like. By the 18th and 19th centuries, castrati were created by their parents or other family members to transform children who showed early singing skills into lifelong talents. Castrati supposedly happened through accidents, such as having been "kicked, bitten, born deformed [or]... gored by wild boars," although really parents purposefully had their children's genitals removed to preserve their voices. Photo: