The transgressions of the byzantine man. Alternatives to sexual costumes inside and outside the conjugal constraint: eunuchs and sexual imaginary

Abstract

This contribution analyzes a cognitive methodology and takes to the system the presence of the eunuchs, also focuses the development of manhood’s idea in the Byzantine culture. It recognizes basic problems concerning the representation of manhood, as cognitive codes, that revises the idea of the ‘complete’ man, compared to the neutered man. This research uses the anthropological knowledges referred to the epistemic categories of sociology and puts those in relation to the work of doctrine. Therefore, it examines the problems concerning the representation of homus byzantinus and femina byzantina adverse the eunuchs. In this way, it scrutinizes the differences of genders adverse the sexual capacity of the eunuchs, which models concrete perception of a tertium genus.