Mini Book Review

[JesusA]

I just received a copy of Gender in the Ancient Near East by Stephanie Lynn Budin (309 pp.). I immediately turned to the ten-page section on “eunuchs” in the chapter on masculinity. Budin argues that the word that means “castrated” when referring to donkeys, sheep, and pigs, means “clean-shaven” when referring to humans. She argues that the word “sa-resi” (usually translated as “eunuch”) means a male who is prohibited from growing a beard. Every place in the index to the book that mentions eunuchs in writings by other scholars considers them as beardless intact males.

She even takes a standard translation of one passage:

“Royal court attendants of dedicatees of the palace personnel who have access to the palace shall not enter the palace without an inspection; if he is not properly castrated, they shall turn him into a castrated court attendant for a second time.”

After objecting to the idea that the attendants had been castrated, she then comments on it: “some poor guy gets his balls crushed, like, with a rock or a brick or a hammer or something? Then, if he recovers from that, they do an inspection to make sure his balls are totally crushed, and if they aren’t, they crush his balls again???”

I don’t think I’m going to bother with the rest of the book….

[WheelyFixed]

I would agree sounds like she has definite willful ignorance which would cast doubt on the accuracy of anything else she writes on the topic....

Given that one of the major reasons for requiring those entering the women's quarters to be eunuchs, (w/ inspection to prove it) was to prevent "unauthorized" sex and pregnancy, how does she figure that being "clean shaven" would accomplish that?

Especially since there are not only materials like you quoted with the requirement for eunuchs, but also same era documents describing in considerable detail HOW the deed was done.... (And IIRC, it was usually done w/ a knife, not by crushing!)

I hope she doesn't have professorial chops anywhere, as her school would (or at least should) be embarrassed by something this far off the wall...

WheelyFixed

[NaturalEunuch]

Wow! So absurdly misinformed that it's actually hilarious, although I'm sure that wasn't her intention.

[Friotler7]

“some poor guy gets his balls crushed, like, with a rock or a brick or a hammer or something? Then, if he recovers from that, they do an inspection to make sure his balls are totally crushed, and if they aren’t, they crush his balls again???”

She literally wrote that in the book?