>>It depends on why eunuchs are made. While all RW cultures that I'm aware
>>of had a "don't mess with the harem" purpose,
>
>The Castrati and Byzantine Eunuchs were not cut for harem protection.
The worshipers of Cybele and Attis and the Skopsi (I'm not sure about the spelling) in 19th C Russia did it for religious reasons, too. So much for a tidy example. While we're at it, why were the Byzantine eunuchs cut? If it was just to make them incomplete, wouldn't chopping of a finger (or a nose) done as well? Surely there was a sexual motive?
>>castration in a very
>>family-oriented society could be a way of severing a child's ties with his
>>family ("You will not carry on the family line, you will be given to the
>>Emperor").
>
>Joining a monastery is supposed to do that in most RW cultures and would do
>so in Kralorela.
I was thinking more along the line of court functionaries (like the eunuchs in China who were altered, at least in part, to avoid sexual contact with the Imperial family); sending them to monastaries won't help with that. Monestaries remove people from the secular world, at least in theory; court functionaries need to be part of that world. Not that I'm all that sold on this particular idea, but the Kralori, it seems to me, could benefit from a few malevolent eunuchs running the East Secretariet. If they're not cut to keep them away from the Empress and concubines, why? (If they are so spiritually advanced that their genitals have gone off to the Dragons, that rules out their malevolence, doesn't it?)
Peter Larsen
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