MODESTY AND CHASTITY. - Modesty belongs as much to the sensory-instinctive sphere as to the conscious-intellectual one: in the first case there is modesty in the strict sense of the term, in the second a higher organization of it which enters the category of virtue and is called pudicity.
I. INSTINCTIVE MODESTY
P. (laudabili passio for the Scholastics) is certainly connected with sexuality; and considered in the strict sense it must be defined as a psychic restraint directed at sexuality and at whatever stimulates it, and it tends to prevent every violation of the right unfolding of the instinct.
Nudists regard p. as a purely social convention, a taboo of primitive forms originating fundamentally from the practice of going clothed. It would be contradictory to nature, because the resistance to erotic energies developed by it would be in opposition to the bio-physiological constitution of man. This doctrine, with a purely materialistic background, is based on a false concept of the nature of man, which it drags down to the purely animal plane. Spencer, S. Sergi and others, with a positivistic spirit, regard p. as the evolution of an aesthetic pain provoked in one who saw himself deprived of clothes. Durkheim places it in relation to magism, whereby it would represent a form of defense to prevent harmful effluvia. W. James relates it to the sense of disgust aroused by the sight of certain parts of another's body, a disgust that is referred back to ourselves through self-conversion. According to Dumas, the desire to be appreciated would be at the basis of this sentiment; Freud, on the other hand, regards it as an essentially feminine quality, originating from an anatomical inferiority of woman; finally Guyau and Gurmont emphasize the biological function of the preservation of the species, which would be destroyed by sexual anarchy.
From more recent studies it emerges that p., contrary to what the positivistic mentality of the 19th century held, has the following fundamental characteristics: a) it is bound to the very psycho-physical constitution of man and is therefore universal, being found among all peoples, according to the most careful ethnological studies, and never being absent in any normal individual (v. below, no. III); b) it presents itself clothed in an innateness that shows it to be antecedent to experience; indeed it asserts itself as instinctive, at least as a propelling ground, and manifests itself as an innate tendency of the reproductive instinct itself, which defends itself from aberrations; c) although instinctive, p. does not exclude a certain plasticity common to all instincts; rather, it implies it. For finality is essential to instinct: the attainment of this requires that the instinct be able to overcome obstacles and adapt itself to the concrete conditions for its actualization. The concrete conditions to which p. adapts its prudential action are diverse, namely age, the diversity of erotic attraction exercised by the different parts of the body, the individual psychological type, etc. These different factors explain the diversity of the forms of p. among individuals, and differences of stock, environment, mentality and prejudices account for the diversity of the various forms of p. among peoples. Far, therefore, from constituting an argument against the innateness and instinctiveness of p., as positivism maintained, the varied concretization of its forms becomes one of the proofs thereof.
Besides p. with a strictly sexual direction, one observes a p. that may be called general, tending to inhibit everything contrary to the elevation of the self. To this p. one may attribute that shame which Plotinus felt at seeing himself constituted also of matter (Porphyry, Life of Plotinus, 1). General p. is linked to sexual p., inasmuch as degenerations in the sexual field are considered, and are, more greatly in antithesis to the perfecting and elevation of man. This p. forms the connecting link between instinctive p. and p. as a virtue with a more distinctly intellectual content.
II. P.-VIRTUE OR MODESTY. — It is the virtue that is acquired by the conscious repetition of acts of p. and is perfected according to the effort expended on it. Theologians list four virtues that proximately moderate the sexual instinct: modesty, shamefacedness, modesty (modestia), and chastity. Modesty is a specification of temperance with regard to the sexual instinct, whose signs and manifestations it moderates according to right order.
It directs itself to the circumstances (attitudes, things, thoughts) that take on, with respect to sexuality, the character of means for its actualization. These means, often under the influence of modesty, are intercepted in their functioning, so as to impede the activity and in such a way as to exclude their natural end, which is nevertheless contrary to the norms of what the subject ought to be at that given moment. Thus another dimension of modesty comes to emerge: circumstances are excluded and thoughts are restrained, because it is foreseen that through their activity a violation of the moral order would be produced. This foresight, immanent in modesty, unites this virtue, more than any other, with the fundamental virtue of prudence.
From this immanence of prudence in modesty derives the characteristic manner of acting of the latter, which is purely prudential: it for the most part carries out an indirect, precautionary defense, since in the sexual field a psychic insufficiency to dominate the instinct is observed. If human education is the actualization of the potential values of man in their natural hierarchy and therefore the affirmation of spiritual values over matter, one may well conclude that the goodness of an education is measured by the development and refinement brought to modesty, which more than any other operative habit tends to affirm the spirit. Education in p. must be indirect, because a direct education would necessarily imply directing attention to the objects that precisely p. has the task of attenuating in their attractiveness. Therefore opposed to the dynamism of modesty are the theories of "full light" in the sexual field and of the non-intervention of the educator to inhibit the free expansion of the individual (Adler). Although indirect, education in modesty must be positive: by preparing that spiritual atmosphere which, besides preventing degradation in the field of brute sexuality, will make easier those revelations necessary at the opportune time and with that graduation that is obligatory in order always to remain on the prudential line of p. Even before the arising of the sexual instinct and therefore of p. in its complete sense, there must be prepared in the mind and in the manner of acting of the child those secondary individualizations of modesty (attitudes, reserves, decencies in acts and words and thoughts) that will channel, like a road already prepared, its development when it appears with a formally sexual direction.
Modesty has influence not only in the pedagogical-moral elevation of the individual, but also has a social value, inasmuch as its violations lie at the basis of very many others with which the penal codes deal, and the greater or lesser denial of it leads fatally, by the psychological law of the correlation of dynamisms, to the dominion of instinct consequent upon the humiliation of reason before it, to the disintegration of society founded essentially on the rational inhibition of instincts, represented by juridical norms.
Bibliography7 works
Costante Scarpellini
III. MODESTY AND CHASTITY AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
The study of p. among primitive peoples necessarily leads to the study of their sexual ethics, because there is the p. of external behavior, there is interiorly the p. virtue (pudicity) and the instinctive p. Pudicity is the virtue that makes one abstain from every action that leads to lust; it is, as St. Thomas says, the same virtue as chastity, insofar as it moderates certain less important acts belonging to concupiscence.
For the evolutionists, who postulate the origin of man from the animal through a slow evolution, p. does not exist among primitive peoples. Spencer, for example, in his work Principles of Sociology, speaking of primitive relations between the sexes, says so clearly. He, moreover, considers unfounded and rejects the theory of primordial promiscuity, because the principle of force, according to him, [prevails] in sexual relations. To this mentality Corso draws near, when, with regard to the three principal hypotheses on the origin of clothing (utilitarian, moral and aesthetic), he dismisses the moral one without hesitation. For Biasutti too, p. has little relation to clothing.
Faced with the procedure of the evolutionists, one may ask what scientific foundation their assertions have: how, then, must a scientific investigation of p. and, in general, of the sexual ethics of primitive peoples be conducted? This question was already posed by Mohr in his research relating to the peoples of eastern and central Africa (v. bibl.) and resolved thus: the object of such an inquiry is not the actual intimate life of these peoples, as certain authors have unscientifically believed. Among these are to be counted the aforementioned Corso and Biasutti. It is not a matter, at least as a final object, of illustrating the observance of their intimate morality. The proper object must instead be sexual ethics, that is, one must bring out how the moral conscience of this or that people regulates intimate life and how it judges transgressions in this regard. Now, if knowledge of sexual life and morality supplies much material, the fact remains that the moral conscience of a people manifests itself essentially and properly in its unwritten laws and its traditional customs, investigations in which one cannot prescind from sociology and comparative jurisprudence. Moreover, every conception of intimate ethics must be reconnected with the culture and the cultural complex to which it belongs, in order to be able to explain the concrete variations observed among different peoples. If systematic studies of ethics in general are rare, those referring to this delicate specific field are much rarer.
Such problems, treated according to empirical data, considering all the peoples of the world, have been examined by E. Westermarck in his works The History of Human Marriage and The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas; by Crawley in The Mystic Rose. A Study of Primitive Marriage and of Primitive Thought in Its Bearing on Marriage; by Schmidt and Koppers in Peoples and Civilizations. Sociology and Economy of Peoples; by Schmidt in The Origin of the Idea of God, where they are reconnected, since it is today possible to do so, with their cultural complexes (v. bibl.).
The sexual ethics of primitive peoples must be distinguished into premarital and marital. We do not deal here with marital ethics (v. INCESTO; INDISSOLUBILITÀ DEL MATRIMONIO; MATRIMONIO; MONOGAMIA; POLIANDRIA; POLIGAMIA; PROSTITUZIONE), but with premarital ethics. With regard to this, one must observe whether premarital sexual intercourse is permitted or not; in the case that it is not permitted, whether it is only disapproved of, or also regularly punished. Then one must clarify how one behaves with respect to a premarital pregnancy, whether nothing is seen in it to reprove, or whether only it is forbidden while intimate intercourse is on the contrary permitted, whether it is punished in goods or in life, lightly or gravely. Nor is it less significant to establish whether the freedom of intimate relations before marriage is affected in both sexes or in one only. It is also important to know whether society attends or not to the moral protection of youth before marriage and in what this action consists. Finally, one must ask whether there exists a special esteem for virginity, joined perhaps with its explicit verification before marriage through some test. Now, among the ethnologically most ancient peoples, who have been the object of study also under the aspect in question in the aforementioned work on The Origin of the Idea of God by Fr. Schmidt, it emerges incontrovertibly that the premarital chastity of the young woman is imposed by several of them, most often as a command of the Creator. Thus it is, for example, among the Maidu of California.
Among those peoples, moreover, who present in this regard inferior customs, the young man is forced to marry the girl as soon as she has been made pregnant by him, so that no child may be born outside of marriage, since having children outside of marriage is held to be a disgrace that falls upon the mother and often leads to repudiation and other punishments. Thus among the Koryaks in northeastern Asia, if a girl becomes pregnant before marriage, she goes to give birth in the forest, kills the child and buries it in the earth or in the snow. The seducer is beaten by the girl's relatives. Indeed, in ancient times the occurrence could even give rise to a war between the two families. There is more: for some of these peoples, where before marriage free intercourse between the young of both sexes is permitted, it appears evident that such licentiousness is of foreign influence: for example, among the Bambuti Pygmies of the Ituri in Africa who, as their explorer Fr. Schebesta demonstrates, have unfortunately imitated the neighboring Negroes (Manvu, Balesi and Mvuba). In conclusion, the premarital chastity of all the ethnologically most ancient peoples is joined with monogamous marriage, contracted for the most part freely by the young (v. MONOGAMIA).
But does there correspond to the duty of premarital chastity an education of p. and a favorable environment? One must answer affirmatively. Among the Pygmies of French Gabon (Africa), when a boy noticed the effects of puberty during sleep, he was obliged to inform his father. The latter washed him in the current of the nearby river and admonished him not to abandon himself to forbidden pleasures; then he showed him the women whom he must particularly respect: his mother, his sisters, his cousins. Similarly the daughter was cared for and admonished by her mother at the moment of puberty and for a certain time led into the forest, imparting to her prohibitions analogous to those of the boy. By none of these peoples, as Fr. Schmidt expressly notes, is complete nudity practiced, not even in the hottest regions: men and women, but especially the latter, wore a loincloth and this not for ornament, but for p. Man noted it for the Andamanese he explored, saying that their clothing consis-
reduced to a simple leaf, but they valued it so much that the women changed it far from every indiscreet gaze in the shade of the forest. Moreover, man and woman never bathe together. In his turn, Fr. Schebesta never noticed anything obscene, either among the Semang or among the Bambuti. After treating of the intimate freedom left to the young before marriage, a custom called arobo, he concludes, saying: "But he would be mistaken who from the licentiousness of the arobo were to conclude in the sense of a pygmy society in which there was a stigma of lasciviousness or indecency in the life of the camp. Except for some chance, but rare, deviation, the Bambuti were everywhere decorous." Only among the Semang did he once hear obscene words from a young man, who was moreover morally discredited, but who was immediately reproved by an old man, who angrily shouted: "A sin against Carei!" (that is, against the Supreme Being), and the young man fell silent. They further consider it sinful to pay attention to dogs when they mate, and the commerce of spouses during the day, as well as parents' approaching their children of the other sex during sleep; all sins for which they believe they must ask pardon of God with the sacrifice of their own blood.
A high concept of p. manifests itself among the Samoyeds in the life of persons consecrated to God. When a boy or a girl falls ill, they can be consecrated to Num, the Supreme Being, by means of the priest. The consecrated person then remains celibate for life, must purify himself each week with smoke from contacts with the garments of other men, and it is certain that after death he goes to heaven to God. For one of these groups of primitive peoples, the north-central Californians, p. is a sentiment so vivid that — by excess — the manner in which children are procreated in marriage is considered inferior, since a myth of their religion recounts how the Creator wished at first to arrange the birth of man otherwise: only Coyote, representative of evil and constant opponent of the good Supreme Being, would have arranged the present system of generation. This emerges especially, for example, from the myth of the Maidu. Thus also among the peoples of south-eastern Australia and north-central California, in the initiation of the young, which is a solemn act of the community, the candidates are severely admonished to guard against sexual sins and above all against running after girls. From what has been said so far it follows that the most archaic peoples possess p. as instinct and as virtue and manifest it in private and public conduct, holding it to be a moral law founded on the will of the Supreme Being, God.
Not only among the ethnologically most ancient peoples, but also among many of those of ethnologically later civilization, premarital chastity is required of the young. The nomadic shepherds impose the virginity of the bride with the relevant proof on the occasion of the wedding, a proof at which all publicly congratulate the parents, especially the mother, because they have kept their daughter so modest. But in the contrary case the dishonor also falls upon the bride's parents, who are held in contempt, while the marriage contract becomes invalid and null. Among the Kirghiz in this case the bridegroom destroyed the wedding tent with his sword, tore his robe of honor, killed the horse that had carried him, insulted the bride and demanded back the halim (bride price) paid at the time. Likewise the proof of virginity is required among the Arabs, by the Hebrews, and by several Hamitic peoples of northern and eastern Africa. In his researches on the intimate ethics of the Nilotic peoples and their neighbors of eastern and central Africa, Mohr has ascertained three types of ethics, in one of which not only is every intimate commerce before marriage forbidden, but it is also punished, even if no pregnancy results from it. The punishment strikes the seducer and consists in a fine, ordinarily of livestock. Besides by fear of punishment, the unmarried young are safeguarded by making them sleep in houses separate for each sex and separated from the adults. The brother, moreover, is responsible for the moral conduct of his sister, who in this matter is particularly protected by him.
Among the Banyankole or Bahima, for example, if a girl had illicit relations she would be dishonored and driven from the clan; and if she then became pregnant the shame would follow her for her whole life. As soon as the matter becomes public, the clan curses her and repudiates her. She is taken to the shores of Lake Karageve, in the western region of the country, where she remains until the birth of the child, after which she may return home. If the man who dishonored her does not marry her, she becomes a servant, whom only a man without honor, or at most a slave, will want to marry. Formerly the punishment, at least in the higher classes, was even more severe and struck the seducer too, if he could be caught. Both culprits were drowned, with stones tied to their necks, in the Kagera River. But far worse happened when the king or prince married a girl and found her pregnant; then not only was she drowned, but her parents were also killed, along with the greatest possible number of members of her clan. Among the Bahima of Mipororo, or Batutsi, besides virginity before marriage, fidelity is also required after it, and faithful affection between wife and husband. In the Sudan and in other parts of Africa, for example in Danakil, recourse is had to the painful operation of infibulation in order to safeguard materially the virginity of young women. Among the Somalis a seduced girl can no longer become a legitimate bride; among the Negroes of Togo a virgin is paid more at her marriage. Fr. Schmidt links to an influence of the nomadic shepherds the singular system of ascertaining virginity in use in Polynesia and in Samoa. Among the Teutons only virgins could marry; in Persia and in Circassia a non-virgin bride could be repudiated; for several peoples of the Russian Empire in this case an indemnity could be demanded, for example among the White Russians.
If to the premarital chastity of the female young there is joined the fidelity of the bride, a virtue required, for example, by the archaic peoples and by the nomadic shepherds (v. INDISSOLUBILITY OF MARRIAGE), it is easy to understand that the chastity of the male young must also correspond to it and that for both sexes a true and proper education in p. becomes necessary.
Among other peoples, as, for example, among the Acciuabo farmers of Portuguese East Africa, at the northern mouth of the Zambezi River, the moral code explicitly entails an intimate ethic that imposes modest conduct for both sexes. Fr. Schulien, who studied them while living as a missionary among them, reports that in their respective language otakalia means "to commit immoral actions," including those concerning intimate life; mikuali means "immodesty." Just as when someone seduces another's wife and when a woman is unfaithful, so too it is called otakalia even if a man lingers long and laughs with a woman who is not related to him, if someone secretly spies on the women during ceremonies, or when they are alone. It is also an otakalia merely to think about these things, and dreaming, imagining "sexual wickednesses" is called oroa viabure... All these things, adds Fr. Schulien, are also called vilobo via manjazo, that is, "things of modesty, of shame." Speaking of the prohibition of adultery, Fr. Schulien notes that everything that leads to it is also prohibited. Just as one must not fantasize about intimate things, so one must not speak of them; certain words, moreover, are not to be said in the presence of women. One must not jest with women and must not mock a woman "who carries a child under her heart." And indeed, if ever a young man, the same missionary had noted in his notebook, sees a pregnant woman and laughs at her, his companions reproach him, saying: "You mock that woman while she carries a child under her heart. You are wicked," and they admonish him not to speak that way anymore. Just as abduction and violence against young women are forbidden, so too these are enjoined to cover their breasts out of modesty. All the teachings of intimate life, as of the entire moral code, are imparted to the youth of the Acciuabo in the initiation ceremonies and are referred to God. Indeed, Fr. Schulien, after setting out their sexual ethic and the aforementioned prohibitions, concludes with these words: "These prohibitions protect the woman and the offspring. The prohibitions are ascribed to the will of God, called by them Mulugu, because it is said: 'Mulugu does not want his secrets, his way of creating, to be seen.'"
Among the Aztecs of ancient Mexico, marriage was consummated after four days of fasting, seclusion and penance with aloe thorns and blood sacrifice. After the first contact, the token of the bride's virginity was brought to the temple. If, on the other hand, the contrary proved to be the case, the marriage was dissolved and the marriage gifts were returned. So it was also for the Cicimei of the same ancient Mexico and in Nicaragua.
A relaxation in the intimate ethic and a conduct that is scarcely or not at all modest exists, conversely, among totemist peoples and among those influenced by them. It must be said, however, that even among many totemist peoples, the institution of the young men's houses was created precisely to prevent licentiousness on their part with the women of the tribe (v. PROSTITUTION). This means that in substance there is still present even among those peoples a concern for safeguarding premarital chastity and a sense of modest conduct.
From what has been set forth thus far, it must be noted that, in treating of modesty among primitive peoples, one must distinguish which peoples are being discussed, which also holds for the particular question regarding the use of clothing among them. Therefore, in examining the sexual ethic of primitive peoples, it is of the utmost importance to refrain from any undue and facile generalization, if one truly and honestly wishes to bring into focus the entire problem, so closely connected with a clear and sure knowledge of the living sources of their psychology.
Bibliography18 works
Luigi Vannicelli