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Book Review of Arthur Evans' Book

This is Jim Andris with a book review. Today I will be reviewing Arthur Evans' book "Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture." If you are interested in the "roots" of gay people, there isn't a more fascinating and provoking book on gay history around. To be sure, the book is heavily weighted with a Marxist bias, but we should from time to time listen to our critics; we can learn a lot from them. And Evans has taken care to document his claims with authoritative sources.

Take for example Evans' introductory chapter on Joan of Arc. By the time one has finished reading this carefully documented and surprising chapter, she has no problem agreeing with the following Evans quote:

we see that with Joan and Gilles we have a very strange set of circumstances. On the one hand, we have a peasant woman who practiced transvestism as a religious duty; who was masculine in appearance and behavior; who admitted to sleeping in the same bed with another woman; who was worshipped in her own lifetime; and who came from an area where pagan traditions were still strong. On the other hand, one of her closest friends was a man who was commonly known as a homosexual and a sorcerer; and whose place of execution was popularly regarded as a fertility charm. (p. 11)

Evans has studied the court records of Joan of Arc's trial in the early 15th century. He analyzes carefully the judges' reasons for her conviction, as well as Joan's own comments at the trial. Now for Evans, Joan of Arc stands as a prime example of several historical theses which he advances in the course of this book. Evans sees much of gay history as a struggle between two opposing religious forces--between organized Christianity and what Evans refers to as "nature religions." He uses the Celtic religion, which in Europe Christianity has largely replaced or absorbed, as a prime example of a nature religion. Some historians have characterized the Celtic religion as "more primitive" than Christianity, but in Evans' view, it is Christianity which is by far the more barbaric of the two.

Nature societies arose in the stone age, and were characterized by people who were not alienated from their animal nature or from the masculine and feminine parts of their personality. This is shown clearly in what is known about thier religious practices. Animals were worshipped. Evans suggests that nature people were much more respectful of the debt they owed to the flesh of animals than contemporary "civilized" people who are only vaguely aware of the process of butchery which places meat on their tables.

In nature religions there are characteristically a male and a female
principle which are worshipped. Apparently, women were the first healing priests or shamans. Transvestism, so widely practiced in nature religions, arose from men imitating women in their healing role. Indeed, women generally held quite a high status in nature societies. "Diana" was the name of this female principle in the Celtic religion.

The male principle in nature religions was usually represented by a half-male, half-animal figure, frequently portrayed with an erect penis. "Pan" is a name frequently associated with this god, and Dionysius and Bacchus are other labels. Pan was wantonly sexual, and this included homosexuality.

The worship of these pagan principles frequently took place in orgiastic religious festivals where the participants worked themselves into a frenzy of emotional and sexual excitement. But Evans is quick to point out that it is western patriarchal society and in particular organized Christianity which have put a bad interpretation on these practices. He claims that the participants in these festivals "experienced the highest manifestations of the divine in the free practice of sexuality." (p. 28)

In order to complete the contrast between nature societies and later patriarchal society, Evans lists other "good" qualities of stone age life.

The Stone Age was striking for other reasons besides its peacefulness. As best we can determine from archeological evidence and from comparison with existing Stone Age cultures, there was communal ownership of property by the tribe or clan, government by voluntary consensus without any hierarchical superstructure, and absence of class domination, and no rigid dividion of labor. … Of course … we have become so conditioned through universities, factories and offices to be feelingless, brain-dominated, self-seeking billiard balls that we cannot conceive of a society run otherwise. But the evidence will not go away. Human beings once lived otherwise. (p.30)

With the emergence of the Bronze Age, Evans claims, society underwent a radical change. "For the first time in history, social groups came into existence that were controlled by males and were based on military exploits. In the Stone Age, humans had survived by foraging, farming and hunting. Now came people who survived by warfare." With this development came many evils. Since the military groups lived off the agrarian society, class division developed. With this came slavery and the subjegation of women. In the military society, people became alienated from nature, from the land and from emotional gratification. Cities developed. Private property, as seized booty of warfare, made its first appearance. Along with the military society emerged heirarchies and strict-discipline as a new religious code.

Now we can begin to get a handle on Evans portrayal of the history of gay people as a conflict between nature religion and Christianity. It is at base the conflict between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. And that is the conflict between a peaceful, agrarian, matriarchial society and a warlike, urban, patriarchal society. For a time, these two forces achieved a synthesis. Ancient Egyptian civilization and the Minoan civilization of Crete had both rudimentary militaristic types and a religion based on the tradition of shamanism, which involved women, transvestism, homosexuality, and healing. In fact the Egyptians regarded homosexuality as of divine origin.

At the end of the Bronze age, Evans claims, these forces came into starker opposition. Some of the Greek civilizations during this period still valued homosexual practice, and men and women retained relatively equal status. But the history of the Greek peninsula from 2000 BC to the Christian era is characterized largely by the invasion of patriarchal, militaristic peoples from the north. Evans says:

during this period, the status of women declined. Succession to religious rites, political power, and property became patrilineal, not matrilineal. In religion, the status of the Great Mother fell, and the power of Zeus and Ares increased. … Ares was the only Greek god who was not famous for his homosexual love affairs. (p.33)

The trial of Socrates, so familiar, can be seen as a result of the conflict between nature religion and the more warlike ways that were being instituted in Greece at the time. Socrates was not just put to death for corrupting the young with unpopular ideas, as is frequently related by homophobic authors. He also was a vestage of the earlier traditions, in which there was a sexual relationship between teacher and pupil and the teaching, was a very personal, oral sort of communication. The sophists represented the new morality: teaching was a mercenary activity and the sexual connotations of this relationship were deeply repressed. The Bronze Age was taking the Stone Age, or what remained of it in Greece at the time, to task.

But it was with the rise of the Roman empire and Christianity that we see the full-blown surpression of women and gay people. The city state of Rome emerged as the most ruthless and violent of all the military tyranies of the time and succeded in conquering most of the civilized world. The schools taught the values of obedience to authority and suspicion of pleasure and sex. The economy was based on enslaving the enemy and maintaining their lands.

As the militaristic values gained strength throughout Rome, the status of women and gay men came more under attack. Evans documents these facts well with quotes from the political leaders of the time. For example, in 186 BC the Roman Senate banned the practice of the Bacchanalia, an ancient sex and nature ritual in the honor of the horned god. The following quote is a part of a Roman Consul's argument against this practice:

A great number of adherents are women, which is the origin of the whole trouble. But there are also men like women, who have joined in each other's defilement. … Do you think, citizens, that young men who have taken this oath can be made soldiers? Are they to be trusted when they leave this obscene sanctuary. (p. 38)

Following the standard Marxist line, Evans sees the emergence of Christianity in Roman times as an opiate of the people. To quote Evans:

People simply had no control over their lives. Daily life became dangerous, and the best the average person could hope for was to be left alone. Ascetic religion became an opiate for the pain, enabling people to stifle their real needs and feelings and thus avoid the suffering of constant frustration. The government was well-disposed to ascetic religion because it kept the people obedient and quiet."

The emerging Christianity had many characteristics which distinguished it from the nature religions. It was well organized, intolerant of other religious points of view, it was an urban religion, it emphasized discipline and obedience. It thus fit in very well with the prevading Roman militaristic values.

Evans continues to trace the development of Christianity throughout the rest of the book. Of course, many of the militaristic themes of Christianity are familiar to most of us. Who hasn't sung "Onward Christian Soldiers" or heard about the massive medieval crusades in which huge battles were fought by Christian devotees in order to bring the word of God to the pagans. It was these same Judaeo-Christian values which led to the slaughter of native Americans as heathen.

In my opinion, Evans is quite biased against Jesus the Nazerene, as he calls him, and is careful not to analyze the pacifist values in much of Jesus' teachings. But it is difficult to deny the historical facts which point to organized Christianity as a patriarchal, militaristic social organization.

To get back to the case of Joan of Arc, we can finally see what happened to her in historical perspective. As Christianity spread throughout medieval Europe, the existing Celtic religion, with its close relationship to the earth, to sex, and to matriarchal society was seen as a threat to Christianity. These women priests were dubbed witches by the Christians, and their magic was seen to emerge from Satan. Satan in turn is the Christian gloss on the male principle in the nature religions. Recall that Pan was supp0sed to be half goat-half man, and sexually potent. These same characteristics were attributed to the Devil.

As the Holy Roman Empire spread throughout Europe with its elaborate political controls, the practice of Celtic religion became more and more an underground thing. The main positive legacy of this religion was the strengthening of the Virgin Mary as a matriarchal principle in Christianity. Pagans simply could not relate to the all male Christian pantheon, But apart from this synthesis, the Celtic and Cristian forces became more and more polarized.

A witchcraft craze emerged and lasted for centuries. Christian zealots burned countless "witches." And what were these witches crimes? Worshipping a female as well as a male god, being openly sexual in a religious context, and embracing the practice of homosexuality as well as heterosexuality. Thus we see Joan of Arc in a new perspective. Evans documents Joan's early childhood in Lorraine, an area well known for its lingering paganism. He shows that she was indeed a "witch" in the sense of engaging in thase practices. And in the end she died a victim of Christian religious oppression.

I have only touched on a fraction of the fascinating content of Arthur Evans' book Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture. For example, as many as ten million people may have been slaughtered during the witchcraft craze, many of these for the "crime" of homosexuality. I would recommend that you read this book. Evans ends his chapter entitled "Homosexuality and Class Warfare" with the statement "And that's how it happened that straight white males got control of our lives." If you've ever wondered
how that happened, Evans will provide you with a thought-provoking answer.

Don't expect to find the book in most bookstores, however, this is a possible
testimony to the truth in Evans book. Try some of the better known book stores in the Central West end or order it directly from Fag Rag Books, Box 331, Kenmore Station, Boston.