Prostitution

PROSTITUTION, a word which may best be defined as promiscuous unchastity for gain. In German law it is described as Gewerbsmassige Unzucht. It has always been distinguished in law and custom from concubinage, which is an inferior state of marriage, and from adultery and other irregular sexual relations, in which the motive is passion. Prostitution has existed in all civilized countries from the earliest times, and has always been subject to regulation by law or by custom. The more important of the external reasons which induce women to turn to prostitution for a livelihood in modern times are: (I) difficulty of finding employment; (2) excessively laborious and ill-paid work; (3) harsh treatment of girls at home; (4) promiscuous and indecent mode of living among the over-crowded poor ; (5) the aggregation of people together in large communities and factories, whereby the young are brought into constant contact with demoralized companions; (6) the example of luxury, self-indulgence and loose manners set by the wealthier classes; (7) demoralizing literature and amusements; (8) the arts of profligate men and their agents. Alcohol is of ten an aid to prostitution, but it can hardly be called a cause, for the practice flourishes even more in the most abstemi ous than in the most drunken countries. These observations apply to the West. In Oriental countries girls are commonly born into or brought up to the trade, and in that case have no choice.

In Eastern Religions.

Among the ancient nations of the East, with the exception of the Jews, prostitution appears to have been connected with religious worship, and to have been not merely tolerated but encouraged. The code of sexual moral ity laid down in the Book of Leviticus is prefaced by the in junction not to do after the doings of the land of Egypt, nor after the doings of the land of Canaan, where all the abominations forbidden to the Jews were practised; and whenever the Israelites lapsed from their faith and "went a-whoring after strange gods," the transgression was always associated with licentious conduct. In Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria, Chaldea, Canaan and Persia, the worship of Isis, Moloch, Baal, Astarte, Mylitta and other deities consisted of the most extravagant sensual orgies, and the temples were merely centres of vice. In Babylon some degree of prosti

tution appears to have been even compulsory and imposed upon all women in honour of the goddess Mylitta. In India the ancient connection between religion and prostitution still sur vives; but that is not the case in China, a most licentious country, and, considering the antiquity of its civilization, and its conser vatism, we may perhaps conclude that it formed an exception in this respect among the ancient nations.

Among the Jews, who stood apart from the surrounding peoples, the object of the Mosaic law was clearly to preserve the purity of the race and the religion. Prostitution in itself was not f or bidden, but it was to be confined to foreign women. Jewish fathers were forbidden to turn their daughters into prostitutes (Lev. xix. 29), and the daughters of Israel were forbidden to become prostitutes (Deut. xxiii. 17), but no penalty was attached to disobedience, except in the case of a priest's daughter, who was to be burnt (Lev. xxi. 9). This distinction is significant of the attitude of Moses, because the heathen "priestesses" were nothing but prostitutes. Similarly, he forbade groves, a common adjunct of heathen temples and a convenient cover for debauchery. Again, his purpose is shown by the severe penalties imposed on adultery (death) and on unchastity in a betrothed damsel (death by stoning), as contrasted with the mild prohibition of prostitution. So long as it did not touch the race or the religion, he tolerated it ; and even this degree of disapproval was not maintained, for Jephthah was the son of a harlot (Judges xi. 1).

There is abundant evidence in the Old Testament that prostitu tion prevailed extensively in Palestine, even in the earlier and more puritan days. The women were forbidden Jerusalem and places of worship; they infested the waysides, and there is some evidence of a distinctive dress or bearing, which was a marked feature of the trade among the Greeks and Romans. In the later period of aggrandizement that increase of licentious indul gence which Moses had foreseen took place, associated with in fidelity. The remarkable series of ordinances laid down by Moses in the interest of public health contains unmistakable recognition of venereal disease and its contagious character (Lev. xv.).