Borgo prostitutes' races
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A resident in the Borgo area in 1503 would have witnessed prostitute races ending in St.Peter’s square. The participants were not limited to this certain group: interestingly, children, youth and the elderly would run nude while prostitutes would race with their underwear on. The prostitute races had been a tradition for hundreds of years. As a marginal group in the city these women would ride on donkeys, which were a despised and lower status mount, while being whipped by bystanders. Why was this race be regularly celebrated?
During that period of time, the male leaders governed the marginal groups of the society, including the prostitutes. The civic festival of races was a means to help build up the authority and honor of “civic father” through disreputable behaviors of the suppressed groups. Moreover, the event is celebrated countrywide, not only in Rome.
Ironically, prostitutes were the figures of war “heroines” in similar races, but in a different background—wars, where insult races were run in a similar format, however, to humiliate antagonists. Prostitutes, who were not citizens of the city, were considered the suitable agency to carry out this collective insult ritual towards the enemy. Armies would bring prostitutes along when attacking the enemy, not so much for sex as for performing the ritual. At this moment, the triumph of the commune ties to the dishonor of the rivals: the insult races were carried out in front of the city wall, witnessed by victims. After the war, the prostitutes’ insults to the enemy’ were celebrated as honorable and commemorated. The symmetry between the two races was interesting, but proved the marginality of prostitutes as the social group.
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A resident in the Borgo area in 1503 would have witnessed prostitute races ending in St.Peter’s square. The participants were not limited to this certain group: interestingly, children, youth and the elderly would run nude while prostitutes would race with their underwear on. The prostitute races had been a tradition for hundreds of years. As a marginal group in the city these women would ride on donkeys, which were a despised and lower status mount, while being whipped by bystanders. Why was this race be regularly celebrated?
During that period of time, the male leaders governed the marginal groups of the society, including the prostitutes. The civic festival of races was a means to help build up the authority and honor of “civic father” through disreputable behaviors of the suppressed groups. Moreover, the event is celebrated countrywide, not only in Rome.
Ironically, prostitutes were the figures of war “heroines” in similar races, but in a different background—wars, where insult races were run in a similar format, however, to humiliate antagonists. Prostitutes, who were not citizens of the city, were considered the suitable agency to carry out this collective insult ritual towards the enemy. Armies would bring prostitutes along when attacking the enemy, not so much for sex as for performing the ritual. At this moment, the triumph of the commune ties to the dishonor of the rivals: the insult races were carried out in front of the city wall, witnessed by victims. After the war, the prostitutes’ insults to the enemy’ were celebrated as honorable and commemorated. The symmetry between the two races was interesting, but proved the marginality of prostitutes as the social group.