5-minute essay

1. 5-minute essay 1.In this chapter, we see the Skoptsy life and practice from the point of view of insiders, rather than outsiders. What contradictions between ideals and practice do we note? 2. Think about the major terms, people, dates that we have encountered this week in our reading and discussion. Choose one that you think would serve as a good I.D. on the mid-term and define it.

2. Policy Recommendations on Skoptsy • Underlying premises: what threat do they pose? What is the problem with someone choosing to castrate themselves? How is it different that getting a tattoo or a piercing? • Why do people choose to become Skoptsy? True belief vs. conformity to milieu (your religion is your parents, you dress like your friends, etc) • Social – filial and milieu conformity • Cultural –Backwards inadequately modernized culture – need education, enlightenment, sex and health education, need to be more firmly integrated into secular society • Theological –False understanding of Christianity: sin is not localized in the genitalia • Psychological, anthropological – certain percentage of people tend towards fanatical beliefs Neurotheology: some people are wired for deep faith and intense religious or paranormal experiences.

3. Religious Extremism and Messianism • In contemporary Islamic world as well as in Christianity significant contingent of fundamentalists: we could blame the wars in the Middle East on Christian, Islamic, and Jewish fundamentalism causes disorder to the extant that it is Messianic and antagonistic toward the dominant culture. • Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor in the Brothers Karamazov • “But man seeks to bow down before that which is indisputable, so indisputable that all men at once would agree to universal worship of it […] And this need for communality of worshipis the chief torment of each man individually, and of mankind as a whole, from the beginning of the ages. In the cause of universal worship, they have destroyed each other with the sword. They have made gods and called upon each other: ‘Abandon your gods and come and worship ours, otherwise death to you and your gods!”

4. Defense of Prudkovskii’s Aunt • She meant no harm to the boy, but on the contrary, believed that this was the only means of his salvation. • She turned herself in, realizing the error of her ways. • Parents and guardians have dominion and must have dominion over their children if social order is to be maintained. Parents establish family rules of physical and social conduct: they establish family culture and traditions and are guardians of physical, spiritual, and moral well-being. Cannot deprive parents of this right. (defense attorney Spasovich’s strategy in the Kroneberg case 1876)

5. Prosecution of Prudkovskii’s Aunt • Harm done to the boy against his will; also violates spiritual ideals of Skoptsy that rite is undertaken when the devotee is ready • Aunt used force and psychological manipulation • Inflicted gross physical and psychological trauma • Life is irreparably damaged, unable to join normal human community, marry, have a family • Aunt is disabling imperial subjects, rendering them unable to function as useful citizens (fathers of families, soldiers, etc)

6. Contradictions between Skoptsy ideals and practice • The role of the family: castration is a family affair members of family are all castrated in order to put an end to earthly existence and procreation, but family remains primary support system and enduring unit of Skoptsy. They retain traditional gender roles within the family including patriarchal structures that lead to the devaluation of women. Skoptsy without children have no one to support them in old age. • Skoptsy abhor earthly, material existence as sinful, but are extremely successful and materialistic. Acquire substantial wealth and excel at agriculture and animal husbandry, which rely upon fertility. They also support, with their economic activity, substantial non-Skoptsy communities, such as the Siberian town of Iakutsk. Although they have no heirs, they win the legal right to bequeath their property. Skoptsy communities are often afflicted by disputes over property and economic interests.

7. Contradictions, cont. • Although the Skoptsy venerate their founder and martyr, Selivanov, and equate Christ’s matyrdom on the cross with castration, they frequently lie about their adherence to the Skoptsy faith, as if reluctant to imitate their Savior themselves. • Although considered radical heretics by the tsarist government, the Skoptsy are political and social conformists. • The role of castration is called into question. Is castration enough to ensure salvation and spiritual purity? Some come to believe that it is not, and that those who have been castrated succumb to spiritual pride and complacency. Others believe that the brethren have become lax about the imperative of castration.