Transformation of the historical and psychological code of violence in the gender sphere in the barbarian and chivalry societies

The process of attaining cultural sets of sexual behavior had and has specific forms of its expression in different societies on various stages of their development. Despite the changes of cultural and psychological attitudes in societies, they still have a certain culturally accumulated layer that sends people back to its roots. According to K. Marx, men's attitude to women can be the criterion of humanism. In this connection, the authors examine the transformation of the historical and psychological code of cruelty in the gender sphere applying the methodological resources of interdisciplinary technology which was elaborated in Tomsk Methodological and Historiographic School. A woman is rarely mentioned in the historical records that reflect the barbarian period. Moreover, it is possible to list a lot of facts showing the barbarian authoritarian structure of consciousness. The tendency to dominate, oppress a woman in the sexual sphere, including its important component - sexuality, goes back to the archaic roots of the barbarian's identity. As the fear of a more powerful individual or basal anxiety to lose superiority was the reverse side of striving for domination, the behavioral code connected with unconsciously demonstrated cruelty is its peculiar antithesis. The mentioned attitudes had fixed features and in the course of time they changed into some customs or traditions (e.g., the unwritten custom of getting wives that was connected with the practice of agon). Diverse medieval historical records show a great number of scenes containing the archaic attitude of gender behavior (e.g., the legend of the eaten heart). However, the structure of social fields of West European medieval civilization promoted earlier enforced repression of the present code in the gender sphere. The transformation of the gender code is transparent in the unique cult of the Beautiful Lady and the so-called courtly love. The expression of men's sexual aspiration was becoming less aggressive and dangerous; violence and rudeness weakened. The gender evolution does not have a primitive and straightforward character but a local one; that is why one can not speak about complete elimination of violence in the gender sphere. Nevertheless, the examined and interpreted material in the view of the selected research strategy gives the grounds to assert that in the European medieval society the modifications of attitude toward women took place. These modifications influenced the transformation of ruthless behavior in relation to woman. The authors conclude that this transformation was more dynamical in comparison with other civilizations.

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