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Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia and necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from Ancient Greek: νεκρός (nekros; "corpse," or "dead") and φιλία (philia; "friendship"). The term appears to have originated from Krafft-Ebing's 1886 work Psychopathia Sexualis.[1] Rosman and Resnick (1989) reviewed information from 34 cases of necrophilia describing the individuals' motivations for their behaviors: these individuals reported the desire to possess an unresisting and unrejecting partner (68%), reunions with a romantic partner (21%), sexual attraction to corpses (15%), comfort or overcoming feelings of isolation (15%), or seeking self-esteem by expressing power over a homicide victim (12%).[2]
[edit] HistoryHerodotus writes in The Histories that, to discourage intercourse with a corpse, ancient Egyptians left deceased beautiful women to decay for "three or four days" before giving them to the embalmers.[3][4][5] This practice originated from the need to discourage the men performing the funerary customs from having sexual interest in their charges. In some societies the practice was enacted owing to a belief that the soul of an unmarried woman would not find peace; among the Kachin of Myanmar, versions of a marriage ceremony were held to lay a dead virgin to rest, which would involve intercourse with the corpse. Similar practices existed in some pre-modern Central European societies when a woman who was engaged to be married died before the wedding.[6] [edit] Religious aspectActs of necrophilia are reportedly displayed on Moche artifacts of Peru. It was reportedly used as a method to communicate with the dead. [1] [2] See also: Necromancy. [edit] ClassificationAggrawal has suggested a ten-tier classification of necrophilia:[7]
[edit] ResearchIn 1958, Klaf and Brown[5] commented that, although rarely described, necrophilic fantasies may occur more often than is generally supposed. Rosman and Resnick[8] (1989) theorized that either of the following situations could be antecedents to necrophilia (pp. 161):
The authors also reported that, of their sample of 'necrophiliacs,':
At the end of their own report, Rosman and Resnick wrote that their study should only be used like a spring-board for further, more in depth, research. Minor modern researches conducted in England have shown that some necrophiles tend to choose a dead mate after failing to create romantic attachments with the living[citation needed]. [edit] AnimalsMain article: Davian behavior Necrophilia is known to occur in animals, with a number of confirmed observations.[9] Kees Moeliker allegedly made one of these observations while he was sitting in his office at the Natuurmuseum Rotterdam, when he heard the distinctive thud of a bird hitting the glass facade of the building. Upon inspection, he discovered a drake (male) mallard lying dead about two meters from the building. Next to the downed bird there was a second drake mallard standing close by. As Moeliker observed the couple, the living drake picked at the corpse of the dead one for a few minutes and then mounted the corpse and began copulating with it. The act of necrophilia lasted for about 75 minutes, in which time, according to Moeliker, the living drake took two short breaks before resuming with copulating behavior. Moeliker surmised that at the time of the collision with the window the two mallards were engaged in a common pattern in duck behavior which is called "rape flight". "When one died the other one just went for it and didn't get any negative feedback -- well, didn't get any feedback," according to Moeliker.[10][11] This is the first recorded case of necrophilia in the mallard duck- though not the only recorded case of homosexuality within the bird family.[12] The Cane Toads: an Unnatural History film shows a male toad copulating with a female toad who has been run over by a car. He goes on to do this for eight hours.[13] In the case of a praying mantis, necrophilia could be said to be part of their methods of reproduction. The larger female will often decapitate or even eat her mate during copulation.[14] However, given that the sexual activity of a male mantis is controlled by a brain-like ganglion in his abdomen it may not be appropriate to refer to him as a "corpse", even when he is decapitated.[citation needed] [edit] Legality[edit] IndiaSection 297 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) entitled "Trespassing on burial places, etc", states as follows:[15]
Although Necrophilia is not explicitly stated in IPC, a necrophiliac may be convicted under the above section in the Indian Penal Code. There have been several allegations by relatives of dead women, that the dead bodies of their kin were defiled in the night by mortuary attendants, but none have been proven. [16] In some cases, where a woman was alleged to have been raped and murdered and the autopsy surgeon failed to find any signs of rape, the relatives have approached the authorities for a second postmortem. The second postmortem is invariably conducted at a different hospital, often necessitating the deposit of the body overnight at the mortuary of the second hospital. In cases where the second autopsy surgeon finds signs of rape, the defendants have been known to allege that the dead body was defiled by drunk mortuary attendants at night. However, no such allegation has been proven in a court of law.[16] [edit] United KingdomSexual penetration with a corpse was made illegal under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. This is defined as depictions of "sexual interference with a human corpse" (as opposed to only penetration), and would cover "depictions which appear to be real acts" as well as actual scenes (see also extreme pornography). As of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, it is also illegal to possess physical depictions of necrophilia, electronic or otherwise. Necrophilia-pornography falls under the governmental description of extreme pornography, of which, possession is classed as illegal under the aforementioned act. [edit] United StatesAs of May 2006, there is no federal legislation specifically barring sex with a corpse.[17] Multiple states have their own laws:
[edit] See also[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References[edit] Further reading
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