public humilation and moral regulation

• Female humiliation and moral regulation:

  • Due to a patriarchal society
  • Convicted of adultery or prostitution: humiliated in public spaces and made to recite their crime
  • Domineering women parishioners were marched to their house and had pots and pans beaten outside
  • Sometimes forced to walk through the streets bare-headed
• Legal punishments:

  • Those convicted of petty crime could be placed in stocks
  • In Germany, individuals were forced to process through the streets while being whipped
  • Ducking stools used to punish prostitutes in England
  • For serious crimes, individuals could be branded
  • Murder and treason were punished by public execution
• Moral regulation:

  • Concerns as authorities believed gambling, prostitution, and drunkenness were on the rise
  • The Council of Trent attempted to place stricter controls on public behavior
  • Protestants attacked festivals, seeing them as pagan distractions from work and church-going