Homosexuality and moral values in historical perspective : the case of Malta in a European context

Abstract

Homosexual activity was one of the many strands that composed the fabric of male experience, one that not only grew out of established social bonds and patterns of collective life but it even contributed in creative ways to fashioning and reinforcing them. However it was only in the last few decades that historians have· begun to study homosexuality. In past cultures the term was normally associated with sex between males which was not only a common and integral feature of daily life but it also formed part of a universe of experience and values that differed substantially from our own. Past cultures did not clearly separate persons into the categories of 'homosexuals' and 'heterosexuals'. The terms 'sodomy' and 'sodomite' were standard in the juridical and religious language of Malta, as in the rest of pre-modem Europe, for conveying same-sex relations. The terms might however seem to work as substitutes to each other, for in some contexts they appear to have much the same meanings. Sexual interactions were usually structured by age where the passive partner in same-sex sodomy was usually relatively young.