Although we talk more openly about anal sex and stimulation in modern culture, there is still a fair amount of taboo and stigma related to the practice. It sometimes seems like anal sex has always been a prohibited practice denied to people by society that only sexual rebels and prostitutes engaged in. However, that’s simply not true. Through most of the early part of human history anal sex was a widely used and accepted part of sexual practice.
In cultures where women were considered property, including the early Hebrew culture of the Bible, a high social value was placed on virginity. Anal sex was seen by many cultures as a way of having sex with slaves or concubines without “ruining” them for sale or marriage. This was considered a common practice as late as the 1600’s.
Many cults that practiced temple sexual rituals often set anal sex as the norm for those ceremonies with the idea that anal sex was used for sacred acts as opposed to vaginal or oral sex which was done at home for procreation or pleasure.
Anal sex was so deeply embedded in Greek and Roman culture, both heterosexual and homosexual, that icons and images of the practice have been found on tombs, walls, parchment, manuscripts, and even dishware.
In Roman culture allowing a man to be the inserting partner for anal intercourse was a sign you were showing him respect. The only taboo about anal sex in those eras was if it was forced upon you.
Views about anal sex started to change with the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic Church’s determination that all moral sex acts are procreative in nature. Since anal sex doesn’t lead to pregnancy and, in fact, is often used as birth control, it was shunned by the church.
During the Thirty Years War forced sodomy and anilingus were recorded as being used as a punishment against captured enemy soldiers. Eventually the act became identified with humiliation and shame.