I wouldn’t trust the quoted article very much. It sounds like a narrative constructed around a few datapoints that are not necessarily representative (or even authentic), and certainly not like the writing of someone with in-depth knowledge of the subject. In particular, the concluding claim about ideas “made up by the church 400 years ago” is completely absurd—by that time, there had been no such thing as “the church” in the West for almost a century.
The subject is certainly interesting, but in order to come up with any sensible theories, it would be necessary to do a far broader and in-depth study of all kinds of extant sources that offer relevant information. The fact that some people published various crackpot theories that gained some following doesn’t mean that the prevailing opinion was the same, even among the intellectual classes, let alone in the general population. Just think what an absurdly distorted view of the prevailing 20th century opinion on any subject could be created by focusing selectively on various fringe ideas that gained some traction at a certain point in time.
I think popular fiction offers some legitimate clues about what people found plausible.
There are caveats, of course—fiction exaggerates for the sake of a good story. However, if there’s fiction about horny women for a while, and then there’s no such fiction or very little of it, I think there’s an indication that something’s shifted.
I wouldn’t trust the quoted article very much. It sounds like a narrative constructed around a few datapoints that are not necessarily representative (or even authentic), and certainly not like the writing of someone with in-depth knowledge of the subject. In particular, the concluding claim about ideas “made up by the church 400 years ago” is completely absurd—by that time, there had been no such thing as “the church” in the West for almost a century.
The subject is certainly interesting, but in order to come up with any sensible theories, it would be necessary to do a far broader and in-depth study of all kinds of extant sources that offer relevant information. The fact that some people published various crackpot theories that gained some following doesn’t mean that the prevailing opinion was the same, even among the intellectual classes, let alone in the general population. Just think what an absurdly distorted view of the prevailing 20th century opinion on any subject could be created by focusing selectively on various fringe ideas that gained some traction at a certain point in time.
I think popular fiction offers some legitimate clues about what people found plausible.
There are caveats, of course—fiction exaggerates for the sake of a good story. However, if there’s fiction about horny women for a while, and then there’s no such fiction or very little of it, I think there’s an indication that something’s shifted.