Celtic Sexuality

Celtic Sexuality by Peter Cherici. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780715627259.

This study of the sexuality of the early Celts is told against the background of European history during the first millennium AD. While the Celts remained relatively isolated in the British Isles, they developed unique sexual customs and practices. Men and women enjoyed marriages with multiple partners and rough sexual equality, and their laws reflected not what people should do, but what they did do. However, the Celtic way of life could not endure in isolation. Saxon invaders hungry for conquest swept across Celtic Britain, seemingly bent on genocide. Christian missionaries established outposts in the Celtic lands, competing with the traditional beliefs of the druids. Celtic society had to adapt to meet the new and confusing conditions found in the world. As new viewpoints seeped into Celtic life, they gradually altered their perception of sexuality. This book explores the impact of sexuality on war, politics, law and spirituality. Far from limiting itself to the distant past, it provides an examination of the human condition by emphasising that the early Celts were little different from the men and women who walked the earth after them.