Colorful Humanistic History History of Punishment

Author: [British] Karen Farrington
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Nearly a hundred famous paintings collected from major museums around the world are included in the book. As you flip through the slightly yellowed paper, time seems to flow through your fingertips. The highly civilized human beings might not believe that their ancestors could have invented so many methods of torturing criminal suspects. Human sacrifice, burial alive, boiling, drowning, nailing, hanging, beheading, being bitten by animals, or being stoned to death, etc. The list of inventors of these variously elaborate tortures includes kings, nobles, clergy, and even highly respected professionals. What is hard to imagine is that for a long time, the people of Europe would cheerfully gather to watch the execution of tortures as if celebrating a holiday. Civilization grew alongside bloodshed, and history finally turned a heavy page. We finally see torture gradually giving way to more humane punishment in the Dark Ages. In the Dark Ages, thieves and murderers were sentenced to death, which was roughly similar to the penal system of the 18th century. Those executions had a dual meaning: on the one hand, to punish the criminals, and on the other, to appease the wrath of the gods. The convicts were often executed as sacrificial offerings, with extremely cruel and barbaric methods. Even when Christian doctrine spread across the world, there was no sign of any improvement in the bloody punishments. The Romans and the barbarian tribes around them competed to use new and more painful methods of capital punishment, with countless martyrs. In fact, "The History of Punishment" is mainly the history of punishment in Europe, although it also involves regions such as Asia, America, and Oceania, what we see more is the long shadow of judicial darkness hanging over Europe. The highly civilized Europeans might not believe that their ancestors could have invented so many methods of torturing criminal suspects. Until modern times, the condemned usually had only two choices—death or slavery.