Klaus van Eickels
"Tender Comrades"
Gesten männlicher Freundschaft und die Sprache der Liebe im Mittelalter
Gestures of male friendship and the language of love in the Middle Ages
English abstract
Modern Western Society regarded (and still does sometimes) the public exchange of affection between men as a greater provocation than the private homosexual act. This view bears a strong difference between mediaeval and early modern points of view. The keeping of an extensive network (of allies) was very important to premodern society. The creation of more or less strong bonds of friendship that were heavily invested with emotion and thereby stabilised shaped the culture of public affection in a distinctive way.
The central gestures of this physical intimacy happened to be the kiss, the embrace and the tradition of sleeping in one bed and eating from one bowl.
This article analyses these different forms of physical intimacy. It asks if those ritualised gestures included aspects of eroticism besides their socio-political meaning.
The article also explores the mediaeval differentiation between same-sex attraction and homosexual behaviour.