Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Political Functions of Eunuchism

1964; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 29; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2090872

1939-8271

Lewis A. Coser,

Ancient Egypt and Archaeology

In the great oriental empires the head of the state mobilized the country's resources with the aid of a centralized bureaucracy which helped counteract centrifugal and feudal tendencies. Yet the bureaucratic forms of administration also involved the danger that the ruler would become only the primus inter pares among the top office holders, a servant of the apparatus rather than its master. Recourse to political eunuchism hence was one device by which the ruler assured himself of a body of personally loyal instruments who could be used against bureaucrats and feudal opponents alike. Rootless men could be used to great advantage wherever a ruler needed to defend himself against recalcitrance or opposition from men entrenched in rationalized bureaucratic positions, or in territorial and kinship groups.