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Raptio (inarchaic orliterary English rendered asrape) is aLatin term for, among several other meanings for senses of "taking", the large-scale abduction of women: kidnapping for marriage,concubinage orsexual slavery. The equivalent German term isFrauenraub (literallywoman robbery).
Bride kidnapping is distinguished fromraptio in that the former is the abduction of one woman by one man (and his friends and relatives), whereas the latter is the abduction of many women by groups of men, possibly in a time of war.
The English wordrape retains the Latin meaning inliterary language, but the meaning is obscured by the more current meaning of "sexual violation". The word is akin torapine,rapture,raptor,rapacious andravish, and referred to the more general violations, such as looting, destruction, and capture of citizens, that are inflicted upon a town or country during war, e.g. theRape of Nanking. TheOxford English Dictionary gives the definition "the act of carrying away a person, especially a woman, by force" besides the more general "the act of taking anything by force" (marked asobsolete) and the more specific "violation or ravishing of a woman".
Englishrape was in use since the 14th century in the general sense of "seize prey, take by force", fromraper, anOld French legal term for "to seize", in turn fromLatinrapere "seize, carry off by force, abduct". The Latin term was also used for sexual violation, but not always. It is contested that the legendary event known as "The Rape of the Sabine Women", while ultimately motivated sexually, did not entail sexual violation of the Sabine women on the spot, who were instead abducted, and then implored by the Romans to marry them (as opposed to striking a deal with their fathers or brothers first, as would have been required by law).
Though the sexual connotation is today dominant, the word "rape" can be used in a non-sexual context in literary English. InAlexander Pope'sThe Rape of the Lock, the title means "the theft of a lock [of hair]", exaggerating a trivial violation against a person. In the twentieth century, the classically trainedJ. R. R. Tolkien used the word with its old meaning of "seizing and taking away" in hisThe Silmarillion. Themusical comedyThe Fantasticks hasa controversial song ("It Depends on What You Pay") about "an old-fashioned rape". Compare also the adjective "rapacious" which retains the generic meaning of greedy and grasping.
InRoman Catholic canon law,raptio refers to the legal prohibition ofmatrimony if the bride was abducted forcibly (Canon 1089 CIC).[citation needed]
The practice is surmised to have been common since anthropological antiquity. An excavation of theNeolithicLinear Pottery culture site atAsparn-Schletz,Austria, revealed the remains of numerous slain victims. Among them, young women and children were clearly under-represented, suggesting that attackers had killed the men but abducted thenubile women.[1] Investigation of the Neolithic skeletons found in theTalheim Death Pit suggests that prehistoric men from neighboring tribes were prepared to fight and kill each other to capture and secure women.[2]
Abduction of women is a common practice inwarfare amongtribal societies, along withcattle raiding. Inhistorical human migrations, the tendency of mobile groups of invading males to abduct indigenous females is reflected in the greater stability ofHuman mitochondrial DNA haplogroups compared toHuman Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups.
The Rape of the Sabine Women is an important part of thefoundation legends ofRome (8th century BC).Romulus had established the settlement on thePalatine Hill with mostly male followers. Seeking wives, the Romans negotiated with the neighboring tribe of theSabines, without success. Faced with the extinction of their community, the Romans planned to abduct Sabine women. Romulus invited Sabine families to a festival ofNeptune Equester. At the meeting he gave a signal, at which the Romans grabbed the Sabine women and fought off the Sabine men. The indignant abductees were implored by Romulus to accept Roman husbands.Livy claims that no sexual assault took place. He asserted that Romulus offered them free choice and promised civil and property rights to women. According to Livy he spoke to them each in person, "and pointed out to them that it was all owing to the pride of their parents in denying right of intermarriage to their neighbours. They would live in honourable wedlock, and share all their property and civil rights, and—dearest of all to human nature—would be the mothers of free men."[3] The women married Roman men, but the Sabines went to war with the Romans. The conflict was eventually resolved when the women, who now had children by their Roman husbands, intervened in a battle to reconcile the warring parties. The tale is parodied by English short-story writerSaki inThe Schartz-Metterklume Method.[4] It also serves as the main plot of the movieSeven Brides for Seven Brothers.
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InSanskrit literature, the practice is known asRakshasa Vivaha ("marriage by abduction, devil's marriage"), mentioned e.g. byKautilya. It is one of the eight forms of marriage and it is condemned by scriptures.[citation needed]
In the 3rd century,Gothic Christianity appears to have been initiated under the influence of Christian women captured by theGoths inMoesia andThrace: in 251 AD, the Gothic army raided the Roman provinces of Moesia and Thrace, defeated and killed the Roman emperorDecius, and took a number of (predominantly female) captives, many of whom were Christian. This is assumed to represent the first lasting contact of the Goths with Christianity.[5]
In theQur'an,marriage to female prisoners of war who embraced Islam is recommended for those who cannot afford to marry other Muslim women according toIslamic law (Sura 4:25).Mutual abduction of women between Christian and Muslim communities was common in theBalkans under Ottoman rule, and is a frequent theme in theHajduk songs of the period.[6]
Yanoama is a biography of Helena Valero, a mixed-racemestizo woman[7][8] who was captured in the 1930s as a girl by theYanomami, anindigenous tribe living in theAmazon rainforest on the border betweenVenezuela and Brazil.[9] When Yanomami tribes fought and raided nearby tribes, women were often raped and brought back to theshabono to be adopted into the captor's community.[10]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Valero , a mestizo girl , was captured by Yanomamo in 1932 or 1933
True story of Helena Valero a mestizo who lived among the Yanoama of the Upper Orinoco for almost 20 years after being kidnapped by them as a young child
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