Identity and Publicity
Shame as a Means of Punishment

The discource is based on the doctoral thesis I intend to write in the next few years. I will focus on the crime and punishment in the German towns in the beginning of the 16th century. My special interest lies on the dishonoring punishments and other punishments with shameful aspects. What was the meaning and importance of shame in the early modern German society? What made it an effective means in the criminal justice system? What were the punishments that they used and how did shame appear in them? What were the symbolic codes in the dishonoring punishments that only the man of that time could understand? How can today’s researcher understand and work on these questions? In the discource I hope to light up these problems and even give some answers, if possible.

The main source is the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, which is a corpus juris dated in 1532. Also the earlier version of CCC, Constitutio Criminalis Bambergensis is beeing used. In future I intend to extend my sources to other texts and hopefully pictures and objects as well. The discource will mainly be a view to the work I have already done (graduation thesis, march 2000) and the visions I have for the nearest future.

I will lecture on the punishments that were used in the German criminal justice system. A well known example of dishonoring punishments is, of course, the pillory, but the variety of penalties was extreamly wide. We deal with the decrease of honor in many death penalties as well. For example hanging was very much a shameful punishment. Laws were made and traditions followed in order to punish and in the result of that cause a decrease in the honor of the criminal. This aspect brings us to the idea of honor, which is the other main consept. Honor and shame reveal the two important characteristics of the late medieval identity. They are, so to speak the two different sides of the same coin and closely related to the idea of publicity.

Without the public nature of these punishments the aspect of shame would never have had the effectiveness it is supposed to have had. Without honor the individual of the time had no chances to lead a normal life in society, or perhaps be a part of it at all. Without understanding the hidden meanings in carrying out the punishments the whole criminal means would have made no sense for the early modern man. The Germans living in the 16th century, however, were familar to the symbolizm used in their criminal justice system. To understand this is the key to understand the dishonoring punishments and the punishments with shameful aspects in general.

Satu Lidman, University of Joensuu
telephone: 050-5650 782
e-mail: lidman@pp.htv.fi
address: Kalevankatu 42 A 22, 00180 Helsinki, Finland