Brothel

A, , or is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as s, bars, s, body rub parlours, studios, or by some other description. in a brothel is considered safer than street prostitution.

History
The earliest recorded mention of prostitution as an occupation appears in Sumerian records from ca. 2400 and describes a temple-bordello operated by  in the city of Uruk. The ‘kakum’ or temple was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar and housed three grades of women. The first group performed only in the temple sex-rites; the second group had the run of the grounds and catered to its visitors as well, and the third and lowest class lived on the temple grounds but were free to seek out customers in the streets. In later years, sacred prostitution and similar classifications of females were known to have existed in Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan.

Europe
State brothels/bordellos with regulated prices existed in ancient, created by the legendary lawmaker. These brothels catered for a predominantly male clientele, with women of all ages and young men providing sexual services (see ). In ancient Rome female slaves provided sexual services for soldiers, with brothels being located close to barracks and city walls. Brothels existed everywhere. The custom was to display lit candles to signal that they were open.

Before the appearance of effective, was common in brothels. Unlike usual infanticide—where historically girls were more likely to be killed at birth— a brothel site at Ashkelon in Israel revealed that nearly all of the babies were boys.

Cities first began setting up municipal brothels between 1350 and 1450 CE. Municipalities often owned, operated, and regulated the legal brothels. Governments would set aside certain streets where a keeper could open a brothel. These separate sections of town were the precursors to the so-called “red light districts”. Not only did the towns restrict where a keeper could open a brothel, but they also put constraints on when the brothel could be open. For example, most brothels were forbidden to be open for business on Sundays and religious holidays. The reason for this is not completely clear. Some scholars believe these restrictions were enforced to make the prostitutes go to church but others argue that it was to keep parishioners in church and out of the brothels. Either way, it was a day of no revenue for the keeper.

Although brothels were set up as a sexual outlet for men, not all men were allowed to enter them. Clerics, married men, and Jews were prohibited. Often, foreigners such as sailors and traders were the main source of revenue. Local men who frequented the brothels mainly consisted of single men; laws restricting the patrons were not always enforced. Government officials or police would periodically do searches of the brothels to cut down on the number of unpermitted customers. However, since the government was so closely related to the church, common punishments were minor. These restrictions were put in place to protect the wives of married men from any sort of infection.

Multiple restrictions were placed on the residents of brothels. One limitation prohibited prostitutes from borrowing money from their brothel keeper. Prostitutes paid high prices to the brothel keeper for the basic necessities of life: room and board, food, clothes, and toiletries. Room and board was often a price set by the local government but the price for everything else could add up to a common woman's entire earnings. Prostitutes were sometimes prohibited from having a special lover. Some regulations put on prostitutes were made to protect their clients. A woman was kicked out if she was found to have a sexually transmitted disease. Also, the prostitutes were not allowed to pull men into the brothel by their clothing, harass them in the street, or detain them over unpaid debts. Clothing worn by prostitutes was regulated as well and had to be distinguishable from that of respectable women. In some places, a prostitute had to have a yellow stripe on her clothing while in others red was the differentiating color. Other towns required harlots to don special headdresses or restricted the wardrobe of proper women. All restrictions placed on prostitutes were put in place not only to protect them but nearby citizens as well.

Because of a epidemic throughout Europe, many brothels were shut down during the end of the Middle Ages. This epidemic had been brought on by Spanish and French military pillages after the return of Christopher Columbus from the newly discovered Americas. The church and citizens alike feared that men who frequented brothels would bring the disease home and infect morally upright people.

From the 12th century, brothels in London were located in a district known as the. This area was traditionally under the authority of the, not the civil authorities. From 1161, the bishop was granted the power to license prostitutes and brothels in the district. This gave rise to the slang term Winchester Goose for a prostitute. Women who worked in these brothels were denied Christian burial and buried in the unconsecrated graveyard known as.

By the 16th century, the area was also home to many theatres, (including the, associated with ), but brothels continued to thrive. A famous London brothel of the time was Holland’s Leaguer. Patrons supposedly included and his favourite,. It was located in a street that still bears its name and also inspired the 1631 play, . licensed a number of brothels including the Silver Cross Tavern in London, which retains its license to the modern day because it was never revoked.

The authorities of Medieval Paris followed the same path as those in London and attempted to confine prostitution to a particular district. (1226–1270) designated nine streets in the  where it would be permitted. In the early part of the 19th century, state-controlled legal brothels (then known as “maisons de tolérance” or “maisons closes”) started to appear in several French cities. By law, they had to be run by a woman (typically a former prostitute) and their external appearance had to be discreet. The maisons were required to light a red lantern when they were open (from which is derived the term ) and the prostitutes were only permitted to leave the maisons on certain days and only if accompanied by its head. By 1810, Paris alone had 180 officially approved brothels.

East Asia
Brothels have been used formally in China for prostitution and entertainment since in its feudal period. For much of China’s ancient and imperial history, brothels were owned by wealthy merchants, typically stereotyped as "madams", and engaged in business in urban areas such as the Capital city. Prostitutes, or “courtesans” as they were known, were well-dressed and groomed to the proper table and drinking (禮). A Chinese prostitute may have been artistic and skilled at practices such as dancing, playing, singing, and conversing in. Prostitution was not in ancient and imperial China (although prostitutes were not considered fit for marriage to men of respectable social ranking) and instead, prostitutes hosted in street brothels were popularly placed in the same social class as females  and regarded as elegant, albeit tainted, beings, most notably courtesans who used similar means to entertain members of nobility. Both young women and men worked as prostitutes in these elaborate brothel settings, though historical records and works of literature have widely the free-flowing, artistic nature of female prostitutes.

The practice of hosting prostitutes in these elaborate brothels spread to surrounding regions of, notably in Japan after the sixth century , where prostitutes and courtesans evolved to develop the ' and ' entertainment professions. Again, the geisha of Japan emphasized good table manners, artistic skills, elegant styling, and sophisticated, tactical conversational skills. The practice also spread to, where prostitutes evolved into the Korean .

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