ABSTRACT
The defloration of a virgin has larger significance within a society. Whether female virginity is prized, and under what circumstances, reflects society’s valuation of women, and affects their lifestyles and life choices. In primitive matrilineal societies, female sexuality was free and unhindered and virginity was worshipped. The worship of female virginity did not end with the ancient civilizations. An important part of the ancient Greeks’ unusual definition of virginity is their conception of female physiology. The chances of a university-trained physician carrying out an internal examination for virginity are slim, even though some learned treatises on the womb do deal with the anatomy of virginity. Virginity tests are hardly the rule in medieval treatises on gynecology, and they are even less common in general medical writings and in tracts on uroscopy.
