Punishments are rarely ever based, neither can we say, categorically that certain punishments are often reserved for men and others for women. Men are given the capital punishment as well as women but in some other parts of the world, while punishments are given the same way, the approach to which they are carried out often differs. This is the case in some parts of Mongolia, dozens of years back where death by Immurement is practiced. To properly grasp an idea of what death by Immurement means or represents, there is a need to imagine a person being kept in a wooden crate, with a hole where such person’s head can be seen and a hole for such person’s hand.
Usually, the fellow whose fate it is to die by Immurement is kept in said crate until the person starves to death under the harsh weather condition of the environment, which is usually a desert. There is a famous picture of such person who was captured serving the punishment in 1913. Titled or captioned the “Mongolian prisoner in a box”, the Photograph was published on National Geographic in 1922 under the name of Albert Kahn, who wasn’t the Person behind the camera. According to sources, the woman seen in the photograph below is far from being dead, though she eventually did, her time in the wooden crate was said to have been a punishment till death for her supposed adulterous ways. (The referenced picture can be found via the link below)
https://allthatsinteresting.com/immurement-history
Sources then began to speculate that perhaps in Mongolia, death by Immurement was reserved for women, who are caught doing some pretty passionate sins. Though the reason women are kept in these boxes in Mongolia is of little consequence to the subject, what often strikes many is the fact that they are kept in said boxes as a way of carrying out the capital punishment. The pain that has been described to be associated with the Immurement box is unbearable, literally, people doomed to this fate have to go through having their bodies bent the wrong way and kept in said box until they die completely of starvation.
Though In some occasions, the women who go through this terrible experience are often given two bowls on which they survive on. One for water and the other for food; not regularly of course, as the food and water is only given to them to further prolong their suffering, just so they could be kept in the same position, usually a public spectacle for as long as possible, and their fortunate death could be witnessed by all and then serve as a lesson or warning to anyone like her.
A 1914 news paper had described the experience in the country, expressing how similar it was with other areas: “the prisons and dungeons of the far eastern country, contains a number of refined Chinese shut up for life in heavy iron-bound coffins which do not permit them to sit upright or lie down. These prisoners see day light for only few minutes daily when the food is thrown into their coffins through a small hole.” While the process of Immurement is done as a form of punishment for certain crimes, and has been associated with women alone in Mongolia in the past, there is a far history behind it also, especially in Europe.
According to sources, similar practices could be found in Rome, thousands of years back when Rome still had Vestal Virgins, a sect of women dedicated to keeping themselves only in servitude of a Roman Goddess, Vesta. During this period, Immurement which doesn’t seem to be restricted to be locked in a wooden crate alone, was seen as more than just a punishment but a way of showing commitment and self restraint. Interestingly what many have claimed was only a way to show their ability to practice restraint, has also been seen as the punishment that they endure. When a Vestal virgin breaks her vow of celibacy, she is made to face the capital punishment through Immurement.
The conversation about the Vesta virgins proves quite evidently that the punishment while it could be a general one, has been quite associated with women in ancient history. Interestingly, there has been records of those who go through the process by intentionally subjecting themselves to the pain and the death to serve some religious fantasy or ideologies.
Sources;
https://www.ranker.com/list/people-who-were-immured/cheryl-adams-richkoff
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