4502 x 2990 px | 38,1 x 25,3 cm | 15 x 10 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
2011
Altre informazioni:
Stocks are devices used in the medieval times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by. Since the purpose of putting offenders in the stocks was to expose them to ridicule and mockery, passers-by were encouraged to throw at those being punished mud, rotten eggs, mouldy fruit and vegetables, smelly fish, offal, and excrement (both animal and human). Consequently, many of those who sat in the stocks were very dirty and smelly by the time that they were let out. The stocks are similar to the pillory and the pranger, as each consists of large, hinged, wooden boards; the difference, however, is that when a person is placed in the stocks, their feet are locked in place, and sometimes as well their hands or head, or these may be chained. With stocks, boards are placed around the legs or the wrists, whereas in the pillory they are placed around the arms and neck and fixed to a pole, and the victim stands. However, the terms can be confused, and many people refer to the pillory as the stocks. Since stocks served an outdoor public form of punishment its victims were subjected to the daily and nightly weather. As a consequence it was not uncommon for people kept in stocks over several days to die from heat exhaustion or hypothermia.[citation needed] The practice of using stocks continues to be cited as an example of torture, cruel and unusual punishment. Insulting, kicking, spitting and in some cases urinating and defecating on its victims could be applied at the free will of any of those present.
