Editor: Mircea Eliade
Macmillan Publishing Company. (1987)
CIRCUMCISION is the surgical removal of the foreskin from
the penis; sometimes it also refers to less common practices of uncovering
the glans of the penis by removing some of the foreskin and leaving
the remainder as a flap, as practiced by the Maasai and Kikuyu of East
Africa, or cutting the foreskin away but retaining it as two flaps,
as practiced by the Tikopia of Polynesia. Early social theorists speculated
about circumcision's origins, suggesting that it may have (1) marked
captives, thereby signifying subjection, (2) attracted the opposite
sex, (3) been a tribal or ethnic mark, (4) been hygienic, (5) increased
sexual pleasure, (6) removed men from maternal bonds, (7) tested bravery,
(8) sacrificed part of the self to ensure future rebirth, (9) been
a form of symbolic castration to support the domination of youths by
their elders, or (10) even simulated menstruation. None of these theories
is accepted today, though various combinations of them may be cited
by those groups who circumcise.
Geographic Distribution. Circumcision is commonly associated
with Semitic religions (Islam, Judaism, and Coptic Christianity), but,
in fact, it predates all of these. It was practiced among ancient Egyptians,
although not universally. It is widespread among peoples in Africa,
western Asia, and the Pacific, including Australia. Early travelers'
records and encyclopedias report circumcision among some New World
peoples, but these accounts seem dubious, and, at most, the practice
there appears to have been rare. Circumcision was not common in Europe
or North America (except among Jews) until the 1870s and became widespread
only at the turn of the century. Today about 85 percent of newborn
American males undergo the operation, but it is far less common elsewhere
in the English-speaking world and in Europe. It is our only form of
prophylactic surgery, and currently members of the medical profession
are in disagreement as to whether it is scientifically justifiable.
Some cite its prevalence in America as an indication of a misconceived
preoccupation with medicine and hygiene.
Semitic Circumcision. Muslims, Jews, and Coptic Christians
usually circumcise during infancy. Ideally Jews circumcise on the eighth
day of life. Among Orthodox Jews circumcision is performed by a professional
circumciser (mohel) rather than a physician, and blood must be drawn
from the wound either by mouth or, today, through a suction pump. In
America, Jews have figured significantly in developing surgical devices
that facilitate the operation. Circumcision is not strictly necessary
to make one a Jew: since 1892, for example, Reform Jews have not required
it of converts. Before the Hellenistic period circumcision among Jews
took a less radical form than it does today. Because some Jews would
"blister" the portion of their foreskin that remained in order to appear
uncircumcised to the Greeks and Romans, the rabbinate advocated a fuller
circumcision. Some hellenized Jews sought to appear uncircumcised because
the Greeks and Romans viewed the practice with revulsion and periodically
enacted laws to make the custom difficult for Jews and Egyptians under
Muslim circumcision usually occurs on what is termed the seventh
day (in fact it is the eighth day, since the day of birth is not counted).
In practice, the time varies widely. Some Muslims perform circumcision
within the first five or six years; others delay it until as late as
adolescence. While circumcision is not discussed in the Qur'än, Muslims
agree that it must occur before marriage and is required of male converts.
In many cases, it is accompanied by lavish feasts and celebrations.
A few Arabs combine circumcision with radical flaying and scarification
of the lower abdomen.
Coptic Christians (including Ethiopians) circumcise in imitation
of Old Testament Jews, but the time at which circumcision is performed
varies from the first week of life to the first few years.
Circumcision and Ethnicity. Besides signifying membership
in a religion, circumcision may indicate, ethnicity or merely a human
condition properly marked by the creativity of culture. Thus the Yoruba
and Igbo of Nigeria usually circumcise during infancy; for them the
operation signifies no religious or moral commitments nor does it distinguish
them from their neighbors, who also circumcise. Even in respect to
a single society generalizations about circumcision may be formulated
with difficulty, as examples from Africa will illustrate. The western
Dinka of the Sudan circumcise while the eastern Dinka do not. Their
neighbors, the Nuer, do not ordinarily circumcise, but on rare occasions
they may, in order to purify someone who has committed incest. Among
the Azande of the Sudan and Zaire circumcision was introduced by neighboring
peoples, with the result that within even the same village or extended
kin group some will be circumcised while others will not. Among the
Amba of Uganda circumcision was unknown until an unexplained interest
in the custom, learned from neighbors to the west, led to sporadic
waves of circumcision among youths and even adults.
Among the Sotho of southern Africa circumcision was once universal,
but under government and mission influence many have abandoned the
practice while others continue to observe it. Among some migratory
pygmies in Zaire circumcision has been interpreted as a mark of cultural
subjugation to their sedentary African overlords. Even where circumcision
is a traditional practice and remains prevalent it now often takes
place in hospitals, despite protests from elders, who advocate the
Circumcision and Rites of Sexual lnitiation. Where circumcision
is associated with a world religion, it rarely marks sexual maturity.
Such an association is common, however, among preliterates, although
even among these many peoples circumcise infants or children rather
than adolescents. Early circumcision may be a mark of ethnicity, or
it may be considered hygienic or aesthetically attractive, but it does
not provide a means by which trauma may be harnessed to the inculcation
of moral and metaphysical values, as occurs in many rituals of initiation.
Nor can infantile circumcision serve as a test of bravery. These aspects
of circumcision, however, are of special interest to the anthropologist
Among the societies that practice circumcision as a rite of passage
to adulthood, those of central Australia and East Africa provide the
most complex and dramatic examples.
In central Australia circumcision is the primary operation in defining
male adulthood, although it is often accompanied by tooth evulsion,
bodily scarification, and, a year or two later, subincision. Much pressure
is exerted on the initiate to show no fear or pain. Among those Australian
Aborigines who practice circumcision (and not all do), the operation
marks the beginning of a youth's indoctrination into the men's secret
ceremonial life, the preservation of which is believed to be vital
for maintaining social and natural harmony. At this time novices witness
complex ceremonies in which the mythical origins of the world are enacted
and, thereby, the order of the world is reasserted. The initial rites
convey only basic features of this information; only after a man has
witnessed many such ceremonies over the years, first as a spectator-novice,
then as an actor-participant, and finally as an organizer, does he
become truly knowledgeable. Circumcision, therefore, is not only the
occasion when a youth passes into the circle of informed adults, but
it also provides repeated opportunities for him to continue to acquire
deeper knowledge of traditions.
Australian circumcision furthers male solidarity by forever separating
youths from their mothers. The initiates receive ritual objects that
are forbidden to the sight of women. Admitted to frequent and complex
secret male ritual activities, they begin to spend longer periods away
from camp at ceremonies that exclude women. It is only after these
rituals that a youth is likely to have heterosexual relations and marry.
Male solidarity sometimes involves a homosexual experience, since a
circumciser may be obliged to have sexual relations with a newly recovered
novice to whom he will later give a wife.
Aborigines associate circumcision with marriage not simply to prepare
a man to take a wife but to reinforce the bonds the man enjoys with
the men of his wife's family. Thus a man's potential father-in-law
and brothers-in-law, his own father, and his uncles (his father's affinal
ties and members of the group that helped to circumcise his father)
often figure in his circumcision. Male solidarity and hierarchy are
closely associated with the bestowal of and submission to pain, a prevalent
theme in Aboriginal belief and ritual. This in turn relates to the
fact that periodically in a society circumcision and subincision involve
the shedding of male "genital blood," a blessing with deep mystical
value for the reestablishment of social and moral order through altruistic,
Circumcision is widespread in East Africa. Among sedentary speakers
of Bantu language it is usually performed annually on groups of youths
approaching adolescence. These groups are segregated in the bush (the
sphere of disorder) apart from villages and women. Novices are stripped,
shaved, bathed, and sometimes marked with ashes or white earth, all
to denude them of their previous status and to place them in a liminal
state, neither minor nor adult. The actual operation is often performed
by an expert who is outside or peripheral to the group. Bravery under
pain is usually required. The shedding of blood is viewed as polluting,
a "hot" procedure that temporarily creates disorder so as to achieve
a greater eventual order. Rituals and medicines are therefore applied
to "cool" the wound and allow it to heal.
During their weeks of recovery, novices are hazed by older circumcised
youths or by elders. They fast and observe numerous prohibitions, as
may also their kin, in order to ensure recovery. In their isolated
quarters, the novices - vulnerable and impressionable because of the
wounds, fasting, and exposure that they have suffered are subjected
to intensive instructions about sexual behavior, moral attitudes, and
proper conduct. Toward the end of their confinement, the novices may
don strange garb and tour nearby villages representing their status
of being nameless, nonsocial creatures. Upon recovery, they return
to their homes and enjoy the company of women at dances and feasts
that celebrate their new adulthood. Circumcision marks their ritual
death as minors and their rebirth as responsible adults.
In other East African societies, especially Para-Nilotest such as
the Maasai, rites of circumcision are not held every year. Instead,
they are held for several successive years until a sufficient group
is recruited; then the rites are not practiced for some time. Through
circumcision men enter named tribal age groups whose members provide
mutual aid and hospitality and, when young, form fighting units.
In East Africa and Australia circumcision is understood to remove
the vestiges of polluting femininity (the foreskin) from a youth, converting
him into an adult male. lt provides a powerful measure of commitment
to group values in the face of considerable suffering, and it represents
a permanent moral and physical transformation. Women are afforded no
comparable process, and (despite any physical operation) they remain
minors subordinate to men, according to the norms that govern social
organization. Where such initiation occurs we find the belief that
society improves upon nature by transforming the male body into a more
proper vehicle for a moral person to inhabit. The social person and
the natural body are brought into closer conjunction. The endurance
of pain and the observance of ritual restrictions express both a willingness
and a capacity to subject personal appetites and feelings to collective
ends. At the same time the powers that shape the cultural process assume
a physical reality in the experience of bodily suffering.
[For comparable rites among women, see Clitoridectomy. See
Beidelman, T. 0. "Women and Men in Two East African
Societies." In Explorations in African Systems of Thought, edited
by Ivan Karp and Charles S. Bird, pp. 143-164. Bloomington, Ind., 1980.
Contrasts sexual attributes and roles in a Bantu and a para-Nilotic
society, including their relation to circumcision, age group, and social
Bryk, Felix. Circumcision in Man and Woman (1930). Reprint,
New York, 1974. Although outdated and not critical of data and theories,
Bryk's study is the only anthropological survey of the topic.
Meggitt, M. J. Desert People: A Study of the Walbiri Aborigines
of Central Australia. Sydney, 1962. Contains the most reliable
account of circumcision among a group of Australian Aborigines set
within a broader social context.
Morgenstern, Julian. Rites of Birth, Marriage, Death, and Kindred
Occasions among the Semites. Cincinnati, 1966. Contains a useful
survey of Jewish and Muslim circumcision by a distinguished rabbinic
scholar. Provides a good bibliography.
Roheim, Geza. The Eternal Ones of the Dream (1945). Reprint,
New York, 1971. Contains a survey of Australian circumcision and related
practices, with a psychoanalytical bias.
Spencer, Paul. The Samburu: A Study of Gerontocracy in a Nomadic
Tribe. Berkeley, 1965. Contains a useful description of circumcision
and related ritual among a para-Nilotic people of East Africa.
Tumer, Victor. "Three Symbols of Passage in Ndembu Circumcision Ritual:
An Interpretation." In Essays on the Ritual of Social Relations,
edited by Max Gluckman, pp. 124-173. Manchester, England, 1962. Probably
the best analysis of the complex symbolism associated with circumcision,
in this case that of a Bantu people of central Africa.
Wallerstein, Edward. Circumcision: An American Health Fallacy. New
York, 1980. A useful general survey by a physician. Deals with the
practice cross-culturally, historically, and medically and contains
a useful bibliography.
T. 0. BEIDELMAN