Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/868

CIRCUMCISION. 764 CIRCUMCISION. would naturally be to increase the fniitfulness of lliose making the sacrilice. Just as the sacri- fice of the first-born was intended to insure the life of those born later, so the olFering of the phallus of some youth was no doubt intended to increase the fertility of the tribe. The first niiidilicalion of tliis rite seems to have been the sulislitulion of gi'ldinf,' for the removal of the plinllus, the object of emasculation being at- tained without the loss of life. The ne.t step, at least in some ca.ses. appears to have been such a painful mutilation as that which Nie- buhr learned to know between Hejaz and Abu- AriaJi, on the Arabian coast. (Consult llcsclirci- bung von Arabien, Copenhagen. 177:2.) While Aery dangerous, this iii)eration offered a chance of both life and virility. Finally, the removal of the prepuce was all that was reipiired. In this form the mutihition was perpetuated either as a sign of the devotee, as a badge of priestly rank, or as a tribal mark. In the latter case it was generally administered as a sign of puberty and of capacity for participating in the cult, admitting the young man to the rights of co- habitation, and of i)resenting sacrifices to the ancestors and the tribal gods. The rite retained somewhat of its sacrificial character even after it had been transferred to infancy, as was the case with some peoples. That its object was to persuade the Deity to grant increased fertility was still felt in Egypt and Judea at the time of Heroilotus and the priestly redactor of the Pentateuch. Its value as a sanitary and pro- ])hy lactic measure was probably not brought to light until it was necessary to apologize for it as a superstition. Circumcision seems to have been practiced already among the aborigines of the Xile Valley, wlio probably were akin to the Libyans. A man belonging to this race, gored by a bull, on one of the oldest monuments, is manifestly circum- cised. (Consult Bulletin (hs correspondances helliniques, Paris, 1892, and Steindorff. in .^gyptUica, Leipzig, 1897.) The dTiastie Egyp- tians probably derived the custom from them. In the Gr^co-Roman ])eriod the rite may have been confined to the priesthood in Egj-pt, as Reitzenstein has tried to prove (Zirci rcligions- gcschirlilliclw i'nigcn', Strassburg, 1901). But if Herodotus was well informed, all Egyptians were circumcised. Boys may have been admitted to jiriestly orders at the age of puberty; but ^vhetber every circumcised boy whose mummy or likeness has been fotnid belonged to a priestly family can neither be atlirnied nor denied. The Kaliylonians and Assyrians do not seem to have practiced the rite. It cannot be |)roved that the ]Ioabites. Ammonites, and Edomites did so be- fore their invasion of Syria. Ihe Philistines were not circumcised. But they were apparently Cretans (see Caimitoh), and, according to Egyp- tian accounts, the Jlycena>an peoples were not circumcised. From the fact that this peculiarity of the Philistines is strongly emphasized by the Hebrews, it may be inferred that the Canaanites practiced circumcision. They may have derived the custom from .some aborigines akin to the proto-Egyptians and the Libyans, or from Egypt in a later time. It is quite nncertaiu whether the clans that afterwards formed the people of Israel knew the custom before they entered Palestine. The story in Exodus iv. retains the memory that the Moses clan considered itself saved from threatening destruction by the adop- tion of this rite from their Alidianite or Kenite neighbors. The sign of Cain (the Kenite) in Gen. iv. is probably circumcision. This chapter seems to rellect an earlier attem])t on the part of the Kenites to settle in Palestine. The peo- ple of the northwest Arabian country of .Muzri, to which the Moses clan belonged, do not seem originally to have had the custom. Tbis ap- |)arcntly is also suggested in the story in .losliua V. Here all Israel is circumcised at tiilgal, upon 'the hill of the foreskins,' to remove "the reproach of the ilizrim," which may mean the reproach cast upon the people of Muzri by their neighbors for not being circumcised. That the youth of Benjamin were brought to the sanctu- ary called 'the hill of the foreskins' to be circum- cised there can be little doubt. But the shrine and the custom arc likely to have been taken over from the Canaanites. No conclusion can be drawn from Gen. .Kvii., except that in the Per- sian period the fact that Ishmaelites practiced circumcision in the thirteenth year was traced back to the mythical ancestors of both Ishmael- ites and Israelites. The story of Dinah in Gen. xxxiv. suggests that the Hiites in Slicchem were forced to accept circumcision by Israelitish tribes: but this may in reality show that the custom existed among tin- Hivites and had to be accounted for. 11 prevailed in some (larts of Arabia before ilohammcd ; and. though not men- tioned in the Koran, it has been retained by the nations accepting Islam. There is no serious objection to the assumption that everywhere in the Semitic world it goes back to Egyptian, and ultimately Libyan, iniluence. Whether the Col- chians ( Karki, Kashki) originally practiced circumcision — and this might be taken as an in- dication of its prevalence among kindred Asiatic peoples — or it was brought to them in later times by colonists from Syria or Egypt, cannot be determined. It still prevails among the ilandin'.'os. Gallas, Falashas, and many Bantu tribes in Africa, where it cannot be traced back to Moslem influence. In Central America, and among the Aztecs of ancient Mexico, circum- cision, or a somewhat similar mutilation, was practiced. It is still in use among the Tcamas and Matuios on the -Vmazon. The Otaheitans, the Tongas, some Alelanesians in Polynesia, and nearly all tribes in Australia, have tliis custom. In the present state of our knowledge, a trans- mission of the rite through historic contact can not be allirmcd, and an independent develop- ment from the same social and religious consid- erations is most safely assumed. Circumcision of females, consisting of mutila- tion of the clitoris, is practiced in Egjpt, Abys- sinia, Western Africa. Arabia, and other coun- tries. It was already known to Strabo. As it is very generally found where male circumcision prevails, it is probably analogous in its history and development to the latter. The opposition to circumcision began with some of the Hebrew pro])hets (.ler. iv. 4; ix. '25-fi). But it was the struggle reflected in the Pauline literature that eliminated this religious rite fr<mi the Cliristian usage, except in isolated instances, such as the .Miyssinian Church. Consult: Ploss, Das Kind in Uniurh iind Hitle der Volker (Lci])zig, IS84) ; Salomon. Dir Hcschnridung (Brunswick. 1844); (Jliissberg, Die Heschneidung (Berlin. 189G) ; Zaborowski, in Hulletin de la Societe d'Anthro