The more recent history of circumcision

·       Before 600 BC, Middle East, Religious Identity: Jews adopted circumcision from the Egyptians and are believed to be the first to perform it upon newborns

·       The practice was taken up by the Phoenicians around 400 BC, from either the Egyptians or Israelites, and propagated to other nations.

·       In 170 BC, ritual circumcision was banned by Greeks. Renowned Greek philosophers construed circumcision as a flaw of the human body, hence only Jews and slaves were subjected to this practice.

·       Greeks, Romans: prepuce was highly valued; exposed glans was ridiculed, forbidden

 

Sprinter on a vase, Fikellura style amphora with a running man, Greek, 6th century BC, from Kamiros, Rhodes, Aegean Sea, Winning at the ancient Games, British Museum (7667202636).jpg. Author: Carole Raddato. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0


Now we jump a little bit forward in time …

·       Western societies (specially Germany) used the threat of mutilation against the practise of masturbation. Side Note: children’s stories like the one about the disobedient Struwwelpeter (who turns ugly) 


Heinrich Hoffmann (1908 - 1894):  Der Struwwelpeter; Frankfurt am Main : Literarische Anstalt Rütten & Loening, 1917 (400. Auflage); Exemplar der Universitätsbibliothek Braunschweig Signatur: 2007-0968. Public Domain


and the also disobedient Daumenlutscher (suck-a-thumb / well not for long since a tailor cuts them off, ca. 1845) were en vogue to threaten disobedient children, and let’s one wonder if there was a connection with the height of the masturbation scare in Germany


Der Struwwelpeter: Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher (created 1858): Tafel 1. Heinrich Hoffmann: Der Struwwelpeter; Frankfurt am Main : Literarische Anstalt Rütten & Loening, 1917 (400. Auflage); Exemplar der Universitätsbibliothek Braunschweig, Signatur: 2007-0968. Public Domain


Here is an ‘abbreviate’ translation:

Conrad, listen up and don’t be  dumb
and stop this awful suck-a-thumb
but if you still will do
The tailor comes and cuts them through


·       Britain: 1860 to 1940s: Circumcision was recommended to prevent masturbation for both male and female (clitoridectomy)

·       US: Circumcision was widely propagated due to (alleged) health benefits.

o   The circumcision rate between 19032 and 1971 was growing from 30% to about 90% (1960s) and then a slight decline to about 80% (according to the National Health and Social Life Survey).  

o   Also the Mayo Clinic reports Total Circumcision Rates for the years 1960 to 2000 in the order of 80 %. .

o   The prevalence of adult circumcision in the time span 1950 to 2006 was in the order:  40 to 30% for the West; between 70 to 60% for the South and Midwest, and about 80% for the Northeast

·       Note: some doctors also practice involuntary female circumcision in the 1950s,


Postcard of Battle Creek Sanitarium exercise class, c. 1911, The Dillard Library collection. Public Domain

·       Special Case: J.H. Kellogg’s best-selling prescriptions for clean and healthy living in the 1880s. He led the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan.

o   These included a list of 39 signs by which masturbators could be detected, and a set of remedies, including bandaging and caging the genitals; tying the hands to prevent touching; sewing up the foreskin with silver wire to prevent erection and create sufficient discomfort to make sexual impulse unwelcome;

o   and finally circumcision--to be performed "without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment."


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