David was a thirteen year old who lived in the early part of the twentieth century. He played ‘nocturnal games’ that most boys his age indulged in. One day as he was going about his nightly ritual, he was chanced upon by a prying relative who spread the word around. It was unanimously decided that he be saved from ‘sinning’ further- that he be circumcised.

Circumcision is the excision of a part, or all, of the foreskin of the penis, to prevent its smooth gliding over the penile head or glans.

Circumcision jokes are aplenty, and one such joke doing the round says that males go through circumcision because females would grab anything that is 20% off. In reality, it began as an effort to control masturbation.

Ancient world had an unrealistic view of sex. It was earlier thought that masturbation was the root cause of various illnesses and was, therefore, worthy of punishment.

Efforts were on to dampen the zeal associated with indulging in masturbation and other forms of non-reproductive sex. Several techniques were adopted such as the spiked chastity belts, genital cages, bruising genital parts or suturing or sewing the foreskin. Circumcision arrived as a sequel to these ‘byproducts of barbarism’.

The pain of the procedure, along with reduced sensitivity, deterred even the most- determined.

History

Circumcision dates back to six thousand years as was evidenced by the ancient wall carvings of Egypt. The Egyptians were snake worshippers, who implicitly believed that when the snake sloughed off its skin to glow anew, it was, in reality, undergoing rebirth. What prompted them to equate snakeskin with foreskin is anyone’s guess!

‘No pain, no gain’- the saying goes and, in a bid to circumvent mortality, ‘the peelings’ began.

From the Egyptians, circumcision spread to people of the Semitic faith, such as the Jews and the Arabs, who faithfully adopted it as a tenet of their own doctrines. Male circumcision, for religious reasons, is a common practice among Jews, Muslims and also among a few Christian sects.

With time, the popularity of the custom transgressed geographical boundaries. It enjoyed a revival during the Victorian times, when purity of the body and of the mind was the most pursued goal. The penis became a ‘soft target’ for penalty, because of its ‘popular’ function, as circumcision seeped through the various layers of the societal stratum. The procedure was accepted for medical, moral, religious or hygienic reasons.

The practice of social circumcision is uniquely North American where it became rampant in the 1940s, after World War II.

Today, circumcision is one of the most common surgeries and is carried out on millions of babies the world over. It may, however, surprise many to know that there is very little understood about this global phenomenon.

The AIDS controversy

A spate of studies carried out recently in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa has evoked wide interest. It has been discovered that the risk of contracting HIV infection in circumcised men, through heterosexual sex, was reduced by 50-60 percent, compared to uncircumcised men. The National Institute of Health (NIH) published this fact in The Lancet. These studies led the WHO and UNAIDS, in 2007, to acknowledge male circumcision as a preventive measure against AIDS.