Artifact 4: Circumcision

Hamilton, Collin M

Dr. Hinks

BI-218X

Genital Circumcision for males is a common practice for Western Civilization as well as most educated cultures around the world. Female genital circumcision, however, is much less common and is practiced in the countries of the continent of Africa. Both have historical and cultural significance in their respective areas of the world, but where the difference begins to take shape is why this is performed.

Male circumcision became popularized through the religious teachings of the Torah, the Jewish Holy book. This stems from when Abraham had his son, and God instructed him to circumcise the boy as an infant. Since then, it has become a preferred operation so as to protect the penis from infections that it would be susceptible to if it was uncircumcised.

In the case of female circumcision, the practice is used to prevent the woman to receiving pleasure from sexual stimulation. Used in very traditional and firm cultural areas of Africa so that young women would not experiment on their sexual organs to give themselves pleasure. In the class video concerning female genital mutilation, it’s showed that genital mutilation was so deeply rooted in the culture that an Egyptian Coptic Christian mother had believed that it was part of the Christian religion to have women circumcised.