Circumcision 2400 BC – The Oldest Mystery in the History of Surgery

Medical historian David Gollaher writes, "Circumcision is the oldest mystery in the history of surgery". “It is far easier to imagine the impulse behind Neolithic cave painting than to guess what inspired ancient civilizations to cut their genitals or the genitals of their young. Yet thousands of years ago, long before medicine and religion branched into separate streams of wisdom, cutting the foreskin of the penis was discovered as a symbolic wound. Circumcision thus became a ritual of extraordinary power.”

The practice of male circumcision involves removing part of the skin at the tip of the penis through a procedure. Various theories have been proposed for its origins, such as aiding hygiene, increasing or reducing pleasure, or distinguishing groups of people. The oldest known depiction of circumcision is found on an Egyptian relief dating from around 2,400 BC. The inscription reads, "Hold him and do not let him faint." According to the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites and some neighbouring peoples practised circumcision in the sixth century BC. In the Book of Genesis, God tells Abraham to be circumcised as "a sign of the covenant between us and you". Although not mentioned in the Quran, male circumcision is widely practised in Islam. In 1442, the Catholic Church condemned circumcision as a mortal sin.

Today, approximately 30% of men worldwide are circumcised. Although evidence shows that male circumcision significantly reduces a man's risk of acquiring HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) during penile-vaginal intercourse, most major medical societies decline to recommend routine infant circumcision.

Swedish anthropologist Felix Bryk wrote in his book Circumcision in Man and Woman (1934): “Anyone who enters the study of circumcision finds a cross-section of all areas of culture, for here the roots of human history are touched, because in this ancient tradition the origins of the formation of government, magic, religion, surgery, hygiene and, finally, sexual culture intersect."

Description of the article image: A young boy undergoes circumcision in Turkestan in Central Asia (c. 1870). (Image: Turkestanskīĭ al’bom, chast ’ėtnograficheskaia.)

Historical figures mentioned in the article: Felix Bryk (1882–1957), David L. Gollaher (b. 1949)

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