Circumcision Traditions

Circumcision, the controversial removing of a man’s foreskin at a really early age, is not something practiced exclusively by the Jewish community or different hospitals around the US. For a very long time, Western societies practiced circumcision on newborn children as a health measure against infection and other conditions. Today, tons of men in the US are circumcised; however, a whole new generation of long-sleeved men is surging. In other cultures, though, having the right to choose to keep you hood or not is non-existent. And that, my friend, is how circumcision makes the man.

As in Jewish culture, circumcision is considered by different societies a right of passage, something that signifies entering into a new stage in men’s lives. I guess some people though adolescence wasn’t painful enough for teenage boys; therefore, there should be more painful and damaging events that symbolize entering into manhood. A great example of circumcision as a right of passage is that of Zulu tribe in South Africa.

When compared to the bris of a cute Jewish baby, the Zulu are by far much more demanding of pain and suffering, and theirs is a requirement to enter manhood. In modern day, a mohel or circumciser takes care of the Jewish circumcision process. The bris is carried out on the eighth day of a child’s life, and the occasion is celebrated with a nice family meal. For a Jewish boy to enter manhood, he has a celebratory party around age eleven. Of course, these celebrations have a very deep religious backdrop that falls far from being as simple as I have stated here.

But let’s get back to the circumcision part. Not even considering if they will need generic Viagra or not after their manhood procedure, the Zulu tribe takes manhood matters to a whole new level. Young teens as young as 16 and up to 18 years of age start their initiation with circumcision. The ritual starts with the boys being taken to an isolated location where a grass hut has been built. Tah-dah! Nothing like a quiet retreat in an exotic location to start feeling like a man. Wearing nothing but a small piece of clothing to cover their privates, boys are tended to by their older lady relatives, who are in charge of feeding and keeping an eye on the soon-to-be men. After being circumcised under pretty unsanitary conditions using most likely a sharpened rock, boys are “cleaned” with mud, given new clothes and sent back to the tribe to be recognized as men. Most Zulu male circumcisions often resulted in genital deformation, severe scaring, infection and more often than not, death.

Being a third generation, circumcised man, I wouldn’ t want to have a rock cutting through my foreskin; specially not during adolescence. But for some reason I don’t find my sleevelessness appalling at all. While circumcision has long been a part of different cultures around the world, it has also been frowned upon not only by religious entities like the Catholic Church, but by medical authorities against this practice and for the rights of boys to decide on this procedure. With circumcision having been long critizised and labeled as an act of mutilation, it makes you wonder what other social and cultural events take place in our country that likely terrorize outsiders looking in.

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