Why is circumcision a thing?

Millions of years of adaptation vs centuries of autism...
Circumcision is just a mutilation for ideological reason, it makes absolutely no sense in regard to hygiene or whatever, the foreskin is there for a reason.

Also OP's pic obviously doesn't depict a circumcision.

If you mean modern circumcision, the reason is Kellogg (yes the man that the cereal company is named after) was obsessed with stopping people from masturbating.

jews

My grandmother told me "we" practice circumcision and female genital mutilation to purify the human body.

By removing the foreskin we remove the womanness from men, by removing the clitoris we remove the manness. It's about removing impurity of the androgynous body.

This of course stems from African specific practices, FGM only exists in regions of Africa or African influence. Circumcision was as well but the influence of Egyptians and nomads similar to Beja probably was the way that was spread to the Levant and Eurasia.

ITT: a bunch of just-so stories with no evidence behind them

The evidence of circumcision = ritual purity is pretty standard in anthropological papers on the issue.

Even the Bible states this

The Law of Orlah
(Lev 19:23; LXX)
וְכִי־תָבֹ֣אוּ אֶל־הָאָ֗רֶץ וּנְטַעְתֶּם֙ כָּל־עֵ֣ץ מַאֲכָ֔ל וַעֲרַלְתֶּ֥ם עָרְלָת֖וֹ אֶת־פִּרְי֑וֹ שָׁלֹ֣שׁ שָׁנִ֗ים יִהְיֶ֥ה לָכֶ֛ם עֲרֵלִ֖ים לֹ֥א יֵאָכֵֽל:
When you enter the land, which the Lord your God gives you, and you plant any fruit-tree, you must purge its impurity (perikatharieite ten akatharsian autou). Its fruit shall be for three years impure (aperikathartos) to you, it shall not be eaten.
Circumcising the Heart
(Deut 30:6; LXX)
וּמָ֨ל יְ-הֹוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ֖ וְאֶת־לְבַ֣ב זַרְעֶ֑ךָ…
The Lord will purify (perikathariei) your heart and the heart of your seed…
Joshua Circumcises the Israelites
(Josh 5:4; LXX)
וְזֶ֥ה הַדָּבָ֖ר אֲשֶׁר־מָ֣ל יְהוֹשֻׁ֑עַ…
This is the how Joshua purified (perikatharen)…
Moses’ uncircumcised lips
(Exod 6:12 [=6:30]; Symmachus)
וַאֲנִ֖י עֲרַ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽיִם:
I am not pure (katharos) of speech.
Remove the foreskin of your hearts
(Jer 4:4; Symmachus)
הִמֹּ֣לוּ לַי-הֹוָ֗ה וְהָסִ֙רוּ֙ עָרְל֣וֹת לְבַבְכֶ֔ם
Purify (katharisthesesthe) yourselves for God and remove the evil (poneras) of your hearts…”

But what culture are you from?

>Also OP's pic obviously doesn't depict a circumcision.
Except it does. It’s from the tomb of Ankhmahor from the 6th Dynasty, and Egyptologists agree it’s a circumcision. See page 49 of "The Teti Cemetery at Saqqara: Volume II: The Tomb of Ankhmahor" (a pdf is here: www.egyptology.mq.edu.au/reports9/Reports%209%20part%201%20(Text).PDF ), for example.
And stop spreading bullshit.

Beta Israeli. The only Jewish group that practices this but she is part of a subset of Ethiopian Jews who are called "black" who's forebearers had their own notions of circumcision (descendants of enslaved people, Ethiopian Jews didn't conceptualize themselves as black until the migrated to Israel).

This reasoning is found among the Dogon in Mali and most other non-islamic/abrahamic regions though.

>Also OP's pic obviously doesn't depict a circumcision.
What does it depict then? A dude getting his balls shaved by a tanned german?

lol what's up with that guy's arm on the right, is this nigga mr. fantastic?

It beggars belief when you consider that virtually everyone in the Western world opposes circumcision. The exception is male circumcision.

blood sacrifice

It's mutilation. There is nothing "purifying" about it. You may as well "purge" the entire sex organ from the body, as it may lead to "impure" thoughts. Get the fuck out of here.

It has that meaning to them and it's their culture, you imperialist pigskin

Nobody forces you to do it

You're a dumbass if you thought I agreed. I was merely stating the cultural meaning behind the practice.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Possibly a sanitary practice, but there isnt much direct evidence of this explicitl being the reason.

Personally, I believe to be just another cultural body modification, like scaring, ear rings or tatoos. It just has bigger risks and possible removal of sexual pleasure so it upsets a lot of people.

>tanned german?
kek

It's just scarification on the penis.

>because if you live in a dry , windy , sandy place like most of the middle east then dirt and sand can get stuck underneath the foreskin and cause infections so tribes started cutting it off.
This is such a retarded meme. What are they doing, rubbing their cocks in the sand?

The foreskin is closed over the head and prevents anything getting in, that's literally the point of it and why it evolved, it protects the head, its a sheath, a scabbard.

They do circumcision because Jews decided it would be a good way to mark them out against non jews. Nothing else, no other reason, no more of these attempts at logic for this practice.

>"You Jewish?"
>"Totally bro. Check this out."

>Egyptologists agree it’s a circumcision
I'm afraid they know nothing about surgery then. Explain why there are 2 different acts depicted and why none of them seem to focus on the foreskin? And what about the tools? It's not like if a circumcision was that hard to draw.

>The exception is male circumcision.
Nope, that's just America.

-They're adult. If it was for hygienic reasons they would do it to newborns. Besides, if newborns heal really fast, adults don't. It could be a rite of adulthood but in such an environment and with so rustic medicine there's a real risk of fatal infection.
-They stand quietly on their feet. Such a pain will certainly make you faint or jump in the middle of the process, you would expect them to be at least seated.
-What you need for a circumcision is a BLADE, not some white ribbon or blue spatula...

Circumcision my ass.

Clearly you never saw a tribal circumcision nor you know shit about them

> -They're adult. If it was for hygienic reasons they would do it to newborns. Besides, if newborns heal really fast, adults don't. It could be a rite of adulthood but in such an environment and with so rustic medicine there's a real risk of fatal infection.
It's done in teenagers/young adults in several african cultures.

> -They stand quietly on their feet. Such a pain will certainly make you faint or jump in the middle of the process, you would expect them to be at least seated.
Not really

> -What you need for a circumcision is a BLADE, not some white ribbon or blue spatula..
In some african circumcisions the foreskin is tied to separate the skin that's going to be cut from the penis, then it's chopped off in one only cut with a spatula like tool that is pressed against a wood or something. Otherwise is done with a blade

> Circumcision my ass.
The fact that the image is illustrative and not a step by step manual doesn't means it's not a circumcision

I r8 b8 anyways

Because it dulls the sensitivity of the penis and is symbolic of retreating from a carnal lifestyle to a more spiritual one because you will enjoy sex far less.

>FGM only exists in regions of Africa or African influence.

That isn't really the case. It's very common in Indonesia, Malaysia, in Singapore among Malays, and also among the Dahwoodi Bohra community in India.

Except in Asian countries the cutting tends to be arguably less extreme, with "milder" forms of circumcision like needle-pricking or incision predominating. Occasionally more severe forms like excision of the clitoral hood or rarely excision of the glans clitoris occur, but that's not common.

>While there is a much debate about FGC as experienced in the African continent, the literature on the subject generally disregards the ritual as practiced in Southeast Asia. Some scholars contend that when Islam spread to Southeast Asia in the 13th century, female cutting was also introduced to the region. However, there exists scarce literature on the beginnings of FGC in this area. The most informative source on the incidence of FGC in Southeast Asia can be found in a chapter of a recent anthology about Muslim women’s rights. The chapter details the history of the practice based on local reports dating from the colonial Dutch East Indies and contemporary sociological and anthropological research.[iii]

>There exists no convincing evidence that any form of FGC predated the spread of Islam to the region. In fact,, Hindu and Buddhist beliefs prevailed in Southeast Asia before Islam and the followers of both faiths reject both male and female circumcision. Further, some 19th century syncretist Muslims in Java rejected FGC as well, considering it an ‘Arab custom’. However, most of the population declared it to be optional. The royal families of Java also employed a non-Arabic word for FGC such as kres or tetesan (‘pricking’). Among the orthodox Muslims, the term sunat perempuan or khitan perempuan (‘female circumcision’) is more commonly used, until today. [iv]

theislamicmonthly.com/a-tiny-cut-female-circumcision-in-south-east-asia/

To clarify, I meant that excision of the glans clitoris was uncommon in Asia. Excision of the clitoral hood is probably not nearly as rare.

It was just a weird ritual that Egyptians came up with and jews copied it (like how jews copied almost everything from egyptians), and then muslims copied it from Jews. There is no good reason to do it, it was just a weird tradition.

Imperialism is my culture. I thought you'd be more respectful of it.

This is the explanation given in the Bible. God tells Abraham it is the mark of his covenant with God, and that circumcision is necessary to be part of the covenant. In other words, being circumcised marks you as a Jew and you're not a Jew if you're not circumcised.

>image search
>several versions of the bas relief, with different hieroglyphs, different styles
>no picture of the bas relief itself
wtf?

Because people didn't like sand.
It's coarse, rough and it got in everywhere.

Why east asians never did that