(October 7, 2016 at 3:05 pm)Rhythm Wrote: 15 pages in, probably time for something meaty on the subject that -doesn't- grind people against their own suppositions.
Mutilation has a long and venerable history in human culture. It crosses borders, and you can find it on every continent. We prefer to call it "body modification" out of respect for the cultural practice. Some can be brutal, lengthy, and immensely dangerous. Most, are rites of passage. Many are intricate and positively gorgeous. This is the context out of which things like circumcision arise....and there was considerable disagreement, with early converts to christianity...about whether or not they had to snip their own, adult, dicks. The things that's important in a rite of passage, is the desire of the participant. You have to want to get the scars, the needles, the knife...that;s what makes it work. You suffer for what you want to be included in. In presents a commonality of experience.
In the case of childhood circumcision, we appear to be taking the participatory and voluntary nature of a rite of a passage out, entirely. Hedging our bets against bad things happening before it's done, or the danger that someone may decline. Kind of makes it an odd duck.
Good point. Think of all the piercings, tats and other forms of 'mutilation' that are so popular now and have such a storied tradition. The reasons for doing it to new borns are really tribal. What? You want her boy to be an outcast?
