Male infibulation / [Eric John Dingwall].

  • Dingwall, Eric John.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Male infibulation / [Eric John Dingwall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    110/164 (page 96)
    the amatory propensities of his offspring.” This surmise is perhaps more ingenious than probable, but until more evidence is available the question cannot be decided definitely one way or the other.1 The Nagas of Assam, according to McCosh, go naked with the exception of having a fold of the prepuce drawn through a small ivory ring, considering it indecorous to appear in female society without it.2 These rings he says are sold in the bazars of Manipur, and Damant supplements this information by saying that they are sometimes made of deer’s horns or dark-wood,3 whilst Fytche states that the Naga men wear an annulum a quarta ad octavam partem unciae latum et ex cornu cervi vel ebore factum, glandem penis arete comprimentem.4 In South Africa the practice of covering the glans penis has long been known. Thus Fritsch speaks of the small cases which are sometimes worn. The opening provided is some¬ what narrowed and the covering is usually made “ out of a small round pepo whose shell is neatly cut and marked,” or sometimes it is made in leather or other 1 See Dr. R. Brown, Annual Report of the Manipore Political Agency for 1868-69. Selections from the Records of the Govt, of India, Foreign Dept. No. LXXVIII (Calcutta, 1870), pp. 119 ff; T. C. Hodson, The Naga Tribes of Manipur (London, 1911), p. 22; Appendix I, p. 199. The idea of a single article of clothing being sufficient to meet modesty’s demands is well illustrated by the boys of modern Thebes, whose sole garment is a fine thread tied round their bodies, it being considered the height of indecency to omit this cord, no one daring to show himself without it. See H. T. J. Stacquez, L'Egypt, labasse Nubie et le Sinai (Li6ge, 1865), pp. 252-253, quoted by J. Capart, Primitive Art in Egypt, Tr. by A. S. Griffith (London, 1905), pp. 52-3, and cf. the same idea among certain Congo women (J. H. Harris, Dawn in Darkest Africa (London, 1912), p. 32). 2 J. McCosh, Advice to Officers in India (London, 1856), p. 200. Cf. also E. Reclus, Op. cit., p. 225. 3 G. W. Damant, Indian Antiquary, 1879, viii, 206 ; and see Jagor in Verh. d. Berl. Gesell. f. Anthrop. Eth. u. Urges., 1885, p. 574, who mentions these passages. 4 A. Fytche, Burma Past and Present (2 vols,, London, 1878),, i, p. 350.