Male infibulation / [Eric John Dingwall].

  • Dingwall, Eric John.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

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

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    Jacobsen affirms this to be a fact, but in his book11 can find no definite statement as to this custom. He speaks of the men bathing in the presence of the women and also says that the only concession to decency that they make is to wear a small thread the length of a finger in extent, although he does not say where the thread is worn. From what we know of other peoples it is quite possible that Woldt was correct, and that the thread is worn round the prepuce, even though this may not be a general rule. We have now concluded our brief survey of some of the evidence that has been collected with regard to the covering of the glans penis as practised by different races in various parts of the globe. Generally speaking it is most common in Melanesia, Polynesia, Central and South Africa and Brazil, although as we have seen similar customs are known elsewhere. The solutions that have been proposed to account for this practice are as varied as they are ingenious. It has, as we have seen above, been suggested that the glans is a sacred part of that organ which has always struck terror and wonder in the heart of man. To expose such a portion of this part of the body was therefore to be avoided, and con¬ versely, in those races who despise any formation even bordering on phimosis, the idea would be that covering up a part of so important an organ was a practice fit only for the strongest condemnation. Again springing from the fact that such customs are almost invariably found in tropical or semi-tropical countries, it has been suggested that the device has been adopted as a purely protective measure against external injuries, and has little if any moral or religious significance. Thus Stoll (op. cit., p. 494) agrees with Steinen in thinking that, 1 J. A. Jacobsen, Reise an der Nord-westkiiste Amerikas, 1881- 1883 (Leipzig, 1884), pp. 160-161. Nelson, in his book on the Eskimo of Behring Strait says that the men wear no clothes in the Kashim, and in treating of sweat-bathing says nothing of the practice of tying up the prepuce. (See E. W. Nelson, The Eskimo about Behring Strait, Smith Inst. Kept. Bur. of Ethnol., 1896-97, pt. 1, p. 287.)