III.

Religious Rites

In Jewish religious tradition, infant male circumcision is required as part of Abraham's covenant with God. According to the Levitical law (see Levites; Leviticus), every Jewish male infant had to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth, under penalty of ostracism from the congregation of Israel. Jews employ a mohel, a man who has the requisite surgical skill and religious knowledge to perform the rite. After a ritual prayer, the mohel circumcises the infant and then names and blesses the child.

Among the Arabs, circumcision existed before the time of Muhammad (before ad 570). Although the Qur'an (Koran) does not mention it, Islamic custom demands that Muslim males be circumcised before marriage; the rite is generally performed in infancy. Some Islamic peoples practice female circumcision (clitoridectomy). This is done for aesthetic reasons and to reduce the female’s sexual desires.

In some Mediterranean and Islamic countries, clitoridectomy can be an aspect of family honor. In cases where female chastity is a matter of respectability, public evidence of a bride’s lost virginity is an important sequel to marriage: a woman who is unable to demonstrate that she has lost her virginity to her new husband may be divorced or, in extreme instances, put to death by her own family.

Circumcision is absent from the Hindu-Buddhist and Confucian traditions, and in general the Christian church has no specific doctrine about it. At present the Abyssinian church alone among Christian bodies recognizes circumcision as a religious rite. See also Hinduism; Buddhism; Confucianism.