When where and how was circumcission invented and put into wide spread use? and why?

Question

And not just by the jews but over the whole world.

From a medical stand point.

Answer 1

It arose in several cultures either independently or as a result of cultural/religious crossover, but mostly in Africa, the Middle East, and sparsely elsewhere.

Medically, it became popular in the UK and the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s when it was first thought that it could prevent masturbation, which was then thought to be the cause of insanity, STDs, and other illnesses. It grew in popularity in the UK for a couple decades then died off by the second half of the 1900s, but kept increasing in popularity in the US till the 1970s.

In the US it was still thought to be a cure for many diseases and such. The foreskin had all but disappeared from American culture in those decades and the foreskin became maligned and seen as dirty and prone to infections. Since the 1970s much of this has proven to be false and the rate of circumcision in the US began to decline and is still declining.

With proper cleaning (which is easy) the foreskin is no more dirty than any other part of the body (certainly cleaner than the mouth) and it's not more prone to infections/STDs. There have been no significant correlation found between circumcision status and most/all STDs, and even the current research regarding HIV is highly debated, both in the methods conducted and the ethical and ethnical consequences it entails. People in the US are slowly realizing what people around the world and throughout most of history have known, that circumcision is rarely medically necessary.

Answer 2

Ancient religious practice for some barbaric reason. The bizarre part is that many humans still practice it today! Many african tribes as well as some in the far east practice circumcism, many do it as a right of passage into adulthood, so that the actual hacking off takes place when the boy reaches puberty, and then he is mutilated. Despite all of the crap about hygiene, since 80 percent of the world pop is not circumcised, it is amazing that the barbaric practice of mutilating male babies is not against the law. I was circumcised, can see no reason why it was done other than the medical community in the 20th century thought it was necessary to do in the US. Sickos.

Answer 3

In the Victorian era, it was believed that circumcision would keep boys from masturbating. It didn't work, but it was so anti-sexual that the repressed people of that time kept doing it in the hope that maybe it might work in some cases. In some areas of the world where water is scarce and soap all but unknown, it was considered more hygenic. Now it is just a barbaric mutilation that should be considered child abuse. It makes money for doctors and hospitals - that's the only "medical" reason for it today.

Answer 4

The Hebrews have always since Abraham done this to set themselves in a direct different religious belief that men be circumcised, cleanliness, and also as one friend of mine who is jewish was commenting that a lot of doctors who were jewish always recommend that non jews should get it done too. I joked and said that the jews are always saying they get the short end of the stick anyway.

Answer 5

abrahams mother cut his prepuce and touched the skin to hifs feet 2 keep evil spirits away

Answer 6

well as far as i recall, it was a requirement mentioned since the days of Jesus Christ. It was written in the bible to have men circumcised.

i just don't have my bible at hand here, but if you have one, you can know why when you read it (i think its in exodus).