Penile subincision
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Penile subincision is a form of genital modification or mutilation consisting of a urethrotomy, in which the underside of the penis is incised and the urethra slit open lengthwise, from the urethral opening (meatus) toward the base. The slit can be of varying lengths.
Subincision was traditionally performed around the world, notably in Australia, but also in Africa, South America, and the Polynesian and Melanesian cultures of the Pacific, often as a coming of age ritual.
Disadvantages include the risks inherent in the procedure itself, which is often self-performed, and increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The ability to impregnate (specifically, getting sperm into the vagina) may also be decreased.Template:Cn
Subincisions can greatly affect urination, often resulting in hypospadias requiring the subincized male to sit or squat while urinating.<ref name=Singer/> The scrotum can be pulled up against the open urethra to quasi-complete the tube and allow an approximation to normal urination, while a few subincized men carry a tube with which they can aim.Template:Cn
Cultural traditions
Subincision (like circumcision) is well-documentedTemplate:Citation needed among the peoples of the central desert of Australia such as the Arrernte and Luritja. The indigenous people of Australia who practice subincision also perform circumcision as a prerequisite.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Arrernte word for subincision is arilta, and occurs as a rite of passage ritual for adolescent boys.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Arrernte believe that the procedure was given to them by Mangar-kunjer-kunja, a lizard-man spirit being from the Dreamtime. Some academics theorize that a subincized penis is thought to resemble a vulva, and the bleeding is likened to menstruation.<ref>Myerhoff 1982: 122</ref><ref name=Singer>Template:Cite journal</ref> This type of modification of the penis was also traditionally performed by the Lardil people of Mornington Island, Queensland. The young men who underwent the procedure were the only ones to learn a simple ceremonial language, Damin. In later ceremonies, repeated throughout adult life, the subincized penis would be used as a site for ritual bloodletting. According to Ken Hale, who studied Damin, no ritual initiations have been carried out in the Gulf of Carpentaria for half a century, and hence the language has also died out.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Another indigenous Australian term for the custom is mika or the terrible rite.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Samburu herd-boys of Kenya are said to perform subincisions on themselves (or sometimes their peers) at age seven to ten.<ref>Samburru notions of health and disease by P Spencer,1959</ref> In Samoa, subincision of the foreskin, skin located along the tip of the penis, was ritually performed upon young men, as in Hawaii, where subincision of the foreskin is reported to have been performed at age six or seven.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
References
Further reading
General
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- Bettelheim, Bruno (1962) Symbolic Wounds: Puberty Rites and the Envious Male. New York: Collier.
- Farb, Peter (1968) Man's Rise to Civilization New York: E. P. Dutton p98-101.
Polynesia
- Firth, Raymond, (1963) We the Tikopia: A Sociological Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia. Boston: Beacon.
- Martin, John (1981) Tonga Islands: William Mariner’s Account. Tonga: Vava’u Press.
- Diamond, M. (1990) Selected Cross-Generational Sexual Behavior in Traditional Hawai’i: A Sexological Ethnography, in Feierman, J. R. (Ed.) Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions. New York: Springer-Verlag, p422-43
Melanesia
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- Hogbin, Ian (1970) The Island of Menstruating Men: Religion in Wogeo, New Guinea. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland
Australia
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- Montagu, Ashley (1974) Coming into Being among the Australian Aborigines: The Procreative Beliefs of the Australian Aborigines. 2nd ed. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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- Abley, Mark. Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages.
Africa