Editing History of circumcision (section)

==Purpose==
[[File:Circumcision central Asia2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Circumcision]] being performed in central Asia (probably [[Turkestan]], c. 1865–1872.  Restored [[albumen print]].]]
{{more citations needed section|date=December 2020}}
The purpose of circumcision has been variously proposed that it began:
* as a religious sacrifice;
* as a [[rite of passage]] marking a boy's entrance into adulthood;
* as a form of [[magical thinking|sympathetic magic]] to ensure virility or fertility;
* as an aid to hygiene where regular bathing was impractical;
* as a means of marking those of higher social status;
* as a means of humiliating enemies and slaves by symbolic [[castration]];
* as a means of differentiating a circumcising group from their non-circumcising neighbors;
* as a means of discouraging [[masturbation]] or other socially [[Sexual immorality|proscribed sexual behaviors]];
* as a means of increasing a man's attractiveness to women;
* as a demonstration of one's ability to endure pain;
* as a male counterpart to [[menstruation]] or the breaking of the [[hymen]];
* to copy the [[Aposthia|rare natural occurrence of a missing foreskin]] of an important leader;<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13541-shem |title=SHEM |encyclopedia=The Jewish Encyclopedia |access-date=2013-12-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Amin Ud Din M | title = Aposthia-a motive of circumcision origin | journal = Iranian Journal of Public Health | volume = 41 | issue = 9 | pages = 84 | year = 2012 | pmid = 23193511 | pmc = 3494220 }}</ref>
* as a way to repel [[lilin|demonesses]];<ref>Alphabet of Ben Sirah, Question #5 (23a–b)</ref> and/or
* as a display of disgust of the [[smegma]] produced by the [[foreskin]].
Removing the foreskin can prevent or treat a medical condition known as [[phimosis]]. It has been suggested that the custom of circumcision gave advantages to tribes that practiced it and thus led to its spread.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Immerman RS, Mackey WC | title = A biocultural analysis of circumcision | journal = Social Biology | volume = 44 | issue = 3–4 | pages = 265–75 | year = 1997 | pmid = 9446966 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-9744.1976.tb00285.x | s2cid = 143514833 }}</ref><ref name="darbymja2003">{{cite journal | last= Darby |first=Robert | title = Medical history and medical practice: persistent myths about the foreskin | journal = [[The Medical Journal of Australia]] | volume = 178 | issue = 4 | pages = 178–9 | date = February 2003 | pmid = 12580747 | doi = 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05137.x | s2cid = 31875702 }}</ref><ref name="RACPSumm">{{cite web|url=http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=B5606813-F174-8FA9-0522EE1FC3053078|title=Policy Statement on Circumcision|date=September 2004|publisher=[[Royal Australasian College of Physicians]]|access-date=5 February 2010|archive-date=30 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330032042/http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=B5606813-F174-8FA9-0522EE1FC3053078|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Darby describes these theories as "conflicting", and states that "the only point of agreement among proponents of the various theories is that promoting good health had nothing to do with it."<ref name="darbymja2003"/><ref>{{cite journal | last= Darby |first=Robert | title = The riddle of the sands: circumcision, history, and myth | journal = [[The New Zealand Medical Journal]] | volume = 118 | issue = 1218 | pages = U1564 | date = July 2005 | pmid = 16027753 | url = http://www.nzma.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/17937/Vol-118-No-1218-15-July-2005.pdf | access-date = 1 March 2015 | archive-date = 8 May 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170508153423/http://www.nzma.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/17937/Vol-118-No-1218-15-July-2005.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref> Freud believed that circumcision allows senior men to constrain the incestuous desires of their juniors, and mediates the tension inherent in the father-son relationship and generational succession. Youth are symbolically castrated, or feminized, but also blessed with masculine fruitfulness.<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Mark EW |date=2003|title=The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nAfUF2_ClqgC|publisher=University Press of New England|edition=illustrated|isbn=1584653078|page=44|archive-date= |url-status= |archive-url= }}</ref>

Circumcision may have been practiced among [[Homo sapiens]] prior to the [[Recent African origin of modern humans|Out of Africa]] migration.<ref name="Cox">{{cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Guy |last2=Morris |first2=Brian J. |title=Surgical Guide to Circumcision |date=January 1, 2012 |pages=243–259 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4471-2858-8 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4471-2858-8_21 |s2cid=160513261 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4471-2858-8_21 |chapter=Why Circumcision: From Prehistory to the Twenty-First Century}}</ref> As late as 45,000 BCE, [[modern humans]] migrated into [[Australia]].<ref name="Cox" /> Based on [[iconographic]] evidence of [[Australian Aborigines|Australian Aboriginal peoples]] from the Paleolithic era, circumcision may have been practiced as early as the [[Paleolithic]] by these groups.<ref name="Cox" />