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"Because they are exceedingly religious, more so than any other people in the world, they have the following customs. Everyone, without any exceptions, scrubs clean the bronze cup he uses for drinking every day. The linen cloaks they wear are always freshly washed; this is something they are very particular about. Their concern for cleanliness also explains why they practise circumcision, since they value cleanliness more than comeliness."~Herodotus, on the the Egyptian priestly caste, History 2.104, in Herodotus: The Histories, early 5th century BC, trans. Robin Waterfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 134.
Come ON, Egyptians. Hang loose!
Why this contention? Read on:
The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome
http://www.cirp.org/library/history/hodges2/
SUMMARY: This study examines the evolution of Greek and Roman medical conceptualizations of preputial aesthetics, utilizing evidence found in classical medical texts as well as clues from literature, legal sources, and art. A conclusive picture emerges that the Greeks valued the longer prepuce and pathologized the penis characterized by a deficient prepuce—especially one that had been surgically ablated—under the disease concept of lipodermos. The medical conceptualization of lipodermos is also placed in the historical context of the legal efforts to abolish ritual circumcision throughout the Seleucid and Roman empires.
KEYWORDS: lipodermos, penis, prepuce, aesthetics, classics, Greek art, Roman art, circumcision
And in our time? When bad science kills, or how to spread AIDS | Practical Ethics »
A fatal irony: Why the “circumcision solution” to the AIDS epidemic in Africa will increase--not decrease--transmission of HIV
The article, posted to Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, is also helpful in learning how to interpret studies and stats. (As in, when does 60% really reflect 1.31%?)
Go read.
Once again, sex, politics, and religion making a bad brew.