Friday, July 31, 2009
Circumcision as cultural practice
Procrastination, it turns out, pushes its way into your fun activities like blogging just as much it does reading for class or writing a thank you note.
Today I saw the end of an Initiation School in Acornhoek. According to Shangaan tradition, boys around the age of ten must go out in the bush for 3 months. During that time they can be visited by their fathers but not their mothers. I saw a group coming out of the bush a few weeks ago, rough blankets over their shoulders, looking exhausted. I imagine they sleep and eat outdoors. During this process they become men, ritualized through circumcision near the end of the journey. This practice is somewhat controversial. I heard on the radio the other day that 50 boys have died in the Eastern Cape due to botched circumcisions this year. Some of the traditional leaders don't keep up with the medical journals, I take it. So the boys get circumcised -- no anasthesia -- and then they are official men. They come home in a parade along the road waving long sticks and beating drums. Their mothers welcome them and there is, of course, food, drink and dancing long into the night. What i witnessed today was the beginning of that celebration.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I witnessed this parade while waiting to get my car washed (R30 for interior and exterior, or less than $4) and talking to a local guy sitting next to me. We were talking about cultural rituals like circumcision and he asked how it was done in the U.S. I informed him that not everyone was circumcised (he disagreed with that idea) but that those that were had it done when they were babies, usually one week old. This horrified the guy. "How do they even hold the flesh?" he asked. "I don't know," I replied truthfully. The guy had quite a visceral reaction to the idea of circumcising a baby.
Today I saw the end of an Initiation School in Acornhoek. According to Shangaan tradition, boys around the age of ten must go out in the bush for 3 months. During that time they can be visited by their fathers but not their mothers. I saw a group coming out of the bush a few weeks ago, rough blankets over their shoulders, looking exhausted. I imagine they sleep and eat outdoors. During this process they become men, ritualized through circumcision near the end of the journey. This practice is somewhat controversial. I heard on the radio the other day that 50 boys have died in the Eastern Cape due to botched circumcisions this year. Some of the traditional leaders don't keep up with the medical journals, I take it. So the boys get circumcised -- no anasthesia -- and then they are official men. They come home in a parade along the road waving long sticks and beating drums. Their mothers welcome them and there is, of course, food, drink and dancing long into the night. What i witnessed today was the beginning of that celebration.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I witnessed this parade while waiting to get my car washed (R30 for interior and exterior, or less than $4) and talking to a local guy sitting next to me. We were talking about cultural rituals like circumcision and he asked how it was done in the U.S. I informed him that not everyone was circumcised (he disagreed with that idea) but that those that were had it done when they were babies, usually one week old. This horrified the guy. "How do they even hold the flesh?" he asked. "I don't know," I replied truthfully. The guy had quite a visceral reaction to the idea of circumcising a baby.
