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"For instance, childbirths were not always carried out in hospitals, they were carried out in homes; nor were processes such as sexual dysfunction, hyperactivity, or circumcision previously considered primarily medical issues. Over the years, these and an increasing number of everyday practices have been caught in the net of medicalization and given narrowly scientific frameworks. We now have rigorous labor standards for pregnant women, pills to treat impotence and ADHD, and circumcision is an unquestioned hospital procedure for 80 percent of American families." - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"Neither the American Academy of Pediatrics nor the American Medical Association recommend routine circumcision. The procedure does protect against urinary tract infections in the first year of life, and against penile cancer in later life. However, both these conditions are rare. Complications from the surgery itself happen in about one of every two hundred cases, and these are usually minor. Using our criteria of mortality and morbidity, it is difficult to warrant circumcisions. Justifications for the procedure are obviously cultural and religious." - Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, What If Medicine Disappeared? (Get the book.)

"The ritual is thus shown to be, among other things, a dramatized expression of the Oedipal aggression of the elder generation; and the circumcision, a mitigated castration.69 But the rites provide also for the cannibal, patricidal impulse of the younger, rising group of males, and at the same time reveal 67 Sir Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Arunta (London: Macmillan and Co., 1927), Vol. I, pp. 201-203. 88 R6heim, The Eternal Ones of the Dream, pp. 49 ff. 59 Ibid., p. 75." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell (Get the book.) "And in Australia, about a year following the ordeal of the circumcision, the candidate for full manhood undergoes a second ritual operation—that of subincision (a slitting open of the underside of the penis, to form a permanent cleft into the urethra). The opening is termed the "penis womb." It is a symbolical male vagina. The hero has become, by virtue of the ceremonial, more than man. 98 93 Infra, pp. 278-280. 94 Compare James Joyce: "in the economy of heaven . . ." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell (Get the book.)

"We now have rigorous labor standards for pregnant women, pills to treat impotence and ADHD, and circumcision is an unquestioned hospital procedure for 80 percent of American families.5 Those are the stories that shape our reality, some for better, some for worse. The "Alzheimerization" of dementia . . . has served to impede the process of cultural transformation.6 ?" - Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George, The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis (Get the book.)

"Fruit offerings are used to propitiate spirits during ceremonies such as circumcision, marriage, cremation and tooth-filing (a custom believed to eliminate animalistic lusts and desires). Fruits invariably appear at daily contributions to various deities or alongside gamelan musicians playing ancient melodies at rites of passage. Hinduism was the first major religion to explore the concept of reincarnation using fruits. The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad explains that, after death, smoky human souls waft up to the moon the way a berry detaches from its stem." - Adam Leith Gollne, The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession (Get the book.)

"The youth received another tjurunga at the time of his circumcision, representing his maternal totem ancestor. Still earlier, at the time of his birth, a protective tjurunga was placed in his cradle. The bull-roarer is a variety of tjurunga. "The tjurunga," writes Dr. R6heim, "is a material double, and certain supernatural beinffs most intimateiv connected with the Hiit-iino-a in Central Christians of the first centuries a.d. taught that when the soul of the blessed arrives in heaven it is met by saints and angels bearing its "vesture of light," which has been preserved for it." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell (Get the book.)

"Omitting circumcision in the neonatal period should not be considered medical neglect. Parents should be informed of the current state of medical knowledge regarding the risks and benefits of the procedure. Their ultimate decision may hinge on nonmedical considerations? If the parents' ultimate decision to circumcise their male infant hinges on nonmedical considerations, then RNC is a medically unjustifiable practice." - Thomas Szasz, The Medicalization of Everyday Life: Selected Essays (Get the book.)

"The blood passes oxygen and nutrients to the cells and picks up waste in the capillaries, then returns to the heart via a system of veins. circumcision (sur-kuhm-siZH-uhn) The surgical removal of the skin that covers the tip of the penis, usually performed soon after birth. Although circumcision is common in the United States, the procedure is no longer widely recommended as a medical necessity by physicians. fa circumcision is practiced as a religious ceremony by Jews and Moslems." - James Trefil, Joseph F. Kett, and E. D. Hirsch, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (Get the book.)

"The girls were taken to a physician who suggested clitoral circumcision. The girls pleaded not to be cut with the scalpel which infuriated the doctor. (The doctor was reported by another physician to be "a ruthless surgeon. He operated for a fee rather than for indications."68 He eventually lost his rights to perform surgeries without obtaining the approval of another physician which forced him to quit his practice and leave town.) The official account is almost too startling to believe: Both girls resented the operation and broke their stitches in the hospital. Mrs." - Dr. Timothy Scott, America Fooled: The Truth About Antidepressants, Antipsychotics and How We've Been Deceived (Get the book.)

"Many third-party payers have started refusing to cover the cost for male circumcision, which may lead to a reduction in the number performed, an article notes. The author argues that since many doctors believe there to be little medical need for the practice, parents' decisions on whether or not to circumcise are not based on adequate medical information. R. Rockney, "Newborn circumcision," American Family Physician 38, no. 4 (October 1988): 151-55. The American Academy of Pediatrics stated, in 1975, that there is "no medical indication for routine circumcision of the newborn." - Dr. Gary Null, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Natural Healing (Get the book.)

"Today, circumcision is considered as a "strategy for AIDS prevention."13 The significance of the idea of masturbatory insanity lies in the fact that sexual self-stimulation was the first in a long line of religious transgressions converted into medical diseases. The roots of both RNC and antimasturba-tory measures lie in Jewish law, which recognizes the legitimacy of erotic pleasure associated with sexual intercourse provided that the act is marital-genital congress between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman. Every other sexual act is strictly prohibited." - Thomas Szasz, The Medicalization of Everyday Life: Selected Essays (Get the book.)

"The blood passes oxygen and nutrients to the cells and picks up waste in the capillaries, then returns to the heart via a system of veins. circumcision (sur-kuhm-SIZH-uhn) The surgical removal of the skin that covers the tip of the penis, usually performed soon after birth. Although circumcision is common in the United States, the procedure is no longer widely recommended as a medical necessity by physicians. fa circumcision is practiced as a religious ceremony by Jews and Moslems." - E. D. Hirsch, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Get the book.)

"However, ritual circumcision flies in the face of the most elementary principles of hygiene. Traditional Jewish law requires the circumciser, called "mohel," to perform the ritual act of metz-itzah, which consists of his taking the circumcised penis in his mouth and sucking out the blood, an act that must be repeated three times. Around the turn of the century, concerns over the documented spread of tuberculosis and syphilis from mohel to infant caused American Jews largely to abandon this element of the ritual." - Thomas Szasz, The Medicalization of Everyday Life: Selected Essays (Get the book.) "So long as that remained the practice, circumcision could not become a medical procedure. Much has been written about the conquest of pregnancy and delivery for medicine, male professionals displacing female amateurs as the sole legally authorized providers of so-called obstetrical services.8 Along with this change, the place of delivery was transferred from the home to the hospital, and normal birth itself came to be seen as a surgical intervention, supposedly facilitated by routine episiotomy." - Thomas Szasz, The Medicalization of Everyday Life: Selected Essays (Get the book.)

"A study found that counseling parents with a videotape version of informed consent prior to the decision on whether or not to circumcise significantly reduced the incidence of circumcision (compared to when parents received oral counseling only). R. W. Enzenauer et al., "Decreased circumcision Rate with Videotaped Counseling," Southern Medical Journal 79, no. 6 (June 1986): 717-20. A review article comments on the fact that while ritual circumcision of males has been practiced for millennia, the United States is the only English-speaking country not to have abandoned the practice. E." - Dr. Gary Null, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Natural Healing (Get the book.)

"The blood passes oxygen and nutrients to the cells and picks up waste in the capillaries, then returns to the heart via a system of veins. circumcision (sur-kuhm-siZH-uhn) The surgical removal of the skin that covers the tip of the penis, usually performed soon after birth. Although circumcision is common in the United States, the procedure is no longer widely recommended as a medical necessity by physicians. fa circumcision is practiced as a religious ceremony by Jews and Moslems." - E. D. Hirsch, Joseph F. Kett, James Trefil, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (Get the book.)

"Modern Medicine's routine circumcision, however, takes place on the first or second day of life, when blood loss can be especially dangerous. It's performed by a surgeon, or an intern, or a medical student using the "latest" technique. Where the bris ceremony includes pouring some wine in the infant's mouth, no anesthetic at all is used in Modern Medicine's ritual. Routine circumcision of all males makes no sense outside of a religious framework. A circumcision is an operation, and its dangers are not inconsiderable." - Robert Mendelsohn, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (Get the book.)

"When a little boy of the Murngin tribe is about to be circumcised, he is told by his fathers and by the old men, 'The Great Father Snake smells your foreskin; he is calling for it.' The boys believe this to be literally true, and become extremely frightened. Usually they take refuge with their mother, mother's mother, or some other favorite female relative, for they know that the men are organized to see that they are taken to the men's ground, where the great snake is bellowing. The women wail over the boys ceremonially; this is to keep the great snake from swallowing them." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell (Get the book.)

"Asparagus africanus, the African asparagus, is used in Sotholand during circumcision rituals, when it is rubbed into artificially created wounds to give an initiate strength (Hargreaves 1986, 30 f.). It is possible that mixing the four components together may result in synergistic effects that are psychoactive. Literature Fichte, Hubert. 1985. Psycholeptica der "Obrigacao da Consciencia." Curare, Sonderband 3/85:247-48. Goodman, Felicitas D. 1991. Ekstase, Besessenheit, Damonen: Die geheimnisvolle Seite der Religion. Gutersloh: Giitersloher Verlagshaus. Gonzalez-Wippler, Migene. 1981." - Christian Ratsch, The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications (Get the book.)

"Consider a circumcision. Not all doctors will recommend that circumcisions be performed, but many recognize that the benefits outweigh the risks, Dr. Wiswell says. It is, after all, the only real way to virtually guarantee prevention of the relatively rare cancer of the penis. (Interestingly, of some 60,000 reported cases of penile cancer since 1930, only 10 of the men have been circumcised.) More and more uncircumcised males are having the procedure done later in life. "It's not entirely risk-free," Dr. Wiswell says. "The risks are there, but they're low." - the Editors of PREVENTION Magazine Health Books, Symptoms: Their Causes & Cures : How to Understand and Treat 265 Health Concerns (Get the book.)

"Finally, initiation rites always include smoking the boys, who look forward to it, since this signifies the end of a particularly grueling stage of the ceremony, which includes circumcision and, in certain areas, the extremely painful subincision.6 Among the preferred plants is Flagellaria in-dica, while the leaves of Syzygium suborbiculare are heated and placed over the wound to prevent swelling.7 TREA TMENT OF COMMON AILMENTS Intestinal and Digestive Diseases Diarrhea and dysentery are very common diseases among the Aborigi: nes, and several treatments are used." - Amarjit S. Basra, Handbook of Medicinal Plants (Get the book.)

"Although circumcision is common in the United States, the procedure is no longer widely recommended as a medical necessity by physicians. fa circumcision is practiced as a religious ceremony by Jews and Moslems. cirrhosis (suh-roh-sis) A chronic disease of the liver, characterized by replacement of normal liver cells with a form of connective tissue. Owing to the scarring caused by this disease, irreversible damage to the liver can result. fa Cirrhosis is often associated with alcoholism. clock, biological See biological clock." - James Trefil, Joseph F. Kett, and E. D. Hirsch, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (Get the book.)

"Paul admonishes these Christians not to stray from the gospel of faith in favor of a return to circumcision and the Mosaic law advocated by competing Jewish-Christian missionaries. Paul says that the new faith in Jesus Christ completely supersedes the old covenant: it is by faith that Christians are saved, not by the law. In this argument Paul provides the earliest statement of gentile Christian theology as distinct from Judaism. Ephesians Probably written by a disciple of Paul intent on continuing his teaching, in A.D." - The New York Times, The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind (Get the book.)

"A study suggests that the circumcision of male infants may result in a greater pain response during later vaccination. Results showed that 30 boys who had been circumcised at birth out of a total of 42 who received various vaccinations at 46 months cried longer, and were deemed to be experiencing more pain, than uncircumcised boys. Taddio et at, "Effect of Neonatal circumcision on Pain Responses During Vaccination in Boys," Lancet 345, no. 8945 (February 4, 1995): 291." - Dr. Gary Null, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Natural Healing (Get the book.)

"Routine circumcision of all males makes no sense outside of a religious framework. A circumcision is an operation, and its dangers are not inconsiderable. It's not altogether rare for a surgeon to get smart and use cautery instead of a knife—and to slip and burn off most of the penis. In some primitive religions submitting to ritual mutilation elevates the victim to a higher consciousness. Through either the intense pain of the mutilation or the effects of drugs—or both—the victim hallucinates communion with the deities." - Robert Mendelsohn, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (Get the book.)

"Patel et at, "Factors Affecting the Practice of circumcision," American Journal Dis. Child 136, no. 7 (July 1982): 634-36. A study surveyed new parents soon after they made their decision on whether or not to circumcise. Results showed that the factor most significantly associated with the decision was the status of the father. Concerns over the son's self-concept in the future, and treatment by his future peers, played an important part in the decision as well. M. S. Brown and C. A. Brown, "Circumcision Decision: Prominence of Social Concerns," Pediatrics^, no. 2 (August 1987): 215-19." - Dr. Gary Null, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Natural Healing (Get the book.) "The AAP statement did not seem to have an impact on the rate of male circumcision in the United States. D. A. Patel et at, "Factors Affecting the Practice of circumcision," American Journal Dis. Child 136, no. 7 (July 1982): 634-36. A study surveyed new parents soon after they made their decision on whether or not to circumcise. Results showed that the factor most significantly associated with the decision was the status of the father. Concerns over the son's self-concept in the future, and treatment by his future peers, played an important part in the decision as well. M. S. Brown and C. A." - Dr. Gary Null, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Natural Healing (Get the book.)

"Scientific evidence now shows that the advantages of circumcision are insignificant when compared to the surgical risks.92 "There is no medical reason to perform circumcision," Dr. Linton says. "It is totally a cosmetic decision on the part of the parents. In fact, most insurance companies no longer cover it, because it is considered cosmetic surgery." Postpartum Care The care taken around pregnancy should not end with childbirth. After delivery, both the mother and baby will have health concerns that can be addressed through alternative medicine." - Larry Trivieri, Jr., Alternative Medicine the Definitive Guide, Second Edition (Get the book.)

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