PENILE SUBINCISION PRACTICED IN AUSTRALIA
Subincision is
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. The practice has been taken
up in the western world in
recent years for the purpose of sexual pleasure or aesthetics.
Disadvantages
include the risk of surgery, 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.
Subincisions
can greatly affect urination and often require
the subincised male to sit or squat while urinating. 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 subincised men carry a tube with
which they can aim.
Cultural traditions
Subincision
(like circumcision) is widespread the traditional
cultures of Indigenous Australians,
and is well documented among the peoples of the central desert such as the Arrernte and Luritja. The Arrernte word for subincision is arilta,
and occurs as a rite of passage
ritual for adolescent boys. It was gifted to the Arrernte by Mangar-kunjer-kunja,
a lizard-man spirit being from the Dreamtime. A
subincised penis is thought to resemble a vulva,
and the bleeding is likened to menstruation.[1] This type of modification of the penis
was also traditionally performed by the Lardil people of Mornington Island, Queensland. The young men who chose to endure
this custom were the only ones to learn a simple ceremonial language, Damin.
In later ceremonies, repeated throughout adult life, the subincised 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.
Another
indigenous Australian term for the custom is mika.
Indigenous
cultures of the Amazon Basin also
practise subincision, as do Samburu herdboys of Kenya,
who are said to perform subincisions on themselves (or sometimes their peers)
at age seven to ten. 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.