ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author traces multiple religious and medical approaches to circumcision to illustrate that each continually occupy and create cultural meanings for and from the procedure. The United States is the nation in which infant male circumcision is most widely accepted and practiced, but for health rather than for religious reasons. The decision was grounded on the reasoning that such circumcisions cause "illegal bodily harm" to the children, and that the child's right to physical integrity supersedes parents' rights and the freedom of religion. James A. Boon's characterization of the conflicted meaning of circumcision traces a long and fraught history. Historically, discussions of circumcision have included female as well as male genital cutting. The debate over legal measures that ban or allow circumcision took a different turn in Europe. Modernity, at least in the Western Diaspora, came to regard infant male circumcision as the key marker of a Jewish religious identity.
