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Unless circumcision is known to reduce fertility, it is unlikely to be the reason for the practice. After all, the shieks were smart enough to know that they had to castrate any male slaves they had looking after their harems. This didn't prevent them from having sex (they could, and they could last longer), but it did prevent pregnancies.
It's could be the "us" versus "them" model in which "outsiders" are visibly different, and the females are taught that 'not being that way' is dirty or vulgar or whatever. It's a similar reason for why different cultures will or won't eat certain types of food - "they" are "bad" because they eat ____.
Permalink Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:02:00 UTC | #180011