# Circumcision in Outside of Christianity, Judaism and Islam
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 20, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262 "2012-09-20T14:37:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/1 "2012-09-20T14:37:08Z")
Check out this (NSFW) picture (scroll down to [pic number four](http://www.buzzfeed.com/freal/20-crazy-events-you-wont-believe-are-freal-5k2r)). Take note of the giant dick being paraded through the streets of Komaki, Japan.
Notice anything unusual about that dick? It’s circumcised. AFAIK the Japanese don’t practice circumcision (excluding the very _very_ small number of Christians and, possibly, Jews in the country).
Then there’s also [Haesingdang Park](http://www.vagobond.com/the-penis-park-in-samcheok-south-korea/) in South Korea, featuring all manner of circumcised dongs. I know that Korea has a somewhat-large (for Asia) Christian population, but still… I didn’t think circumcision was an East Asian thing.
Anyone know what’s up (heh) with this?
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/2 "2012-09-20T14:47:27Z")
I’m not sure those pictures are actually showing circumcised penises.
A stylized sculptural representation of an erect penis may not make it clear that it’s actually an uncircumcised penis with the foreskin retracted (as normally happens during erection) rather than a circumcised penis with no foreskin at all.
Plenty of such representations, such as Indian _lingam_ statues, don’t clearly depict a retracted foreskin or an un-keratinized glans surface. But given that they come from cultures where circumcision is traditionally not practiced, I strongly doubt that they’re intended to represent circumcised penises.
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### Author:  [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/3 "2012-09-20T14:49:04Z")
I don’t think that the pictures you have linked to necessarily represent circumcised penises. After all, the foreskin retracts when the penis is erect.
Also, circumcision doesn’t have much to do with Christianity. Although circumcision is very common in America, that’s more to do with tradition than religion. In Europe, it is very uncommon to be circumcised unless you are Jewish, Muslim, or suffered from a medical problem. Obviously it’s not something that comes up in day-to-day conversation, but I imagine that most (non-Jewish / Muslim) people in the UK would consider it genital mutilation.
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### Author:  [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/4 "2012-09-20T14:50:06Z")
Beaten to it by **Kimstu**. I’m such a slow typer!
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/5 "2012-09-20T14:50:52Z")
Hey, only by two minutes’ difference! Better luck next time! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/6 "2012-09-20T14:58:11Z")
Ancient Egyptian carvings can show circumcised penises, along with other maladies. This carving also showed the effects of polio, and the carving was meant to show medical information. So the supposition is, that in the face of a serious infection, the Ancient Egyptians also performed the surgery. It way have been a well known procure in the region. This page has an Ancient Egyptian image of the procedure, although its not a carving: [Male circumcision and HIV: a web special series | UNAIDS](http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2007/february/20070223malecircumcision/)
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### Author:  [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/7 "2012-09-20T15:00:00Z")
Here is a Wikipedia article with a world map. Note that most traditionally-Christian countries are listed as “under 20%”.
Also note this paragraph regarding South Korea:
> [@](#):
>
> According to the World Health Organisation, 80% or more of males in South Korea are circumcised.[17] A 2001 study of 20-year old South Korean men found that 78% were circumcised.[48] The authors comment “South Korea has possibly the largest absolute number of teenage or adult circumcisions anywhere in the world. Because circumcision started through contact with the American military during the Korean War, South Korea has an unusual history of circumcision.”
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### Author:  [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/8 "2012-09-20T23:29:25Z")
I understand that circumcision was used as part of manhood rituals by aborigines here in Australia
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/9 "2012-09-20T23:34:17Z")
I’ve seen, multiple times, folks assert that the foreskin retracts automatically when the penis is erect, but I can say for absolute certain that this isn’t always true. Mine stays in place unless I manually retract it. Am I just a freak of nature? How common is it for it to retract?
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/10 "2012-09-20T23:52:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I’ve seen, multiple times, folks assert that the foreskin retracts automatically when the penis is erect, but I can say for absolute certain that this isn’t always true. Mine stays in place unless I manually retract it. Am I just a freak of nature? How common is it for it to retract?
No worries, AFAICT. [Wiki sez](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreskin):
> [@](#):
>
> There is considerable variation in the degree to which the foreskin retracts during erection; in some adults the foreskin remains covering the glans until retracted by sexual activity.
The accompanying picture (they can show that on Wikipedia? :eek: ) shows a fully retracted foreskin, but there’s nothing pathological about a non-retracted foreskin during erection.
Typically, though, as all those stylized representations of erect penises from cultures that don’t routinely practice circumcision suggest, an erect uncircumcised penis has the foreskin retracted so that the general shape of the glans and shaft looks very similar to that in an erect circumcised penis.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circumcision-in-outside-of-christianity-judaism-and-islam/635262/11 "2012-09-21T13:25:41Z")
Well, consider my ignorance fought. Until this thread I thought that even an erect, uncircumcised penis still had the foreskin covering the head.