Introduction
Ritual circumcisions can be separated into two types, depending on the circumstances in which they are performed:
Spiritual circumcisions expressing a community identity, usually religious, are wrapped in complex meanings that invoke numerous myths, notably Biblical and African.
The secular model of ritual circumcision exemplified in the USA includes—apart from intensely debated medico-scientific justifications—a real social dimension and also reflects a desire for membership in a community.
Whatever the circumstances, physicians may be asked to perform circumcision and should be aware of the significance of this procedure.
Mutilations prescribed for oneself or others are of ancient origin and universal in scope: practically no body part has been spared their impact. Sexual mutilations are the most frequent: noteworthy are subincision, practiced by Australian aborigines,[34, 43] Fijians, and Amazon Indians; hemicastration, found in Ethiopia, Egypt, and the islands of Micronesia; castration of harem keepers and choir boys (to preserve high voices); genital mutilations of girls (excision, infibulation, clitoridectomy); and finally circumcision, probably the most common of these practices.
Etymologically, the term “circumcision” denotes excision of all or part of the prepuce and comes from the Latin “circum” (around) and “caedere” (to cut). Semantically, the word bears no direct relation to the prepuce. Sometimes [in French] the terms “posthectomie” or “péritomie” are used.
The historical conditions in which circumcision arose are obscure. The practice probably began around the 4th century B.C. as attested to by statues and paintings depicting circumcision among Sumerians, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, as well as by circumcised Egyptian mummies. However, the frequency of circumcision in these periods and its possible social significance are unclear.
A schematic distinction can be drawn between two major types of circumcision, based on the circumstances in which the operation is performed: therapeutic circumcision, which is beyond the scope of this paper, and ritual circumcision. The latter can be subdivided into religious circumcision, as in a ceremony marking a rite of passage and affirming membership in a group, usually religious, and secular circumcision, in which a religious motive is not invoked presumptively. The routine circumcision practiced in the USA for controversial prophylactic reasons is an example of the secular type.
Despite this conceptual distinction, we will see that both religious and secular circumcision are laden with complex meanings heavily impregnated with morality and social identity. 
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This begins a new series on The Closet Professor about Male Circumcision.
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aloud. The Tennessee Williams play inspired the residents to fondly name the house “Belle Reve” in honor of Blanche DuBois’ Mississippi plantation. 
, this “motley crew of outcasts” began Southern Decadence as a going away party for a friend named Michael Evers, and to shut up a new “Belle Reve” tenant (from New York) who kept complaining about the New Orleans heat. As a riff on the “Belle Reve” theme, the group named the event a “Southern Decadence Party: Come As Your Favorite Southern Decadent,” requiring all participants to dress in costume as their favorite “decadent Southern” character. According to Spears, “The party began late that Sunday afternoon, with the expectation that the next day (Labor Day) would allow for recovery. Forty or fifty people drank, smoked, and carried on near the big fig tree … even though Maureen (the New Yorker) still complained about the heat.” 
Described by one reporter as “a happening of haberdashery fit for an LSD Alice in Wonderland,” Southern Decadence 2010 will be as outrageous as ever and live up to its reputation as New Orleans’ largest gay street fair. It all begins in earnest six weeks before Labor Day. However, the real party starts on the Wednesday before Labor Day, and the events are non-stop. It picks up steam daily as it nears Sunday’s big street parade, which rivals New Orleans’ gay Mardi Gras in scope, with the party lasting well into the day on Monday.
(1928) and 
Known also by the names Black Renaissance or New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance represented a cultural movement among African Americans roughly between the end of World War I (1918) and the beginning of the Great Depression (1929). The names given to this movement reveal its essential features. Certainly the words “black” and “Negro” mean that this movement centered on African Americans, and the term “renaissance” indicates that something new was born or, more accurately, that a cultural spirit was reawakened in African American cultural life. Although most historians remember the Harlem Renaissance as a literary movement, in fact, African Americans during the 1920s also made great strides in musical and visual arts, as well as science. Finally, the focus on Harlem—an old Dutch-built neighborhood of New York City—indicates that this “renaissance” was something of an urban phenomenon. In fact, the exciting developments in African American cultural life of the 1920s were not limited to Harlem, but also had roots in other urban communities where black Americans migrated in great numbers: East St. Louis, Illinois; Chicago’s south side; and Washington, D.C. The Harlem Renaissance included several important gay and lesbian writers. 
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