ANCIENT TRADITIONS IN MODERN TIME

This piece is a research work on certain traditions that were commonly practiced in the ancient time but intricately and somehow are still found in the present modern world, some of such are very horrifying but the adherent(s) of such traditions still remained religiously committed to such traditions.

It should be noted that this piece is not about the moral right or otherwise of such traditions and hence all efforts are being made by the author to remain as objective as ever. And where elements of being subjective are noted, such is highly and regrettably regretted.

We live in a world and in a time where no one is sure who is right and who is wrong, for there are no absolute and coherent road maps when and where traditions and ways of life of all the people of the world are concern

*It is worthy of note that this piece, contains certain graphics and illustrations that may be found extremely disturbing, or found offensive to anyone with certain allergies to specific picture(s). Hence, viewers are seriously advised to go no further or exercise personal discretion, pls.

CIRCUMCISIONS

Circumcision in many countries occurs shortly after birth; However, in some countries it is considered a coming of age rite that marks a young person’s movement from adolescence into adulthood. The ceremony is held for both young boys and girls who are judged to be ready for the rite.

the above girls are being prepared for adulthood.In many cultures in the world,the path to adulthood is an hard one.


For instance,the Peruvian’s Iquito, normally perform excision of the clitoris and libia at the age of 9 and 10.The Bambara tribes are known to excise the clitoris ‘to allow the wanzo, the dangerous sexual principle which comes from the female spirit ,to drop out with the blood lost by the operation’. In Dahomey, pubescent girls are given instruction in massaging the vagina to cause thickening and muscular development of the lips.

Joyfuly to adulthood.

Although male circumcision is considered normal around the world, female circumcision or clitoridectomy is most often than not considered in many places in the world as abnormal and sometimes as inhuman. "The term "female circumcision" is a euphemistic description for what is really a variety of procedures for altering the female genitalia.

Preparation for adulthood

While numerous terms have been used to describe the wide range of procedures, there are generally four commonly recognized forms of genital cutting.See diagram below.

Preparation for adulthood

It has many names;Infibulation, Female genital cutting (FGC), also known as female genital mutilation (FGM), female circumcision, or female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).

Whichever one is adopted ,it simply means any procedure involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs "whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons.

FGM is the partial or total removal of the clitoris (clitoridectomy) and/or the prepuce (clitoral hood).

1-Normal female genital anatomy.2-Type-I-FGM.

By narrowing of the vaginal orifice with creation of a covering seal by cutting and repositioning the labia minora and/or the labia majora, with or without excision of the clitoris (infibulation). Infibulations, is the most extensive form of FGM, and accounts for about 10% of all FGM procedures described from Africa. Infibulation is also known as "pharaonic circumcision".

3-type-II-FGM.4-type-III-FGM.Diagram 1-4:This image shows the different types of FGM and how they differ to the uncircumcised female anatomy.

In a study of infibulation in the Horn of Africa,Pieters observed that the procedure involves extensive tissue removal of the external genitalia, including all of the labia minora and the inside of the labia majora. The labia majora are then held together using thorns or stitching.

In some cases the girl's legs have been tied together for two to six weeks, to prevent her from moving and to allow the healing of the two sides of the vulva. Nothing remains but the walls of flesh from the pubis down to the anus, with the exception of an opening at the inferior portion of the vulva to allow urine and menstrual blood to pass through.

Circumcision in adult female with the removal of the libia.

Some people consider cutting a female’s genitals to be inhumane and atrocious. Despite the controversy the circumcision of both boys and girls continues in many tribes around the world. However, female circumcision is becoming an option rather than an expectation in some tribes.

Despite being an option many young girls choose to undergo this ritual to follow in the paths of their ancestors.The purpose of FGM, it is believed is to curb the sexual desire of girls and women and preserve their "sexual honor" before marriage,this is one of the conclusion of Edo people of Benin in Nigeria. Iam well aware that many NGOs in Nigeria,have been working effortlessly to correct such 'erroneous' perception among the people of Benin.Iam also aware that ,the tradition has become a part and parcel of this ancient civilization,tackling with the dictate of the 21st century.


FGM Type 2

Implication and Complications

The massive mutilation is irreversible and extremely painful, and is usually done to young girls.The physical complications associated with FGM may be acute or chronic. Early, life-threatening risks include hemorrhage, shock secondary to blood loss or pain, local infection and failure to heal, septicemia, tetanus, trauma to adjacent structures, and urinary retention. Infibulation is often associated with long-term gynecologic or urinary tract difficulties.

Common gynecologic problems involve the development of painful subcutaneous dermoid cysts and keloid formation along excised tissue edges. More serious complications include pelvic infection, dysmenorrhea, hematocolpos, painful intercourse, infertility, recurrent urinary tract infection, and urinary calculus formation.

Pelvic examination is difficult or impossible for women who have been infibulated, and vaginal childbirth requires an episiotomy to avoid serious vulvar lacerations.

Circumcision performed during childhood, in a 21-year-old Sudanese.



Associated countries;

FGM is practiced in the following nations; Syria, Jordan, Oman, Yemen,Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya,. Egypt, Mauritania,northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia,Algeria , Benin (17%) ,Burkina Faso (71.6% ),Cameroon (20%),Central African Republic (43.4% ), Chad (60% ), Comoros , Côte d'Ivoire (44.5%) ,Democratic Republic of the Congo (5% ) , Djibouti (90–98%),Egypt (78–97% ),Eritrea (90% ),Ethiopia (69.7%–94.5%)Gambia (80 – 90% ),Ghana (40% ) ,Guinea (98.6% ),Guinea-Bissau (50%), Kenya (50%) ,Liberia (60%)Libya, Malawi , Mali (92% ), Mauritania (71%),Mozambique ,Niger (20%) Nigeria (25.1%),Republic of the Congo , Senegal (20 – 30%) ,Sierra Leone (90%) Somalia (95 % ),South Africa, Sudan (91%),Tanzania (17.6%),Togo (50% ),Uganda (<5% ) , Zaire (5%)Zimbabwe ,Tajikistan,Indonesia, Malaysia , Afghanistan, Iran , Iraqi, Pakistan, Saudi-Arabia , Syria , Turkey, United Arab Emirates,Yemen (23% ),Chechnya ,Daghestan, Ingushetia A little girl being prepared for Infibulation

Infibulation,is presently considered by many modern cultures to be one of the most horrific rites of passage in the world, female infibulations, the surgical closure of the labia major to seal the vagina, is practiced still in many cultures around the world. The cultures that practice this either do so to render the woman unable to have sexual intercourse ever or they are insuring that the woman’s future husband gets a virgin.

Regardless of why it is done, it is a painful process that leaves barely a hole for the menses to escape through. Modern doctors have fought against this practice in omany cultures due to the damage it can do to the female’s organs and the fact that it can cause urinary incontinence among others.

TOOLS

FGM is carried out with knives, scissors, scalpels, pieces of glass or razor blades. Stone tools are normally used in Australia for circumcision and clitoridectomy. The mutilation is usually done without anesthetics. Instruments are usually not sterile. Mortality is high.

The practice has dreadful costs: many girls die afterwards, the survivors suffer their whole life from the psychological and medical consequences of the operation. All are traumatized and suffer from adverse health effects during marriage and pregnancy.

FGM Instruments

The anxiety before the event, terror at being seized and forcibly held during the event, great difficulty during childbirth, and lack of sexual pleasure during intercourse.

Reasons for female genital mutilation

The reasons for female genital mutilation include a mix of cultural, religious and social factors within families and communities. Where FGM is a social convention, the social pressure to conform to what others do and have been doing is a strong motivation to perpetuate the practice.FGM is often considered a necessary part of raising a girl properly, and a way to prepare her for adulthood and marriage.

FGM is often motivated by beliefs about what is considered proper sexual behaviour, linking procedures to premarital virginity and marital fidelity. FGM is in many communities believed to reduce a woman's libido, and thereby is further believed to help her resist "illicit" sexual acts.

When a vaginal opening is covered or narrowed, the fear of pain of opening it, and the fear that this will be found out, is expected to further discourage "illicit" sexual intercourse among women with this type of FGM.

The pains and anguish of Circumcision

FGM is associated with cultural ideals of femininity and modesty, which include the notion that girls are “clean” and "beautiful" after removal of body parts that are considered "male" or "unclean".Though no religious scripts prescribe the practice, practitioners often believe the practice has religious support.

MEDICAL CONSEQUENCE

The procedure can lead to death through shock from excessive bleeding. The failure to use sterile medical instruments may lead to infections. There is also urinary and reproductive tract infections, caused by obstructed flow of urine and menstrual blood, various forms of scarring and infertility. Epidermal inclusion cysts may form and expand, particularly in procedures affecting the clitoris. These cysts can grow over time and can become infected.

Circumcision in a baby

SEXUAL EFFECTS

The effect of FGC on a woman's sexual experience varies depending on many factors. FGC does not eliminate all sexual pleasure for all women who undergo the procedure, but it does reduce the likelihood of orgasm. Stimulation of the clitoris is not solely responsible for the sexual excitement and arousal of a woman during intercourse; this involves a complex series of nerve endings being activated and stimulated in and around her vagina, vulva (labia minora and majora), cervix, uterus and clitoris, with psychological response and mindset also playing a role.

A girl being prepared for FGM

In the past several decades, there have been many concerted efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) to end the practice of FGC. The United Nations has also declared February 6 as "International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation.Despite laws forbidding the practice, FGC remains an enduring tradition in many societies and cultural groups and hence extremely difficult to eliminate.

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‘The Etoro believe that homosexual acts make crops flourish and boys strong. Etoro men and women mostly live apart so that social contact between them is generally limited and often hostile. Not surprisingly, their birth rates are low. To compensate for this problem and to avoid depopulation, they allegedly have stolen children from neighboring societies and raised them as their own’.


HOMOSEXUALITY;WEALTH,POWER AND PROWESS


Among several numbers of people it is believed that men can attain certain level of positive aura and preeminence by engaging in certain sexual orientations like homosexuality, through this it is believed acquisition of power, and prowess in one’s life can easily be attained.

A tombstone of a supposed U.S homosexual military officer. In many countries of the world like amidst the ancient Roman soldiers that conquered the world,homosexuality is like a ‘pass word’.
Exceptional sexual orientation, like homosexuality is as old as man itself, hence it has always been ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ phenomenal from time immemorial.

From the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah such had spread from the ancient time and found its way into man’s reckoning today. That, it is now being legalized all over the world in many countries, does not mean it has not been there or active, it has always been.

Till date, many still believes that sexuality is often furtive and guilt ridden, that one’s sexuality should not be suffused with furtive shame and guilt. And that if men were not meant to have homosexual relationships, then why have they been endowed by nature with a "G" spot in their anus?

Papua New Guinea-orthographic projection.

The anthropologically, most well known transvestites who also often happened to be homosexuals were the berdache , or two-spirited, men of the North American Great Plains Indian tribes. These men led the lives of women and had socially accepted statuses; they were valued members of their societies.

The Papago also had a socially accepted status for transvestite men. They wore women's clothing throughout the year and did women's chores. Unmarried men were allowed to visit them for homosexual acts.Heterosexual Plains Indian men who were going on hunting or war expeditions generally held the view that sex with their wives or other women was polluting and depleting.

In contrast, a two-spirited man did not pose these dangers. As a result, two-spirited men were regularly taken along to perform women's chores and to entertain. Some of them were renowned story tellers.

Papua New Guinea.

The Hijras of India are another example of a culturally accepted (or at least tolerated) male transvestite status. These are men who dress as women but apparently are not often homosexual. Many Hijras even have their genital organs surgically removed to symbolize their transition to "womanhood."

They are devotees of the Hindu mother goddess Bahuchara Mata. Through emasculation, they express their faith in her and become conduits for her power. The Hijras are difficult to label as to gender. They identify themselves as "incomplete men", "incomplete women", or "inbetweens", but the Indian national census counts them as women.

There are about 50,000 true Hijras today living mostly in North Indian urban centers. The largest percentage of them makes their living by blessing babies and entertaining at parties. Some of the better Hijra musicians, dancers, and singers perform regularly in Indian films.

Recently, a few of the Hijras have successfully run for public office, especially in Utar Pradesh State. There are 10's of thousands of other eunuchs and homosexuals in India who dress as women and falsely claim to be Hijras. Many of them make their living on the edges of society by prostitution or by extorting money for blessing children.

Mount Tavurvur ,Papua New Guinea

Most commonly, we have heard of women that are naturally engrossed with the swallowing, salivating and ingesting men’s semen. The craze for this is mostly attributable to women of shady and questionable characters, most especially whores. Though there have been no scientific reasons for this, or any known tradition that could have prompted such.

For instance, there are strange belief that when ‘a meal of semen’ is taken, it can result in "buff physique", While some believes that they can get some protein from such. In many xrated script such obscenities are not found wanting.



There have been cases from the Mediterranean societies of a millennia-old tradition that is still alive today, of men using prepubescent boys for sexual purposes. And, in North Africa's traditions, of men marrying relatively late, in order to accumulate the necessary, bride price. While, In the meantime, they tend to use boys for sex, as female prostitution is not prevalent.

A man is only a "homosexual" if he engages in sex with post-pubescent boys or men. In Albania, it is normal for parents to comfort their preschool-age children by caressing their genitals. In Afghanistan, there been cases of fathers routinely kissing the penises of their young sons, perhaps out of gratitude that they are male. In some parts of Latin America, mothers frequently fellate their sons when they are fussy and won't stop crying.

Jiwiki men- Papua New Guinea

However, to the people of Etoro, or Edolo, a tribe and ethnic group of Papua New Guinea, Sexual affiliation between an older man and a male child, is a hand on tradition and not an exception. As far as the Etoro are concerned this tradition and reasoning behind it all is much more about strength and camaraderie than anything sexual.

According to the Etoro, woman who enjoys sex too much is seen as a witch trying to steal the life force from a man. Similarly, boys who grow too quickly are assumed to be sapping the life force from other boys. The women are extremely repressed in this culture.

If they want heterosexual sex, they believes, it would only make them witches that want to steal a man's sperm to make them more powerful. Hence, heterosexual intercourse is prohibited for up to 260 days of the year and is forbidden in or near their houses and vegetable gardens. In contrast, homosexual relations are permitted at any time.

Wigman from the Southern Highlands Papua New Guinea

Etoro Tribe of Papau New Guinea believed that all young boys have to drink sperm of their elders in order to become an adult. And when a boy become adult then he becomes mentor to many other young boys. In this way homosexuality continues in those tribes forever.

They believe that the life force is contained in the semen they share with the boys and that they are actually performing a self sacrifice when consummate with the young boys. It was an ancient cultural belief and an obligation for warriors to strengthen the developing manhood of youths, with the donor not allowed to exhibit any expression of pleasure in the act whatsoever.

According to an anthropologist, Herdt, working Papau New Guinea in -Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia and Sambia Sexual Culture, there is a radically different cultural perception of a proper masculine upbringing can be among the people of this island nation. By ritualizing homosexuality, the Sambians have evidently sought to control and channel the natural urge and need for male/male bonding and youthful sexuality.



Bizarre homosexual rites are practiced extensively by numerous Melanesian tribesmen in New Guinea and adjacent islands. Young boys must "accumulate" semen for several years, either by regularly receiving anal penetration, or by swallowing the ejaculations of older males they fellate.

This ancient custom springs from a religious belief system that regards sperm as the essential conduit of masculine energy; puny boys, they believe, are only transformed into virile warriors if they ingest large quantities of sperm.



"If you boys don't drink semen, you won't grow big," a Sambian elder tells prepubescent initiates. "You should not be afraid of eating penises ... it is just like the milk of your mother's breast. You can ingest it all of the time and grow quickly. A boy must be ... inseminated... If [he] doesn't eat semen, he remains small and weak."Ten to twenty percent of all tribes in Melanesia -- an Oceania region stretching 3,000 miles from Irian Jaya to Fiji -- have mandatory "boy-inseminating" practices, claims Herdt. Boys here are separated from their mothers when they are 7-14 years old, and installed in "bachelor's houses."



The Marind-anim of Southwest New Guinea -- who were ruthless headhunters -- give the boys to maternal uncles who "top" them in anal intercourse for six years. The nearby Jacquai tribe refers to the adult penetrator as "mo-e" (anus-father) and the receiving child as "mo-mog" (anus-son). Big Namba chiefs of the New Hebrides Islands have numerous boy lovers; the Keraki of the Papuan lowlands sodomize lads at a bull-roarer ceremony; and the Great Plateau Kaluli "engage" youths to older men selected by their fathers.

Although many boys tremble initially ("I felt afraid... the penises were enormous," recalls Kalutuo, a Sambian from the Eastern Highlands) they all adjust quickly, because they believe semen is an elixir for manhood. Many tribes,like the Etoro of the Papuan Plateau, claim that semen does not even exist in boys until it is orally or anally "planted." This myth seems valid to tribesmen because boys start ejaculating when they achieve adolescence; they are allowed to penetrate younger boys then, to maintain the tradition. The "butching" of Melanesian boys with homoerotic activity is not unique in the annals of history.

Spartan soldiers were carnal tent-comrades when they conquered Greece in the Peloponnesian War. They believed genital bonding between buddies enhanced battlefield loyalty and valor. The warlike Romans -Mediterranean masters for 500 years-were also a pederastic people. Catullus' poems reveal that men seeking boys' bottoms were not regarded as sissies; the habit was at least as "studly" as pursuing women.

The aggressive, arrogant, sperm-sucking warriors of Melanesia would probably agree with Spartans and Romans that the current "gays in the military" phobia is laughably obtuse; physical love between GIs, they would suggest, is beneficent for morale. Gay male lust is often castigated as "feminizing" in Western society, but Melanesians believes that the sole purpose of homosexuality in their culture is to create "a fierce warrior masculinity that is the inverse of femininity."

The New Guinea data contradicts the religious fundamentalists who regard same-sex desire as a decadent post-civilized vice. Melanesians subsist on yams and superstitions -- they are among the Earth's most primitive peoples. Anthropologists’ observations will remain, though, as documentary evidence of an institutionalized queer culture that is often incestuous, always non-consensual, and impelled by erroneous nutritional assumptions.

One wonders, though, whether the Melanesian model is actually any weirder than the vast, civilized, imaginary construct that modern humanity flutters inside, like a bird imprisoned in an invisible cage.

According to anthropologists like O'Neil and Kottak, both pointed out that the Etoro men marry and have heterosexual relations with their wives, but the fear that heterosexual sex causes them to die earlier and the belief that homosexual sex prolongs life means that heterosexual relations are focused towards reproduction.

Funny enough the National anthem of Papua New Papua New Guinea is - O Arise all You sons

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Tattooing

Traditional female tattooing in Paraguay and Brazil is a common tradition. It is common for young girls who reach the age of puberty and have their first menstrual cycle to undergo tattooing. This is considered to be sexually attractive and not a form of pain. There are reports of societies in Paraguay and Brazil in which a girl at her menarche was gouged on the back, breasts and stomach with a sharp fish or animal tooth and then ashes rubbed in the wounds for a permanent tattoo. Because the purpose of tattooing is usually sexual attractiveness, it is considered part of a puberty rite.



Similarly, ear piercing, a universal custom, was in India, a sexual function; the hole in the ear is supposed to have a sympathetic effect on opening the womb for easier childbirth. Although somewhat odd, this is the least painful and unusual of the rites of passage found around the word.



Tattoo is another form of body modification practiced throughout the world in connection with both male and female rites of puberty. It is a marking made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment for decorative or other reasons.

Some tribal cultures traditionally created tattoos by cutting designs into the skin and rubbing the resulting wound with ink, ashes or other agents; some cultures continue this practice, which may be an adjunct to scarification. Some cultures create tattooed marks by hand-tapping the ink into the skin using sharpened sticks or animal bones (made like needles) with clay formed disks or, in modern times, needles.



Traditional Japanese tattoos (Horimono) are still "hand-poked," that is, the ink is inserted beneath the skin using non-electrical, hand-made and hand held tools with needles of sharpened bamboo or steel. This method is known as tebori. Tattoos on humans are a type of decorative body modification. Tattoos have served as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, sexual lures and marks of fertility, pledges of love, punishment, amulets and talismans, protection, and as the marks of outcasts, slaves and convicts.



The symbolism and impact of tattoos varies in different places and cultures. Tattoos may show how a person feels about a relative (commonly mother/father or daughter/son) or about an unrelated person. A memorial tattoo of a deceased loved one's initials, tattooed one’s body as a sort of memorial to the dead spouse. Within some traditional indigenous cultures, tattooing takes place within the context of a rite of passage between adolescence and adulthood.



Today, individuals normally choose to be tattooed for cosmetic,sentimental/memorial, religious,and magical reasons,and to symbolize their belonging to or identification with particular groups, including criminal gangs and also a particular ethnic group or law-abiding subculture.For instance, some, Māori still choose to wear intricate moko on their faces. In Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, the yantra tattoo is used for protection against evil and to increase luck.

David Beckham

In the Philippines certain tribal groups believe that tattoos have magical qualities,and help to protect their bearers. Most traditional tattooing in the Philippines is related to the bearer's accomplishments in life or rank in the tribe.
Among Catholic Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, tattoos with Christian symbols would be inked on to protect themselves from the Muslim Turks.



Extensive decorative tattooing is common among members of traditional freak shows and by performance artists who follow in their tradition. People have also been forcibly tattooed. A well-known example is the identification system for inmates in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

A Nazi concentration camp identification tattoo

Tattoos have also been used for identification in other ways. For example, in the period of early contact between the Māori and Europeans, Māori chiefs sometimes drew their moko (facial tattoo) on documents in place of a signature. Tattoos are generally considered an important part of the culture of the Russian mafia.



TATTOO FACTS & STATISTICS

Emerging from its own unsavory reputation of the recent past, tattoos have gained increasing prominence in the past decades. Life magazine estimated in 1936 that 10 million Americans or approximately 6% of the population had at least one tattoo. Harris Polls, done in 2003 and 2008, revealed that an estimated 16% (2003) and 14% (2008) of Americans now have one or more tattoos.



36% of those ages between 18 to 25, and 40 percent of those ages 26 to 40, have at least one tattoo, according to a 2006 survey, by the Pew Research Center.National Geographic News stated in April 2000 that 15% of Americans were tattooed (or approximately 40 million people).According to the American Society of Dermatological Surgery, they stated in 2005, that of all the people they treat with laser and light therapy, only 6% are getting a tattoo removed.



A 2006 a study done by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that 24% of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed; that's almost one in four. And the survey showed that about 36% of Americans age 18 to 29 have at least one tattoo. There are an estimated 20,000+ parlors operating in the United States, according to a U.S. News & World Report article, which said, on the average, an establishment is being added in the country every day.



The article ranked tattooing as the sixth fastest growing retail venture of the 1990s, right behind Internet, paging services, bagels, computer and cellular phone service.Tattoos have experienced resurgence in popularity in many parts of the world, particularly in North and South America, Japan, and Europe. The growth in tattoo culture has seen an influx of new artists into the industry, many of whom have technical and fine arts training.



Coupled with advancements in tattoo pigments and the ongoing refinement of the equipment used for tattooing, this has led to an improvement in the quality of tattoos being produced. In many traditional cultures tattooing has also enjoyed resurgence, partially in deference to cultural heritage. Historically, with the spread of Christianity, traditional tribal tattooing in Europe , witnessed a decline.



Association

In Japan, tattoos are strongly associated with organized crime organizations known as the yakuza, particularly full body tattoos done the traditional Japanese way (Tebori). Many public Japanese bathhouses (sentō) and gymnasiums often openly ban those bearing large or graphic tattoos in an attempt to prevent Yakuza from entering. In the United States many prisoners and criminal gangs use distinctive tattoos to indicate facts about their criminal behavior, prison sentences, and organizational affiliation.



A tear tattoo, for example, can be symbolic of murder, with each tear representing the death of a friend. At the same time, members of the U.S. military have an equally well established and longstanding history of tattooing to indicate military units, battles, kills, etc., an association which remains widespread among older Americans. Tattooing is also common in the British Armed Forces.



STIGMATIZATION

Although the general acceptance of tattoos is on the rise in Western society, they still carry a heavy stigma among certain social groups. The prevalence of women in the tattoo industry, along with larger numbers of women bearing tattoos, appears to be changing negative perceptions. A study of "at-risk" (as defined by school absenteeism and truancy) adolescent girls showed a positive correlation between body-modification and negative feelings towards the body and self-esteem;



However, also illustrating a strong motive for body-modification as the search for "self and attempts to attain mastery and control over the body in an age of increasing alienation." In a survey conducted by Harry Poll No.15,February 12,2008,by Reina A Corso,Director,
The Harry Poll, Harry Interactive, tattoo is now widely associated with; Rebellious groups, Gays, Lesbians, Layabouts and Criminal gangs.



Tattoos are considered forbidden in Sunni Islam. According to the book of Sunni traditions, Sahih Bukhari, "The Prophet forbade mutilation (or maiming) of bodies." Sunni Muslims believe tattooing is forbidden and a sin because it involves changing the creation of God (Surah 4 Verse 117-120), and because the Prophet cursed the one who does tattoos and the one for whom that is done. Tattoos are forbidden in Judaism based on the Torah (Leviticus 19:28): "You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord."



The prohibition is explained by contemporary rabbis as part of a general prohibition on body modification that does not serve a medical purpose (such as to correct a deformity).And invariably, therefore, among the Christians.
Maimonides, a leading 12th century scholar of Jewish law and thought, explains the prohibition against tattoos as a Jewish response to paganism. Since it was common practice for ancient pagan worshipers to tattoo themselves with religious iconography and names of gods, Judaism prohibited tattoos entirely in order to disassociate from other religions.



ANCIENT VS MODERNIZATION

In modern time, tattooing involves the placement of pigment into the skin's dermis, the layer of dermal tissue underlying the epidermis. After initial injection, pigment is dispersed throughout a homogenized damaged layer down through the epidermis and upper dermis, in both of which the presence of foreign material activates the immune system's phagocytes to engulf the pigment particles. As healing proceeds, the damaged epidermis flakes away (eliminating surface pigment) while deeper in the skin granulation tissue forms, which is later converted to connective tissue by collagen growth.



This mends the upper dermis, where pigment remains trapped within fibroblasts, ultimately concentrating in a layer just below the dermis/epidermis boundary. Its presence there is stable, but in the long term (decades) the pigment tends to migrate deeper into the dermis, accounting for the degraded detail of old tattoos.

The most common method of tattooing in modern times is the electric tattoo machine, which inserts ink into the skin via a group of needles that are soldered onto a bar, which is attached to an oscillating unit. The unit rapidly and repeatedly drives the needles in and out of the skin, usually 80 to 150 times a second. Tattoo are designed in almost every part of the body; Backs (lower, upper and all over), necks, arms, wrists and ankles, unmentionables also rank high. While, the most common picture or tattoo display is tribal, cross, stars, butterflies and fairies.

REASONS;

In modern time and age most people with tattoo always maintained that it makes them feel sexier, attractive and strong. Whatever, is the meaning of that is left for the adherent(s) of such traditions.


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REFERENCE

Circumcisions-*1-Chase, Cheryl: "'Cultural practice' or 'Reconstructive Surgery'? U.S. genital cutting, the intersex movement, and medical double standards." In Genital Cutting and Transnational Sisterhood.2-James M. Stanlie and Claire C. Robertson, eds. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. pp. 126–151, 2005.3-American Academy of Pediatrics, PEDIATRICS Vol. 102 No. 1 Jul 1998, pp. 153-156.4-History of Circumcision, from the Earliest Times to the Present: Moral and by Peter Charles Remondino (1900).5-Cormier, Zoe (fall 2005). "Making the Cut". Shameless. http://shamelessmag.com/issues/2005/fall/making-cut/. Retrieved 2008-03-03.6-"Female genital mutilation". World Health Organization. June 2000.http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/index.html. Retrieved 2008-01-23.7-Pieters, Guy, M.D.; Albert B. Lowenfels, M.D., F.A.C.S. (April 1977). "Infibulation in the Horn of Africa". New York State Journal of Medicine 77 (6): 729–731. http://www.cirp.org/pages/female/pieters1.8-Pieters, Guy, M.D.; Albert B. Lowenfels, M.D., F.A.C.S. (April 1977). "Infibulation in the Horn of Africa". New York State Journal of Medicine 77 (6): 729–731. http://www.cirp.org/pages/female/pieters1.9-History of Circumcision, from the Earliest Times to the Present: Moral and by Peter Charles Remondino (1900).10-Cormier, Zoe (fall 2005). "Making the Cut". Shameless. http://shamelessmag.com/issues/2005/fall/making-cut/. Retrieved 2008-03-03.*"Female genital mutilation". World Health Organization. June 2000. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/index.html. Retrieved 2008-01-23.11-Pieters, Guy, M.D.; Albert B. Lowenfels, M.D., F.A.C.S. (April 1977). "Infibulation in the Horn of Africa". New York State Journal of Medicine 77 (6): 729–731.12-Skaine, R (2005). Female genital mutilation: Legal, cultural and medical issues. Jefferson, North Carolina, USA: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2167- UNICEF,http://www.cirp.org/pages/female/pieters1.13-International Journal of Dermatology 2002, 41, 253-263

HOMOSEXUALITY, POWER AND PROWESS;1-Semen Warriors Of New Guinea .For them, 'gays in the military' is a necessity, by Hank Hyena, 1999 .2- Gilbert Herdt, Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia,Sambia Sexual Culture.3-Kottak, Conrad Phillip. Cultural Anthropology, 12th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.4-O'Neil, Dennis, SEX AND MARRIAGE: An Introduction to The Cultural Rules Regulating Sexual Access and Marriage, Behavioral Sciences Department website, Palomar College, San Marcos, California (Accessed Nov. 5, 2006).5- (Science News Vol. 170 July 1, 2006), Homosexuality.

Tattooing;1-Buckland, A. W. (1887) "On Tattooing," in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1887/12, p. 318-328.2-Caplan, Jane (ed.) (2000): Written on the Body: the Tattoo in European and American History, Princeton U P.3-DeMello, Margo (2000) Bodies of Inscription: a Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community, California. Durham NC: Duke University Press.4-Fisher, Jill A. (2002). Tattooing the Body, Marking Culture. Body & Society 8 (4): pp. 91–107.5-Gell, Alfred (1993) Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia, Oxford: Clarendon Press.6-Gilbert, Stephen G. (2001) Tattoo History: a Source Book, New York: Juno Books.7-Gustafson, Mark (1997) "Inscripta in fronte: Penal Tattooing in Late Antiquity," in Classical Antiquity, April 1997, Vol. 16/No. 1, p. 79-105.8-Hambly, Wilfrid Dyson (1925) The History of Tattooing and Its Significance: With Some Account of Other Forms of Corporal Marking, London: H. F.& G. Witherby (reissued: Detroit 1974).9-Hesselt van Dinter, Maarten (2005) The World of Tattoo; An Illustrated History. Amsterdam, KIT Publishers.10-Jones, C. P. (1987) "Stigma: Tattooing and Branding in Graeco-Roman Antiquity," in Journal of Roman Studies, 77/1987, pp. 139–155.11-Juno, Andrea. Modern Primitives. Re/Search #12 (October 1989) ISBN 0-9650469-3-1.12-"Tattooing Among Japan's Ainu People". Lars Krutak. 13-http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattooing_among_japans_ainu.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-24.14-http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoo_facts.htm.15-Harry Poll No.15,February 12,2008,by Reina A Corso, Director, The Harry Poll, Harry Interactive.16-The curse; a cultural history of menstruation .Jance Delavey et al. University of Illinois press.


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NUDITY


-Where the world started, there it goes again; Regeneration or Degeneration?

Why do we wear cloth? Or rather why do we chose not to wear cloth?

Hundreds of nude and semi-nude cyclists demanding that authorities stop the hostilities bicyclists face from motorists, pedal through a main avenue in Lima, Peru, Saturday March 10, 2012. This is the seventh consecutive year of the "Naked Bike," protest in which cyclists take to the streets in Lima to bring attention to the unsafe conditions for cyclists in the Peruvian capital.

As we take a bold step into the 21st century, every we go, anywhere we find ourselves, what confront us now-a-days in major cities and towns of the world, is bare flesh in many forms and shade. We are now finding it, extremely difficult and plausibly impossible to escape.

A protest match in Nigeria

Either you lustfully look at a damsel is not the issue, as you walk through the journey of life on a daily basis, a man must not but see bare flesh of the opposite sex...’crevices’, buttock lines, curves, name it.

Occupy Wall Street

In antiquity, most especially pre-Diluvia epoch, it has been said that humanity going by, what is known as the ‘Shame Theory ‘in the Bible (as recorded in Genesis Chapter 3), on its own decided to commence the wearing of cloth to cover it’s perceived shame.

However, man through its ingenuity again has commence what some regard as ‘degeneration’, by putting off those cloth and like the ‘beasts’ of the field, goes everywhere-NUDE.

'Go girls!"

Archaeological evidence indicates that nudism, in the form of sunbathing, was practiced in antiquity by the Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans.

In modern times the rise of nudism began with the publication of Die Nacktheit (Nakedness) by German intellectual Richard Ungewitter in 1906. The advocates of the movement in Germany claimed that nudism had a highly tonic effect on both body and mind.

In ancient arts, the repeated depiction of the nude human figure in Greek art reflects Greek humanism—a belief that 'Man is the measure of all things,' in the words of Greek philosopher Protagoras.

*Beach game,le Grande Beach



Polyclitus (Greek sculptor of the Classical Period)-Maintained that nudity sought to represent the perfect male nude, an ideal to which real men can only aspire.

Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling in Rome:Michelangelo’s elaborate scheme for the decoration of the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508-1512) features nine scenes from the biblical Book of Genesis. These central narratives are framed by images of prophets and sibyls on marble thrones, and by other biblical subjects.

In the 20th century, a movement known as Nudism was initiated, to advocates the practice of living without clothes. Advocating that nudism is essential for the physical benefit derived from exposure of the body to what they consider to be healthful qualities of sunlight and fresh air; and hence in a wider sense, nudism is a philosophy and a way of life.

A 21st century wedding

The proponents of nudism maintain that clothing should be abandoned when not absolutely necessitated by the rigors of the weather, as it serves to focus erotic attention on the body, thereby exciting an unhealthy sexual prurience.

The shame customarily associated with nakedness in modern civilized society results, according to nudists, from centuries of cultural conditioning against complete exposure of the body in public.

Nudism, according to its practitioners, destroys man’s false sense of shame, enhances their self-assurance and furnishes them with a new appreciation of the essential beauty and dignity of the human body. The cons, however, attack the nudist philosophy as being indecent and the publications put out by the movement as obscene.

Currently the American Association for Nude Recreation, with headquarters at Kissimmee, Florida, represents many clubs that are located throughout the United States. The Federation of Canadian Naturists in Etobicoke, Ontario, is Canada's national nudist organization.

The list is endless today.And the more you look,the more less you feel unconcern about the whole thing.Different stroke for different folks,you migth think.

A couple on a beach,just like the progenitor of mankind in the Garden of Eden...



REFERENCE

*Hurwit, Jeffrey M. "Greek Art and Architecture." Redmond, WA., Microsoft Corporation, 2008.
2008.
**Steele, Valerie. "Clothing." Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.