- 先声明，不是学者。只是无知加好奇 － 所以泡咖啡长知识的同时忍不住问些初级问题。割礼的起源除了祭祀和崇拜会不会也有实际的理由，譬如 hygiene? 总怀疑许多宗教的禁忌或是仪式往往最初是环境的产物，而未必都是＂神圣＂的来源。比如净身，会不会最初只是因为洗澡不方便，大家要一起凑到有水的地方? 祭祀是社交，洗脸洗澡也是社交，后来才赋予了神圣的意义? 咖啡有一篇xw追溯伊斯兰禁食猪肉习俗的文章，记得走的就是世俗解释这条线，也很好看。
从维基搬一小段关于割礼的起源，觉着每个源由都有道理。当然不知是否小心求证过:
It has been variously proposed that male circumcision began as a religious sacrifice, as a rite of passage marking a boy's entrance into adulthood, as a form of sympathetic magic to ensure virility, as a means of suppressing (or enhancing) sexual pleasure, as an aid to hygiene where regular bathing was impractical, as a means of marking those of lower (or higher) social status, as a means of differentiating a circumcising group from their non-circumcising neighbors, as a means of discouraging masturbation or other socially proscribed sexual behaviors, to increase a man's attractiveness to women, as a symbolic castration, as a demonstration of one's ability to endure pain, or as a male counterpart to menstruation or the breaking of the hymen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_male_circumcision
娴敓