Abstract
EARLIEST man cut upon the flesh and bone of his fellows in a crudely surgical fashion. Surgery is almost universally practiced in primitive tribal cultures, where its performance is only rarely directed toward the treatment or prevention of disease. Such surgery may at times be overtly hostile or punitive. More commonly, it seeks to secure for the individual distinct benefits that are quite separate from physical health. This type of surgery most often involves the production of rather stylized alterations of the skin, head, ears, nose, teeth, extremities and particularly the external genitalia, upon which circumcision, clitorectomy, infibulation, subincision and . . .

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