Tuli (rite)
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Tulì is a
Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
rite Rite may refer to: * Ritual, an established ceremonious act * Rite of passage, a ceremonious act associated with social transition Religion * Rite (Christianity), a sacred ritual or liturgical tradition in various Christian denominations * Cath ...
of male
circumcision Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Top ...
. It has a long historical tradition and is considered an obligatory
rite of passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite ...
for males; those who have not undergone the ritual are ridiculed and labeled ''supót'' by their peers.
Circumcision Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Top ...
is not considered a religious rite in the Philippines, as some four-fifths of
Filipinos Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or othe ...
profess Roman Catholicism, which does not require it. Rather, circumcision is a social norm rooted in tradition that is followed by society at large. Most boys usually undergo the procedure not shortly after birth but prior to reaching puberty or before
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
(around ages 10–14). There exists two common ways of undergoing ''tuli'': either the traditional way by a local village circumciser (known in Tagalog as having it done "de-pukpok") or having it done by medical practitioners in a hospital or clinical setting. __TOC__


Background

Circumcision in the Philippines, as practiced today, is not a religious rite. Circumcision is also not practiced by a majority of Christians worldwide. The practice appears to be traceable as being
pre-Hispanic In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
period in nature. A common theory posits that the prevalence of the practise is due to the influence of Islam, which was prevalent in parts of the archipelago at least 200 years before the arrival of
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
in the 16th century. It was also noted in ''Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala'' that other synonyms of ''tuli'' are ''catan'' (''katan'' in modern Filipino orthography) and ''sonat'' which were from Arabic '' khitan'' and Malay ''sunat'', respectively.
Antonio de Morga Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay (29 November 1559 – 21 July 1636) was a Spanish soldier, lawyer and a high-ranking colonial official for 43 years, in the Philippines (1594 to 1604), New Spain and Peru, where he was president of the Real Audie ...
, a Spanish lawyer and high-ranking colonial official in the Philippines during the 17th century, noted in his 1609 book ''Sucesos de las islas Filipinas'': To which the prolific Filipino writer and nationalist
Jose Rizal Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Gali ...
added in his 1890 annotated version of Moraga's work: "This custom ircumcisionhas not fallen into disuse among the Filipinos, even among the Catholics." In a 1903 article "Circumcision and Flagellation among the Filipinos" published in the Journal of the Association of Military Surgeons, Lieutenant Charles Norton Barney, of the medical department of the U. S. Army, noted that circumcision was "a very ancient custom among the Philippine indios, and so generalized that at least seventy or eighty per cent of males in the Tagál country have undergone the operation." He also noted that those who were uncircumcised and reached the age of puberty were taunted as "supút" by children of both sexes.


Contemporary practice

More affluent parents opt to have their children circumcised as
neonate An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...
s in hospital, but the majority prefer that their sons undergo the tradition at around 8–12 years of age. Boys of the same age group would either go to government-sponsored missions, hospitals, or to a local circumciser. Boys normally undergo the procedure during the
summer break Summer vacation or summer break is a school break in summer between school years and the break in the school academic year. Students are off anywhere between three weeks to three months. Depending on the country and district, staff might be partia ...
before the start of classes as to allow time for healing. The most commonly-done procedure is in actuality not a ''circumcision'' but a
dorsal slit A dorsal slit (often referred to in anthropology as superincision or supercision) is a single incision along the upper length of the foreskin from the tip to the corona, exposing the glans without removing any tissue. An ancient practice, it has ...
, where no foreskin is actually removed. When the foreskin is removed, it is commonly known locally as a "German cut" in reference to the introduction of the modern surgical technique by the founder of plastic and reconstructive surgery,
Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach (1 February 1792 – 11 November 1847) was a German surgeon. He was born in Königsberg and died in Berlin. Dieffenbach specialized in skin transplantation and plastic surgery. His work in rhinoplastic and maxillof ...
. The Philippines Department of Health meanwhile sponsors an annual ''Operation Tuli'' project to circumcise boys; others assist and provide the service for free. The traditional circumcision makes use of a curved piece of wood which is anchored into the ground. The protruding part of this apparatus is pointed at its end: the foreskin of the boy being circumcised is drawn over this protruding part. The circumciser rests his knife lengthwise across the boy's foreskin and then a quick blow is made with a stick, slicing the upper foreskin into two and exposing the
glans The glans (, plural "glandes" ; from the Latin word for "acorn") is a vascular structure located at the tip of the penis in male mammals or a homologous genital structure of the clitoris in female mammals. Structure The exterior structure ...
. Prior to and while the procedure is being performed, the boy is told to chew guava leaves. The masticated guava leaves are applied onto the wound as a
poultice A poultice, also called a cataplasm, is a soft moist mass, often heated and medicated, that is spread on cloth and placed over the skin to treat an aching, inflamed, or painful part of the body. It can be used on wounds, such as cuts. 'Poultice ...
and is bandaged. The boy is then to wash off in the cold waters of a nearby river. While this procedure is commonly known as a ''circumcision'', it is more accurately described as a superincision as no foreskin is removed during the procedure. Newly circumcised boys usually wear housedresses or
loose Loose may refer to: Places * Loose, Germany * Loose, Kent, a parish and village in southeast England People * Loose (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Loose'' (B'z album), a 1995 album by B'z * ''Loose'' (Crazy Horse album ...
skirt A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards. At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts ar ...
s to help in the healing. The swelling that might occur during this period is termed ''pangángamatis'' (literally, "becoming like a tomato", ''kamatis'') owing to the reddish appearance of the
penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males d ...
. According to the United Nations World Health Organisation: "In the Philippines, where circumcision is almost universal and typically occurs at age 10–14 years, a survey of boys found strong evidence of social determinants, with two thirds of boys choosing to be circumcised simply “to avoid being uncircumcised”, and 41% stating that it was “part of the tradition” The rite has been the subject of the award-winning 2005 film ''Tuli'' by
Auraeus Solito Auraeus Solito, also known as Kanakan-Balintagos, is a Palawán-Filipino filmmaker and indigenous peoples rights advocate who comes from a lineage of shaman-kings from the Palawán tribe. He was one of the first to be born outside of his tribal la ...
.


References

{{reflist Philippine traditions Circumcision