Circumcision (n.) is the symbolic substitute of castration, a punishment which the primeval father dealt his sons long ago out of the fullness of his power... and whosoever accepted this symbol showed by doing so that he was ready to submit to his father's will.
Circumcision (n.) is equated by children with castration — and they treat haircuts and pulled teeth the same way, just as primitive peoples substitute these for it.
Circumcision (n.) is an Egyptian mark: a Jewish liberator would never have forced on his people a custom that made them Egyptians and kept the memory of Egypt awake.
Circumcision (n.) looks odd and abhorrent to those who lack it; those who have it feel ennobled and look down on the others as unclean.
Circumcision (n.) is the price at which Moses' people sold out to the volcano god: keep this sign of consecration, and they would accept the new deity.
Circumcision (n.) makes an uncanny impression on others because it reminds them of the dreaded castration and of a primaeval past they would fain forget.
Circumcision (n.) is the symbolic substitute of castration — the punishment the primal father once dealt his sons; whoever accepts it shows himself ready to submit to the father's will at the cost of a painful sacrifice.