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Male and Female Circumcision pp 19–29Cite as

Anatomy and Histology of the Penile and Clitoral Prepuce in Primates

An Evolutionary Perspective of the Specialised Sensory Tissue of the External Genitalia

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Abstract

For various reasons, penile and clitoral prepuces have been amputated from children in certain human societies for thousands of years. Although the justifications for male and female circumcision have changed over the last several thousand years, the practice of circumcision has not been examined from the perspective of primate evolution. Why do primates have a prepuce, and what function does it have? The comparative anatomy between human and non-human primates will be reviewed with a specific focus on the sensory innervation of the prepuce and glans.

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Authors
  1. Christopher J. Cold
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  2. Kenneth A. McGrath
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Seanle, Washington

    George C. Denniston

  2. Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, England

    Frederick Mansfield Hodges

  3. National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers, San Anselmo, California

    Marilyn Fayre Milos

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© 1999 Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York

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Cold, C.J., McGrath, K.A. (1999). Anatomy and Histology of the Penile and Clitoral Prepuce in Primates. In: Denniston, G.C., Hodges, F.M., Milos, M.F. (eds) Male and Female Circumcision. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-39937-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-39937-9_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-46131-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-585-39937-9

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