The cultural significances of circumcision in Northeastern Igbo-land are tremendous.
Adult physical circumcision and ritual circumcision with its accompanying ceremonies were the people's way of life. The cultural practice of circumcision is as old as the people of Northeastern Igbo-land.
Circumcision to Northeastern Igbo people is not traced to the biblical Abraham rather they linked the origin of circumcision to their ancient parents who started the practice in pre-historic period.
The act of both physical operation of the male genital organ (cutting of the foreskin or prepuce of the penis) and the cutting of the clitoris (FGM- Female Genital Mutilation) and the ritual aspect of circumcision are still relevant and acceptable custom of the people of Northeastern Igbo-land.
The warnings and all medical advice b y the World Health Organization and other -medical bodies could not stop the practice of ph ysical and ritual
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circumcision as performed-by the people. However the risks of bleeding and high death rate occasioned by circumcision led to the adoption of infant physical circumcision for both males and females in most of the clans of the cultural zone.
However, ritual circumcision remains unchanged because it has no risk of bleeding and death.
The ritual practice of circumcision in Northeastern Igbo-land marks the people out from other clans or ethnic groups. Ritual circumcision is their cultural identity and pride. It reminds them of their traditional origin and ancestral practice. Ritual circumcision introduces an ordinary member of the society into full adult member with all the rights and privileges. Ritual circumcision is tie only legitimate cultural process to adulthood in t Northeastern Igbo-land. There are hierarchies of benefits associated with ritual circumcision. It enhances admission into the various titles recognized within the clans of Northeastern Igbo-land. The non-initiates voice is never reckoned with in the family or community. He is never appointed to political offices in the community and he is regarded as a religious outcast because he is barred from offering sacrifices or participating in public or communal sacrifice to communal gods or deities. A man who fails to be initiated into manhood is denied a befitting burial.
Circumcision in Northeastern Igbo-land accords a man the light to social, religious and political participation. It is the hub upon which the people's life history,
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experience, moral values, social sanctions, aspirations, fears, likes and dislikes revolve. It is a school for personality formation into the life of the community.
In the place of these, the people now desire and pursue western values, norms, virtues, moral principles, western cultures, languages and dressing c odes that do not agree with their cultural background. Thus, the Northeastern Igbo people today, either consider everything about ritual circumcision as fetish, satanic and unchristian or simply integrate Christianity into the practice and manage the two together.
Whereas, this work does not advocate discarding everything in the people's cultural or ritual aspect of circumcision, it does not also advocate retaining everything in the practices of the ritual practices of circumcision in the Northeastern Igbo-land.
However, it advocates that people should be wise and selective in their cultural inclination or enculturation, specifically in the practice of ritual circumcision. Like every other natural entity, Northeastern Igbo people have something special and rich in their cultural practice of ritual circumcision that others can appreciate and emulate, They must strive to save the social and cultural future for their children by repackaging and preserving every good aspect of circumcision for posterity.
The work contributes to the restructuring of the custom of physical circumcision to meet with the international standard as recommended by the World Health Organization,
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The research contributes to the cultural re-orientation of the practice of ritual circumcision as to accommodate and be accommodated by modern socio-cultural life style since culture is dynamic.
The research reveals that circumcision is valued by the people of Northeastern Igbo-land because it impacts on their religious, social, political and cultural life.
This work notes that both conferences and seminars on circumcision both by the Roman Catholic church and other churches and even litigations has not brought an end to the problems of circumcision in the cultural zone.
The research reveals that the observable resistance and conflicts caused by circumcision is simply a response from a people whose essence and cultural identities under severe threat of extermination and that car also happen elsewhere if not checked.
The study reveals that the people of Northeastern Igbo-land have wholly adopted Infant physical circumcision in place of the adult phys cal circumcision its risk and hazard to life.
The research unveils that physical cutting of the male genitals is natural and culturally acceptable worldwide, while the adult or adolescent physical cutting of the genitals is condemned by the medical world due to the risk to life. The ritual circumcision is still an issue of contention between the traditionalist on one side and the youths and the Christians on the other side.
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The work reveals that physical circumcision of the male child is a check on the menace of HIV spread.
The work is a contribution to the academic world as both reading and reference material.