Significance of the Father for the Son's Masculine Identity

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Abstract
The significance of the son's insufficient contact with his father during infancy in regard to circumcision and segregation at puberty was examined. It was found that among polygynous societies in which each co-wife lives in a separate quarter with her children, where they have limited contact with their father, males are significantly more likely to be circumcised or segregated. The arrangement of separate quarters for co-wives appears to be a key factor in explaining a long postpartum sexual taboo, circumcision, and segregation. It is not the long postpartum sexual taboo but the separa tion of each co-wife that is instrumental in bringing about circumcision and sepreeation.