Antiquity and the Middle Ages
The origins of female circumcision could neither be clearly determined in time nor geographically. Already in antiquity, scholars dealt with the subject of circumcision, which at that time was known mainly from ancient Egypt. Descriptions are found in Galenos, Ambrosius of Milan and Aetius of Amida. On a papyrus from 163 B.C., the era of ancient Egypt, circumcision of girls is mentioned. Mummies have also been found showing signs of circumcision. Male circumcision can also be dated to this period. According to the Greek historian Strabon, circumcision was performed on both sexes in Egypt; likewise, Philon of Alexandria, who lived around the time of Christ's birth, reports that "among the Jews only the males are circumcised, but among the Egyptians both males and females are circumcised." The ancient authors assumed that women were circumcised for aesthetic reasons, in order to correct or improve the appearance of the female genitals.
It is assumed that circumcision spread from ancient Egypt across the African continent. The routes of its spread as well as its time course cannot be clearly reconstructed.
In the Middle Ages, descriptions of circumcision are found in the Canon medicinae of Avicenna (980-1037) and in Abulcasis (936-1013), where it was recommended in cases of overly pronounced genitalia.
Modern Europe and North America
European engagement with the practice intensified at the time of colonialism in the late 19th century. At this time, the first descriptions appeared in early ethnography. The distinction between "clitoral" and "vaginal" orgasm proposed by Sigmund Freud subsequently led to a disdain for "clitoral sexuality". Clitoral sexuality, according to Freud, had to be overcome in order to arrive at mature sexuality. The psychoanalyst Marie Bonaparte criticized the Freudian notion of the necessary detachment of the clitoris as an erogenous guidance zone. In 1935, a meeting took place between the future Kenyan Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski and Marie Bonaparte. Through Malinowski, she learned about female genital mutilation in Africa. With Kenyatta's support, Bonaparte conducted field studies in East Africa in the years that followed, examining the circumstances of circumcision and the consequences for women, and representing the first scientific research on the subject.
During the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and up to the 1970s, clitoridectomies and other surgical procedures such as cauterizations and infibulations were performed on female genitalia in Europe and North America. This was done to "cure" supposed female "ailments" such as hysteria, nervousness, nymphomania, masturbation, and other forms of so-called female deviance. In 1866, the English gynecologist Isaac Baker Brown promoted clitoridectomy as a method of treatment in his work on the "Curability of Various Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy and Hysteria in Women." It was well known that the female libido could be irreversibly damaged by such procedures. In 1923 Maria Pütz wrote in her dissertation:
"In three cases specially referred to me by Professor Dr. Cramer, complete cure occurred after removal of the clitoris and partial or complete excision of the small labia. Masturbation was no longer practised, and even after a period of observation of several months the condition remained unchanged good. In spite of these gratifying results of clitoridectomy for masturbation, there are now very many cases in which the malady cannot be influenced by any surgical operations [...] A second objection of the opponents is that by reducing the libido the possibility of conception is also abolished. This objection is also unjustified; for it is certain that frigid women, who feel coitus only as a burden and enjoy no sexual satisfaction, nevertheless conceive and bear healthy children."
- Maria Pütz: On the prospects of surgical therapy in certain cases of masturbation of adolescent females
