besnijdenis (English: “circumcision”) is a term or concept described in Jongejan’s Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu in relation to Aceh. For boys, after elementary Quran schooling, around age 6 or later (in Gajo sometimes earlier).
Translation
circumcision
Description
For boys, after elementary Quran schooling, around age 6 or later (in Gajo sometimes earlier). For girls, around age 2 or in Gajo even months old, performed by midwife. In Aceh often without festivities; in Gajo/Alas with festivities like a wedding. Girls’ circumcision in Aceh is very secretive.
Significance
The term besnijdenis is recorded by Jongejan as part of the cultural, administrative, or institutional vocabulary of Aceh.
See Also
Source
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 141, 142.