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Encyclopedia of Religion entry for`AkikaLiterally " the cutting off of the hair," an Arabian ceremony in the time of Mohammed performed on the birth of a child. The infant’s head was shewed, and the scalp daubed with the blood of a sacrificed sheep. The ceremony was supposed to " avert evil from the child " and seemingly to place it under the protection of the community’s god. Prof. Robertson Smith infers, however, from early references to an Arabian and Syrian practice that the oldest Semitic usage in Arabia and Syria was to sacrifice the hair of childhood, not in infancy, but on " admission to the religious and social status of manhood." See W. R. Smith, R.S. citations: Encyc. of Rel., Canney
article created 2006-04-12 , last updated 2006-04-12 |
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