THE sun has just risen on the distant horizon, as four men stealthily enter the cornfield. Copper tints slowly spread over Nekbaun village, a small village just outside Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara, casting a soft rosy light on rows of corn plants ripening, with reddening threadlike cornsilk dangling from the tips of the cobs.

There's a magical air of quiet as the men prepare for the rite of circumcision—an ancient tradition of the A