Oophorectomy is the surgical removal of the ovaries of a female animal. In the case of non-human animals, this is also called spaying. It is a form of sterilization.
The removal of the ovaries together with the Fallopian tubes is called salpingo-oophorectomy. Oophorectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy are not common forms of birth control in humans; more usual is tubal ligation, in which the Fallopian tubes are blocked but the ovaries remain intact.
In humans, oophorectomy is most usually performed together with a hysterectomy - the removal of the uterus. Its use in a hysterectomy when there are no other health problems is somewhat controversial.
In animals, spaying involves an invasive removal of the ovaries, but rarely has major complications; the superstition that it causes weight gain is not based on fact. Spaying is especially important for certain animals that require the ovum to be released at a certain interval (called estrus or "heat"), such as cats and dogs. If the cell is not released during these animal's heat, it can cause severe medical problems that can be averted by spaying or partnering the animal with a male.
Oophorectomy is sometimes referred to as castration, but that term is most often used to mean the removal of a male animal's testicles.
The Ababda (the Gebadei of Pliny, possibly the Troglodytes of classical writers), are a nomad tribe of African Bedouins, a subgroup of the Beja people; some still speak the Cushitic Beja language, while others speak Arabic.
They extend from the Nile at Aswan to the Red Sea, and reach northward to the Kena-Kosseir road, thus occupying the southern border of Egypt east of the Nile. They call themselves "sons of the Jinns." With some of the clans of the Bisharin and possibly the Hadendoa they represent the Blemmyes of classic geographers, and their location today is almost identical with that assigned them in Roman times.
They were constantly at war with the Romans, who eventually conquered them. In the middle ages they were known as Beja, and convoyed pilgrims from the Nile valley to Aidhab, the port of embarkation for Jedda. From time immemorial they have acted as guides to caravans through the Nubian desert and up the Nile valley as far as Sennar.
They intermarried with the Nuba, and settled in small colonies at Shendi and elsewhere long before the Egyptian invasion (AD 1820-1822). They are still great trade carriers, and visit very distant districts.
The Ababda of Egypt, numbering some 30,000 (in 1911), were governed by an hereditary "chief" in 1911. Although nominally a vassal of the Khedive, he paid no tribute. Indeed he was paid a subsidy, a portion of the road-dues, in return for his safeguarding travellers from Bedouin robbers. The sub-sheikhs were directly responsible to him.
The Ababda of Nubia, reported by Joseph von Russegger, who visited the country in 1836, to number some 40,000 have since diminished, probably amalgamated with the Bisharin, their hereditary enemies. The Ababda generally speak Arabic (mingled with Barabra Nubian words), the result of their long-continued contact with Egypt; but the southern and south-eastern portion of the tribe in many cases still retain their Beja language, ToBedawiet. Those of Kosseir would not speak this before strangers in 1911, as they believed that to reveal the mysterious dialect would bring ruin on them.
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopędia Britannica.