Bodily Integrity and the Politics of Circumcision

by Denniston, George C.; Gallo, Pia Grassivaro; Hodges, Frederick Mansfield; Milos, Marilyn Fayre

• ISBN13: 9781402049156
• ISBN10: 1402049153
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-11-30
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

How is it that, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is still possible for males and females to be denied their inherent right to keep all the body parts with which they were born? Circumcision is a cultural phenomenon that affects 15.3 million children and young adults annually. In terms of gender, 13.3 millions boys and 2 million girls are subjected to the involuntary removal of part or all of their external sex organs every year. Few people, however, ask why such practices persist or how modern societies can tolerate this inherent violation of human rights. The problem of female circumcision is being addressed on an international level, while male circumcision remains a subject many academics are reluctant to fully or impartially examine. This book explores the problem of male and female circumcision in modern society from religious, anthropological, psychological, medical, legal, and ethical perspectives.Bodily Integrity and the Politics of Circumcision: Culture, Controversy, and Change illuminates the vulnerability of human society to medical, economic, and historical pressures. It provides a much-needed, thoughtful, and detailed analysis of the devastating impact of circumcision on bodily integrity and human rights, and it provides hope for change.

Table of Contents

Circumcision as a memeplex	p. 1
The life of the flesh is in the blood : the meaning of bloodshed in ritual circumcision	p. 17
Zipporah and the bridegroom of blood : searching for the antecedents of Jewish circumcision	p. 37
At the roots of ethnic female genital modification : preliminary report	p. 49
Psycholinguistic approaches to ritual labia minora elongation among the Baganda women of Uganda	p. 57
Graphic reproduction of genital stretching in a group of Baganda girls : their psychological experiences	p. 65
Survey on the East-African female students at the University of Padua	p. 85
Female genital mutilation among African immigrants in Greece : the first cognitive study	p. 93
Deinfibulation in Italy	p. 103
Research center for preventing and curing FGM and its complications	p. 117
Preliminary research into the psycho-sexual aspects of the operation of defibulation	p. 123
Addressing female genital mutilation in Germany : the work of the women's rights organization Terre des Femmes and the situation in Germany	p. 133
Male circumcision in Italy	p. 141
Genital integrity and gender equity	p. 149
Increasing awareness of iatrogenic damage consequent to male circumcision	p. 165
A survey of subjective foreskin sensation in 600 intact men	p. 177
Human rights advances in the United States	p. 189
Toward regulation of non-therapeutic genital surgeries upon minors : a preliminary legal strategy	p. 203
Strategies for litigation	p. 219
Of waste and want : a nationwide survey of Medicaid funding for medically unnecessary, non-therapeutic circumcision	p. 233
A campaign for the eradication of infibulation within an extended family : Khartoum, Sudan	p. 247
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