The poetics of American circumcision on the margins of medical necessity

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter sketches the major historical shifts in American circumcision discourse and examines the sociopolitics of those shifts.

Methodology/approach – The chapter centers on a critical analysis of competing narratives and knowledge claims about circumcision. It re-examines these narratives and claims, most of which are packaged in a rhetoric of health, specifically for their political valence.

Findings – The medical necessity of circumcision in the United States cannot be ascertained without attending to the disciplinary systems designed to produce and maintain religious, sexual and other cultural norms.

Contribution to the field – The chapter provides a clear and focused synthesis of many different literatures and contentions about circumcision that have yet to be brought together into a single narrative accessible for students and scholars of the medical humanities and medical politics.

Citation

Skinner, D. (2010), "The poetics of American circumcision on the margins of medical necessity", Mukherjea, A. (Ed.) Understanding Emerging Epidemics: Social and Political Approaches (Advances in Medical Sociology, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-163. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1057-6290(2010)0000011012