Male and female genital cutting among Southern Thailand’s Muslims: rituals, biomedical practices, and local discourses

Merli, C.

doi:10.1080/13691051003683109

Male and female genital cutting among Southern Thailand’s Muslims: rituals, biomedical practices, and local discourses

Merli, C.

Authors

C. Merli

Abstract

This paper explores how local people in a province in southern Thailand perceive the practice of male and female genital cutting. In order to understand the importance placed on these practices, a comparison is drawn between the two and also between the male circumcision and the Buddhist ordination of monks as rites of passage. Discourses on the exposure or concealment of male and female bodies, respectively, witness to the relevance of both the local political-historical context and biomedical hegemony to gendered bodies. The comparisons evince the need to reflect upon the theoretical and ethical implications of studying genital cutting and focusing exclusively on one of the two practices rather than, as this paper claims to be necessary, considering them as inextricably connected.

Citation

Merli, C. (2010). Male and female genital cutting among Southern Thailand’s Muslims: rituals, biomedical practices, and local discourses. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 12(7), 725-738. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691051003683109

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Mar 29, 2010
Deposit Date	May 12, 2010
Publicly Available Date	Jul 14, 2014
Journal	Culture, Health & Sexuality
Print ISSN	1369-1058
Electronic ISSN	1464-5351
Publisher	Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	12
Issue	7
Pages	725-738
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/13691051003683109
Keywords	Southern Thailand, Male circumcision, Female genital cutting.

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Copyright Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Culture, Health & Sexuality on 29/03/2010, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13691051003683109.