Description
Taylor and Francis Ltd Morality, Violence and Ritual Circumcision 1st Edition 2022 Hardbound by Carlin, Na'ama
This book uses the Jewish ritual of circumcision to consider how violent acts are embedded within entrenched moral discourses and offers a new perspective for thinking about violence.Intervening in contemporary debates on the Jewish ritual of circumcision, it departs from both the ordinary secular defences of circumcision for medical reasons, and the criticisms that consider it an unethical violation of bodies that cannot consent. An examination of the intersection of violence and morality, this book rejects the binary logic on which popular debates on circumcision hinge, arguing that in some instances violence can be a productive experience and can thus be considered beyond 'good' and 'bad'. Engaging with the works of Jacques Derrida, the author puts forward a framework of violence of ontology, which is characterised as a violence that is related to existence, the violence of being, which resists definition through binary oppositions. In so doing, the author contends that circumcision is in fact a form of generative violence that is leveraged for cultural purposes and inherent in the making of bodies. As such, this volume offers a compelling framework that investigates the relationship between bodies, identities, ethics, and violence, and will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, and religion with interests in the sociology of the body, ritual, and cultural studies. Introduction Chapter 1. Problematising Violence and Morality Chapter 2. Conceptualising Circumcision Chapter 3. The Genesis of Jewish Ritual Circumcision Chapter 4. Agency, authorship, and Writing in the Making of the Self Chapter 5. From Rite to Write Conclusion: The Cut that Makes Whole Bibliography