Morality, Violence, and Ritual Circumcision: Writing with Blood (Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Religion)

By: Na'ama Carlin

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Synopsis: 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 defences of circumcision for medical reasons or on grounds of religious freedom, and the criticisms that consider it an unethical violation of bodies that cannot consent. An examination of the intersection of violence and morality, it rejects the binary of violence and morality 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’. Drawing on the thought of Wolfgang Sofsky, Sigmund Freud, and Jacques Derrida, 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.