Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey

Oyman Basaran

Published by University of Texas Press 2023

Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey

Oyman Basaran

https://doi.org/10.7560/327029

Overview
Contents

About this book

An investigation of how the expansion of modern medicine in Turkey transformed young boys’ experiences of circumcision.

In Turkey, circumcision is viewed as both a religious obligation and a rite of passage for young boys, as communities celebrate the ritual through gatherings, gifts, and special outfits. Yet the procedure is a potentially painful and traumatic ordeal. With the expansion of modern medicine, the social position of sünnetçi (male circumcisers) became subject to the institutional arrangements of Turkey’s evolving health care and welfare system. In the transition from traditional itinerant circumcisers to low-ranking health officers in the 1960s and hospital doctors in the 1990s, the medicalization of male circumcision has become entangled with state formation, market fetishism, and class inequalities.

Based on Oyman Başaran’s extensive ethnographic and historical research, Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey is a close examination of the socioreligious practice of circumcision in twenty-five cities and their outlying towns and villages in Turkey. By analyzing the changing subjectivity of medical actors who seek to alleviate suffering in male circumcision, Başaran offers a psychoanalytically informed alternate approach to the standard sociological arguments surrounding medicalization and male circumcision.

Author / Editor information

Oyman Başaran is an assistant professor of sociology at Bowdoin College.

Reviews

Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey is a rich ethnography that moves beyond the conventional geographical scope of the sociology and anthropology of Turkey. Oyman Başaran skillfully crafts a historical narrative around the 'ideal' types of itinerate and scientific circumcisers, then deconstructs these ideal types by showing how practitioners in each camp deal with different kinds of ambivalences structuring their occupational identities, social roles, and self-representations as they mimic the other. Additionally, his focus on masculinity and the medicalization of the male body brings a fresh perspective to gender and medicalization debates.

— Salih Can Açiksöz, author of Sacrificial Limbs: Masculinity, Disability, and Political Violence in Turkey

Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey closely examines the experiences of twenty-five cities and their outlying towns across Turkey. By analyzing the changing characteristics of the medical actors, Başaran offers an alternate approach to the study of what is a central part of the Turkish male experience.

— Bowdoin

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Prologue Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Sünnetçİ, Pain, and Medicine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Itinerant Circumcisers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
2 Fennİ Sünnetçİ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
3 Mass Circumcision Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
4 Fear of Circumcision Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
5 “Deceitful Child” and “Bad Parents” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
Conclusion. The Ethics and Politics of Male Circumcision Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
Appendix. Research Methodology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 232
Illustrations
- Other: 1 b&w image
Keywords: ethnography; medical anthropology; gender in the Middle East; history of medicine; Male Circumcision; Medicine; Pain; Trauma; Psychoanalysis; Turkey; Middle East

eBook

Published: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781477327036