Abstract
Swaziland faces one of the worst HIV epidemics in the world and is a site for the current global health campaign in sub-Saharan Africa to medically circumcise the majority of the male population. Given that Swaziland is also majority Christian, how does the most popular religion influence acceptance, rejection or understandings of medical male circumcision? This article considers interpretive differences by Christians across the Kingdom’s three ecumenical organisations, showing how a diverse group people singly glossed as ‘Christian’ in most public health acceptability studies critically rejected the procedure in unity, but not uniformly. Participants saw medical male circumcision’s promotion and messaging as offensive and circumspect, and medical male circumcision as confounding gendered expectations and sexualised ideas of the body in Swazi Culture. Pentecostal-charismatic churches were seen as more likely to accept medical male circumcision, while traditionalist African Independent Churches rejected the operation. The procedure was widely understood to be a personal choice, in line with New Testament-inspired commitments to metaphorical circumcision as a way of receiving God’s grace.
Department
Anthropology
Publication Date
1-2017
Journal Title
Culture, Health & Sexuality
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Golomski, Casey and Nyawo, Sonene, "Christians’ Cut: Popular Religion and the Global Health Campaign for Medical Male Circumcision in Swaziland" (2017). Culture, Health & Sexuality. 7.
https://scholars.unh.edu/anth_facpub/7
Included in
African Languages and Societies Commons, African Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Health Policy Commons, International Public Health Commons, Medical Humanities Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Public Health Education and Promotion Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons, Women's Health Commons
Comments
This is an Author’s Original Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Culture, Health & Sexuality in 2017, available online: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2016.1267409