Sex in Development

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Stacey Leigh Pigg writes that there is a distinction made between biology and beliefs about the body in international health, setting traditional cultural beliefs against scientific truth. According to the paper, Pigg argues that, although what is taking place in international health today is the process of replacing misconceptions with facts, there is also a lot more going on.

From the Paper:

"The power to define what is normal is also the power to call anything that does not meet the criteria of normal a misconception and so something that must be made correct through the use of facts. In much of the world, the decision as to what is normal derives from religious prescription or from cultural tradition, while in the West, that decision is made on a scientific basis, which at some point is a matter of statistics, meaning that which is most common is likely to be identified as that which is normal. As Pigg notes, "The ability to claim privileged, rational access to 'reality' accrues to those most firmly connected with the longest and most stable network" (Pigg 61). In traditional societies, that role is often maintained by the religious leader or some similar arbiter of morality and rightness. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Adams, Vincanne and Stacy Leigh Pigg (eds.). Sex in Development: Science, Sexuality, and Morality in Global Perspective. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2005.

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