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Ethnographic research in seven rural Sudanese communities in 2004 demonstrates the deep association between infibulation and expectations for successful male sexual response, reinforced by aesthetic values about the preferred body form for females. In contrast, women conceive of the uninfibulated body as lacking in both propriety and beauty, as well as making a woman less able to please a husband sexually. Female sexual response has only recently begun to be discussed in the context of change efforts to end female genital cutting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on medical anthropology and health policy with particular reference to Sudan. The policy recommendations produced in medical anthropology are often crippled by theoretical limitations. This article argues that the historically specific constellation of social relations governing production and the appropriation and distribution of the economic surplus, commonly embodied in the functions of the state, have profound effects on the pattern of health and illness as well as on the availability of health services.

The article reviews the film "Sifinja—The Iron Bride," directed by Valerie Hänsch.

Reviews the film `Female Circumcision: Beliefs and Misbeliefs,' by the Inter-African Committee.