L’hermaphrodite dans la jurisprudence islamique : Signes, identités et imaginaire

Abstract

We intend to examine in this study the categories of thought on which ancient Islamic jurisprudence was based to build its representations of the hermaphrodite. We will see to what extent these representations have contributed to perpetuating the absolute natural and cultural distinction between masculinity and femininity, how they participate in the attribution of socially discriminatory gender roles, based on cognitively “oriented” categories. These representations and values ultimately constitute an imaginary geometry of relationships, roles and functions within an antithetical masculine/feminine bipolarity.