Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:41:27.729Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Rethinking female circumcision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Résumé

La circoncision féminine est pratiquée dans plus de vingt pays africains ainsi que dans un certain nombre de pays du Moyen Orient, et il a été estimé quʼau moins 100 million de femmes ont été circonsisées dans le monde. Il est frappant, cependant, que beaucoup plus de préoccupations aient été exprimées au sujet de la circoncision féminine quʼà propos de la santé reproductrice des femmes. Dans le milieu intellectuel, il est aussi intéressant de voir que les gynécologues, les épidémiologues et les antropologues ont eu tendance à se concentrer sur un nombre de questions assez limitées, et encore celles-ci ont été rarement examinées en profondeur.

Cet article examine le travail des chercheurs en Europe et en Amérique du Nord afin de montrer que des émotions intenses soulignent cet intérêt et ces préoccupations. Au milieu de l'intérêt grandissant porté à l'antropologie des émotions, il est suggéré quʼune plus grande attention devrait être prêtée à essayer de comprendre la source de ces émotions et la manière dont celles-ci influencent l'enquête de terrain et l'analyse des données. Jusquʼà ce que cela se produise, notre compréhension de la circoncision féminine restera seulement partielle comme les données continuent à être rassemblées et analysées de façon inadéquate.

Type
The meanings of sexuality
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , October 1995 , pp. 506 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abu Shama, A. O, et al. 1949. ‘Female circumcision in the Sudan’, Lancet 1, 544–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmad, L. 1989. ‘Arab culture and writing women's bodies’. Feminist Issues, Spring: 4155.Google Scholar
Aziz, F. A. 1980. ‘Gynaecologic and obstetric complications of female circumcision’, International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics 17, 560–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barclay, H. 1964. Buuri al Lamaab: a suburban village in the Sudan. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boddy, J. 1982. ‘Womb as oasis: the symbolic context of pharaonic circumcision in rural northern Sudan, American Ethnologist 9 (4), 682–98.Google Scholar
Boddy, J. 1989. Wombs and Alien Spirits: women, men and the zar cult in northern Sudan. Madison. Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, B. 1987. ‘A feminist sexual politics: now you see it, now you don't’ in Review, Feminist (ed.), Sexuality: a reader. London: Virago.Google Scholar
Constantinides, P. 1985. ‘Women heal women: spirit possession and sexual segregation in a Muslim society’, Social Science and Medicine. 21, 685–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, M. 1978. ‘African genital mutilations: the unspeakable atrocities’, in Gyn/ecology: the metaethics of radical feminism. London: The Women's Press.Google Scholar
Devereux, G. 1967. ‘The irrational in sexual research’, in Devereux, G. (ed.), From Anxiety to Method in the Behavioural Sciences. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewhurst, C. J., and Michelson, A. 1964. ‘Inflbulation complicating pregnancy’, British Medical Journal. 2, 1442.Google ScholarPubMed
Dorkenoo, E., and Elworthy, S. 1992. Female Genital Mutilation: proposals for change. London: Minority Rights Group.Google Scholar
Duffy, J. 1963. ‘Masturbation and clitoridectomy: a nineteenth-century view’, JAMA., 3, 166–8.Google Scholar
El Dareer, A. 1982. Women, why do you weep? Circumcision and its consequences. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
El Saadawi, N. 1980. The Hidden Face of Eve: women in the Arab world, trans. Hetata, Sherif. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Forward, 1989. Report on the First National Conference on Female Genital Mutilation: unsettled issues for health and social workers in the UK. London: Foundation for Women's Health Research and Development.Google Scholar
Gordon, D. 1991. ‘Female circumcision and genital operations in Egypt and the Sudan: a dilemma for medical anthropology’, Medical Anthropology quarterly 5, 314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, G. 1984. Sex and Destiny: the politics of human fertility. London: Seeker & Warburg.Google Scholar
Gruenbaum, E. 1982. ‘The movement against clitoridectomy and infibulation in Sudan: public health policy and the women's movement’, Medical Anthropology Newsletter 13 (2), 412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruenbaum, E. 1988. ‘Reproductive ritual and social reproduction: female circumcision and the subordination of women in the Sudan’, in O'Neill, Norman and O'Brien, J. (eds), Economy and Class in Sudan. Aldershot: Avebury.Google Scholar
Hayes, R. O. 1975. ‘Female genital mutilation, fertility control, women's roles, and the partrilineage in modern Sudan: a functional analysis’, American Ethnologist 4, 617–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hite, S. 1976. The Hite Report on Female Sexuality, London: Pandora Press.Google Scholar
Hosken, F. and F. P., 1982. The Hosken Report: genital and social mutilation of females. Lexington, Mass.: Women's International News Network.Google Scholar
Huddleston, C. E. 1944. ‘Female circumcision in the Sudan’, Lancet 1, 626.Google Scholar
Kenyon, S. M. 1991. Five Women of Sennar: culture and change in central Sudan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kouba, L. J., and Muasher, J. 1985. ‘Female circumcision in Africa: an overview’, African Studies Review 28, 95110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Vine, S. and R., 1981. ‘Child abuse and neglect in sub-Saharan Africa’ in Korbin, J. E. (ed.), Child Abuse and Neglect: cross-cultural perspectives. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lindenbaum, S. 1991. ‘Anthropology rediscovers sex’, Social Science and Medicine 33, 865–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyons, H. 1981. ‘Anthropologists, moralities and relativities: the problem of genital mutilations’, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 18, 499518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLean, S., and Graham, S. E. (eds.). 1980. Female Circumcision, Excision and Infibulation: the facts and proposals for change. Report No. 47. London: Minority Rights Group.Google Scholar
Mohamud, O. A. 1991. ‘Female circumcision and child mortality in urban Somalia’, Genus 67, 203–23.Google Scholar
Ortner, S. B., and Whitehead, H. (eds.) 1981. Sexual Meanings: the cultural construction of gender and sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parker, M. 1989. ‘The effects of S. mansoni on Female Activity Patterns and Infant Growth in Gezira Province, Sudan’, D. Phil, thesis, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Sami, I. R. 1986. ‘Female circumcision, with special reference to the Sudan’, Annals of Tropical Paediatrics 6, 99115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shandall, A. A. 1967. ‘Circumcision and infibulation of females’, Sudan Medical Journal 5, 178212.Google ScholarPubMed
Sheehan, E. 1981. ‘Victorian clitoridectomy: Isaac Baker Brown and his harmless operative procedure’, Medical Anthropolocy Newsletter 12, 1015.Google Scholar
Slack, A. T. 1988. ‘Female circumcision: a critical appraisal’, Human Rights Quarterly 10, 437–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toubia, N. 1988. ‘Women and health in Sudan’, in Toubia, Nahid (ed.), Women of the Arab World: the coming challenge. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Toubia, N. 1994. ‘Female circumcision as a public health issue’. The New England Journal of Medicine 331, 712716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tuzin, D. 1991. ‘Sex, culture and the anthropologist’, Social Science and Medicine 33, 867–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van der Kwaak, A. 1992. ‘Female circumcision and gender identity: a questionable alliance?Social Science and Medicine 35, 777–87.Google Scholar
Van Gennep, A. 1909. The Rites of Passage, trans. Vizedom, M. and Caffee, G., Reprinted Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Verzin, J. A. 1975. ‘Sequelae of female circumcision’, Tropical Doctor 5, 163–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vizedom, M. 1976. Rites and Relationships: rites of passage and contemporary anthropology. Beverly Hills, Cal.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation; 1979. Seminar report on ‘Traditional Practices affecting the Health of Women and Children’, Khartoum, 10–15 February.Google Scholar
Worsley, A. 1964. ‘Infibulation and female circumcision: a study of a little known custom’, British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 45, 686–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar