The Controversy of Female Circumcision Ethnography Review

Rain Daley

            In the case of female circumcision there are various controversial topics and multicultural opinions on the practice and, recently, there has been a significant influence from the Western world to abolish the practice in all the practicing communities. Ellen Gruenbaum explores the topic of female circumcision and the various topics of hierarchy, ritual, marriageability and sexuality associated with it in her ethnographic work summarized by the book titled The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective. In Gruenbaums writing there is a pretty explicit tone of agreement and support with the idea of abolishment, however, it does not spill over too much into the way she goes about gaining perspectives and other information on the practice. The writer did an excellent job of touching on all the significant topics involved in the practice in a very balanced manner to best inform her readers of the opposing sides of the practice. In this essay I will expose and explore the concepts written about in Gruenbaums book and delve deeper into explaining and understanding a select few of the more controversial topics she discusses.

            Throughout Gruenbaums writing on female circumcision there are several main ideas that she discusses. The first major topic she discusses is the topic of Patriarchy in practicing societies of female genital cutting or FGC. She addresses the fact that there is an argument against FGC on the lines of it being a tool for male domination and hierarchy. There is reason that this kind of statement could be supported but throughout the personal interaction and interviews executed there seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between that idea and the reality of the situation. From the scarce male perspectives that were derived from practicing communities there is a trend for the males to kind of brush of questions about FGC with a response such as it “being women’s business”. Judging from the male perspectives that Gruenbaum drew from various communities in Sudan there seemed to be a commonly passive attitude about the practice and none of the men really stated much more then they prefer women who are circumcised due to the fact that it means they will not have pre-marital sex and/or birth. However, when asked about their opinion regarding change related to FGC towards abolishment a small number of the men responded saying that they would not mind if their women were uncircumcised at the time or marriage and the rest tended to be undecided for the most part. Venturing into other topics of the book Gruenbaum also touches on the topics of ritual and meaning; exploring what significance the practice holds and what ritualistic processes can be involved in the practice, Marriage and Morality; a topic that can be associated with the previously mentioned topic of patriarchy in practicing societies, Ethnicity, Sexuality, Economic Development and how certain steps in medicalization could effect the future of the practice and finally what kind of change can truly steer the direction of the practice out from its traditional roots towards abolishment.

            Throughout the topics that are discussed in the writing I was attracted to a few due to my curiosity of insider perspectives (especially the contrast in the perspectives of alternate genders) and what seems to be an imbalance of the perspectives derived from given communities in regards to the gender ratio. Among these topics of particular interest to me personally was the topic of the ritual and meaning associated with the practice of FGC. In Sudan where Gruenbaum spent her five years of research regarding the topic of FGC she was able to witness many aspects of the ritual and the associated meaning of the practice. During a ritualistic ceremony of FGC there are certain members of the community involved as well as specific performances made by those members of the community. There is always a designated performer of FGC who is usually an elderly woman of a given community who is circumcised herself and possesses a certain degree of spiritual and ritualistic prowess. In the Sudanese tradition FGC is performed in the housing for the goats of the community using fairly crude ritualistic instruments. Before entering the barn to be operated on there is usually a gracing performed by the elderly members of the community as well as the male leaders. The young girls who are operated on are blessed with branches of certain plants and dressed and decorated with lines of beads and earrings before and after the cutting ceremony. There is a very important aspect to being operated on which is showing no signs of pain in reaction to the cutting and healing process. By showing no signs of pain the girls prove that they are strong and brave and deserve to be shown respect by their elders and the marriageable men of the community. After the operation the girls are asked to stand and walk themselves to their healing beds where they will spend the next few days or even up to a week or two healing from the wounds gained from the operation. During the healing process the only remedy for healing is goats milk to ease the pain. Medical painkillers are strongly condemned in practicing communities. Reason being that it will show that the women who take the painkillers are incapable of tolerating the pain of the operation thus proving them to be less brave and respectable than others.

            In terms of the meaning behind the practice there tend to be multiple reasons for the practice in Sudanese culture. Perhaps the most significant factor in the meaning of the practice is the idea of it being an induction into womanhood and the girls who go through with the operation are welcomed into the mature social circles of the community and respected by the elderly women of the community. From what Gruembaum was able to extract from the women of practicing communities the success of the operation draws them away from assumptions of them being too promiscuous because of the presence of a clitoris as part of their genitalia. There is a common belief in practicing communities that the presence of a clitoris makes women sexual fiends and drives them into promiscuity. Taking these ideas into consideration there is a great deal of social pressure from predominantly the female members of communities to have the young females be circumcised. If the females decide on their own or if the parents of them decide not to go through with the process of circumcision there are tremendous social ramifications resulting in total alienation from the community, the risk of not being married which is a sign of social status in practicing communities and constant harassment for their decisions.

            Another topic that caught my interest more than others is the concepts of how to go about influencing change in practicing communities. As it can be imagined the majority of influence for change is coming from outraged westerners who feel that the practice is a violation of human rights and poses far too many physical adverse effects for the social benefit to be balanced. In Gruembaum’s discussion regarding the methods of change and what is wrong with those current methods she includes the process of medicalization, Western eradication efforts and regional legislative outlawing efforts. In terms of medicalization there have been doctors in practicing regions who have taken it upon themselves to perform the circumcisions, sometimes in their own private offices, in an attempt to lower the likelihood of adverse effects following surgery. Many of these adverse effects include sever hemorrhage, infection, improper healing leading to future problems, childbirth complications, et cetera. Many of these adverse effects can lead to death due to the lack of medical facilities in practicing regions. In a way the medicalization of the practice, whether legal or not, can serve its purpose as making the procedure less traumatic with the introduction of painkillers and make the physical/social tradeoff somewhat more balanced, however, many would consider that to be malpractice in a medical field. Reason being the practice cannot be supported by claims of it being beneficial to the physical health of an individual in any way. Westerners have played a large roll in getting regions like Kenya to outlaw the practice. The issue with legislative moderation though is that if a girl is circumcised in Sudan and moves to Kenya she is at risk for prosecution because of the fact she is circumcised. In terms of the practicing regions themselves being affected there are arguments that it would drive the practice further underground rather than bringing it to a stop. People would, in a way, be forced to practice their traditional values in an illegal way and have to deal with the fear of prosecution for the remainder of their circumcised lives.

            In terms of Gruembaums stance on these topics of the circumcision issue I feel that she makes it clear that she supports the idea of abolishment but she does it in such a way that would encourage culturally sensitive methods of change such as sparking social movements in the practicing regions themselves, empowering women of practicing women and encouraging them to become teachers and assisting the Muslim population of practicing regions to encourage fellow Muslims that it is not pleasing to god or necessary to perform female circumcision on their young girls. I felt very fond of the fact that Gruembaum put such an emphasis on the need to incorporate the idea of change into the practicing communities themselves. I feel that cultural competence and sensitivity are absolutely necessary in this circumstance. Without that we can see the example of Westerners accusing practicing regions of their atrocities and basically telling the regions to stop the practice. Of course, with any preventative approach like that it is very likely to deter the opposing side from any aspect of your argument and drive them further away from the idea of listening to what opposition members have to say.

            In terms of actually extracting a bit of opinion from members of practicing communities I felt that Gruembaum did a very good job in discussing issues with the female members of the communities. However, the problem with this issue is that the male perspective is rarely present. Part of the problem lies within the anthropologists own study as well as the reluctance of the male community members due to their idea of the issue being one only women have to discuss. However, I do give Gruembaum credit for acquiring information from the females of the communities she was involved in to gain a complete understanding of what they females were doing to support or prevent the practice, the various roles of women in practicing communities and the contrast of elderly and younger women’s opinions. In that way I feel she did a good job of displaying a positive community representation with how she incorporated educated female members who were opposed to FGC into her research. I feel that westerners would perceive these practicing communities as uneducated, barbaric people with the bizarre beliefs about the benefits of FGC. In providing these insider perspectives I feel that outsiders looking into the issue through this source of study will develop a better perception of the people associated with the issue of FGC as well as develop a broad understanding of the issues and controversy surrounding the practice.

            In educating people on this topic through sources such as Gruembaum’s book I feel that ousiders will acknowledge it as a global health issue for the reason of it being a practice associated with a large region of Africa and attracting so much international attention I feel that this is a legitimate global health issue. The topics Greumbaum discussed in her book varied greatly and covered the main topics attached to the issue and provided good perspectives on the issue through the insider perspectives she drew from the Sudanese communities. The ideas that ran through the book were completely parallel to the ideas we have talked about throughout class lecture such as alternate perspectives constructing opinion on issues such as FGC, cultural competence, topics of medicalization, et cetera.

            Ellen Gruenbaum provided a very complete source of information with this book. She went about gaining the information in a very good way by incorporating herself into practicing communities and drawing information through insider perspectives while remaining culturally sensitive and proposing culturally competent methods of intervention and change for the future of the practice. She also provided a good comparison of how western opinion and interest has affected the path towards eradication of the practice and how it has affected the people who are actually practicing FGC and how western influence has made them resistant to change. In conclusion, I feel that this book is a very informative introduction to the topic of female genital cutting and I would personally recommend it to anybody with a remote interest in the topic.

Reference:

Gruenbaum, E. (2001). The female circumcision controversy: An anthropological perspective. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.