Making the Mark : Gender, Identity, and Genital Cutting

Authors

Miroslava Prazak

Files

Series

Research in International Studies, Africa Series

Description

Why do female genital cutting practices persist? How does circumcision affect the rights of girls in a culture where initiation forms the lynchpin of the ritual cycle at the core of defining gender, identity, and social and political status? In Making the Mark, Miroslava Prazak follows the practice of female circumcision through the lives and activities of community members in a rural Kenyan farming society as they decide whether or not to participate in the tradition.

In an ethnography twenty years in the making, Prazak weaves multiple Kuria perspectives—those of girls, boys, family members, circumcisers, political and religious leaders—into a riveting account. Though many books have been published on the topic of genital cutting, this is one of the few ethnographies to give voice to evolving perspectives of practitioners, especially through a period of intense anticutting campaigning on the part of international NGOs, local activists, and donor organizations. Prazak also examines the cultural challenges that complicate the human-rights anti-FGM stance.

Set in the rolling hills of southwestern Kenya, Making the Mark examines the influences that shape and change female genital cutting over time, presenting a rich mosaic of the voices contributing to the debate over this life-altering ritual.

Copyright Statement

Making the Mark © 2016 by Ohio University Press is licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language

eng

ISBN

9780896804975

Publication Date

9-15-2016

Publisher

Ohio University Press

City

Athens

Keywords

Making the Mark, Miroslava Prazak, Kenya, Kuria, female genital cutting, FGM, gender, identity, initiation rituals, cultural practices, human rights, ethnography, anthropology, rural communities, social change, tradition and modernity, women’s rights, NGOs, activism, cultural transformation, African studies, ritual and society

Disciplines

African Studies | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Social Justice | Women's Studies

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Prazak, Miroslava, "Making the Mark : Gender, Identity, and Genital Cutting" (2016). Ohio University Press Open Access Books. 99.
https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/99