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Female "Circumcision" in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change. Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund (eds.). Directions in Applied Anthropology: Adaptations and Innovations. Boulder, CO, and London, UK: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000. viii + 349 pp. (Cloth US$59.95)
Introduced by the editors' meticulous overview, "Female 'Circumcision' in Africa: Dimensions of the Practice and Debates," this wide-ranging volume's 13 essays survey the politically and emotionally charged subject of "female circumcision" or "female genital cutting" (FGC). Here, African and non-African scholars or researchers discuss the meanings and significance of FGC, highlighting the roles that African nationals play in its maintenance, modification, or elimination. Assembling rich case materials from Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Chad, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, the volume emphasizes that FGC is not mandated by national policies, but is instead performed by women with encouragement from their local communities. Four main FGC practices are examined: a small nick of the clitoris (sometimes labeled by the Arabic word sunna)', a more extensive form ofsunna involving "partial or complete removal of the clitoris and clitoral prepuce"; "excision" (partial or complete removal of the clitoris and labia minora); and the most radical form, "infibulation"-removal of clitoris, labia minora and most of the labia majora, and sewing together of edges, leaving only a small hole for urination and passage of menstrual blood (p. 4). The contributors' nuanced accounts situate these culturally diverse practices historically, and incorporate the voices of local women, researchers, and medical professionals.
Given estimates that over 132 million living women have experienced some form of cutting, FGC cannot be dismissed as a mere aberration (Toubia and Izette 1998). However, researchers and policymakers have great difficulty answering fundamental questions: Do ethnographic accounts capture current realities? Are the practices increasing or decreasing? Does FGC negatively affect sexual response or fertility? Communities practicing FGC view it as a qualification for marriage, a way to avoid "genital ambiguity," and a means of ritual purification, Shell-Duncan and Hernlund observe, and its proponents tend to regard opponents as agents of imperialism (p. 25). But FGC is widely opposed in international, national, and local circles. Political controversy swirls around the issues of who has the right to judge FGC, who perceives its various forms as "empowering" or "mutilating" women, the extent to which anti-FGC...