In the Maasai society, genital cutting is a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, and both men and women go through the process of circumcision. As society ages, opinions on cultural norms change. This is true for the Maasai society, where the views on female circumcision have and are changing. Female circumcision is classified into three categories, and defined by the World Health Organization, Type I is the removal of the foreskin on the vagina, Type II is the removal of the clitoris, and Type III is the removal of all external genitalia with the stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening (“New Study”). Traditionally in the Maasai society, women underwent Type II or Type III circumcision. Written in 1988, “The Initiation of a Maasai Warrior,” by Tepilit Ole Saitoi, and is an autobiographical story of Saitoti’s circumcision in his initiation to a warrior. Though his story mainly focuses on the male circumcision part of the Maasai society, women’s circumcision and other basic traditions are discussed. Throughout the short story, the topic of circumcision and the rite of passage, both long- standing traditions in the Maasai society, are central themes.
Showered by myths and mystery, not knowing the correct spelling of Sacagawea’s name or her correct date of birth. Her story still has been told many times throughout history. Not learning to read or write, she was well known for assisting the explorers Lewis and Clark on their expedition, in survey of the Louisiana Purchase land. She became a valuable guide to the expedition, interpreting between tribes in her region. Without the help of Sacagawea, Lewis and Clark might not have been as successful, but because of her efforts, it made claiming the newfound land for the United States impossible for other countries.
According to Tyler Troudt once said, “The past cannot be changed forgotten to edit or erased it can only be accepted.” In the book The Lakota Way, it is talking about all the old stories that no one talks about anymore. Some of the stories are about respect, honor, love, sacrifice, truth, bravery. Joseph M. Marshall III wrote this story so that young adults around the world and mainly the Lakota people know their culture, so they knew all the stories about the people long ago. What the author is writing about is all information that today’s generation will never know about the stories because most of the elder that even knew or know the stories have passed away or the young people just are not interested in listening to them anymore.
OFFICIAL SITE OF THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE YAKAMA NATION. Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, 2010. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
The Makah were very creative and smart. They were successful in making clothing, and shelter. They were able to hunt and gather food for themselves. The Makah were able to make good medicine and very good wood work. There real name is Qwidicca-Atx which means people who live among seagulls. The Makah live on the northwest coast. This is on the Pacific Ocean. Let us see what the Makah did.
The women in Nampossela lack the social and economic rights to make many significant decisions about their life. Due to her simultaneous position as an outsider and a member of the group, Holloway becomes an unbiased outlet that Monique and other woman can speak with regarding their difficulties. One such difficulty amongst women in Mali that Holloway discovered was female circumcision. Holloway, prior to her visit to Mali, was aware of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in rural villages. However, the intense birth of Korotun’s daughter causes Holloway to question the reasoning behind the traditional cutting. In response to Holloway’s mention of FGM, Monique explains her painful experience of circumcision at nine or ten and her thoughts on the subject, “Here we say that koloboli helps girls become good wives and bear children…it does not help the baby pass through…”(114). The practice of FGM in Mali occurs often enough that Monique had never met an uncut woman prior to Holloway, whose western background does not practice FGM.
In Althaus’ article, she provides in-depth information about female circumcision; a highly controversial cultural ritual that is practiced in at least 28 countries
Sacajawea is known as the Indian women who led Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase and find the path that led to the Pacific Ocean. Born into the Shoshone tribe on their land of the Rocky Mountains, she was born in the lovely state of Idaho in 1788. Her story has been told all over the world in different countries and in many different ways. No one actually knows the real story of her life since all of her sources have been mixed up and combined into a different story. Sacajawea was shaped by three major events in different stages of her life ("Sacajawea").
In Machi ritual practices, wholeness or balance is associated with well-being and health, therefore the performative element of gender takes precedence over the concept of gender as associated with sex. In order to achieve wholeness, it is necessary to encompass male and female principles, as well as those of youth and old age. When performing healing rituals, a machi will “assume masculine, feminine and co-gendered identities”, moving between these identities or combining them (Bacigalupo, 2007, p. 45). These co-gendered identities are fundamental to machi ritual practices. Because of the performative aspects associated with the taking on co-gendered identities, male machi will dress in traditional women’s clothing. This allows them to perform and embody the feminine aspects associated with healing and fertility. Altered states of consciousness such as dreaming, visions and trance states are also considered feminine characteristic By the same token, female machi have the ability to on the masculine aspects associated with warfare, aggression and hunting, although they do not dress in male clothing.
FGM, specifically infibulation, is believed to have started in Arabia and then spread to Africa through a well-established trade route. FGM has never been considered a hygienic practice because most of the procedures make hygiene more difficult (Pieters). The sole purpose of FGM is to make sexual contact unsatisfactory for the woman, no matter what the motive is. Some girls go through FGM procedures at a young age to calm their fathers’ nerves and others undergo the procedures so she won’t stray from her husband. In Egypt, 97 percent of women have undergone a Female Circumcision procedure sometime in their lives while only 82 percent approve of it. An Indonesian study showed that midwives performed from about 68 to 88 percent of all procedures (Skaine 42). Most of the time, girls that receive a Female Circumcision don’t even get a chance to voice their opinions because they are too young when the procedure is performed.
Female circumcision is viewed as a disgusting and barbaric act by a majority of people in first world countries. The United States has even gone as far as to get an international law made to ban female circumcision because of the harmful physical and psychological problems associated with it. In the “Female Genital Cutting Fact Sheet” created and reviewed by Caroline Banquet-Walsh, Sandra Jordan, and Francesca Moneta I discovered that female genital mutilation is an e...
Female genital mutilation (also known as female circumcision) is the cutting of female clitoral hood and removing clitoris. Following the cutting of female genital organ, there are many short-term and long-term health risk problems, and even death due to some complicated infections. The reasons for performing female genital mutilation are connected with socio-cultural beliefs, attitudes, values and customs, transition of girls into womanhood, tradition and cultural heritage, the fear of not having access to resources and opportunities as a young woman, perception to reduce sexual desire of females; hence, will sustain premarital virginity, and maintain marital fidelity. Actions have taken at international, national and regional levels since the past many years and have begun to bear fruits, but the practice is still undergoing in many countries in the world and highly prevalent in Africa. To continue and motivate further reduction in changing the society’s attitudes towards female genital mutilation in the countries where the prevalence has remained stable so it’s therefor...
The transition of a boy to a man is very important to the Sambia, of New Guinea. This transition consists of an initiation ritual, which has 6 stages and takes between 13 and 20 years to complete. The first 3 stages are collectively focused, which I will discuss, and stages 4 through 6 are individually focused. This ritual helps to introduce the boys to male society, prepare them for adult responsibilities and is used to transmit culture (Nanda 2002: 132). The beliefs of the Sambia show a “warriors conception of manhood where men should be strong, brave, and unyielding in the pursuit of all tasks” (Herdt 1981: 50).
The exact origin of circumcision remains largely unclear. The earliest record of circumcision, however it is unclear of whether is originated here, comes from Egypt in the form of a carved image on a tomb depicting the circumcision of an adult (1). Historically it is also known that circumcision has been practiced ritualistically in West Africa and in the Middle East for 5000 and 300 years respectively but it is unclear weather is was adopted from the Egyptians or adapted on their own. (2) Circumcision also became a very important ritual to the Jewish and Muslim shortly after it was first practiced however this exact time is unclear (4). It was only until the late nineteenth century where circumcision was first practiced as a medically sanctioned procedure in Bri...
Many are unaware of the origin and reality of male circumcision and are under the impression that it is a painless and necessary procedure. While providing an explanation of a routine circumcision, being performed on an infant, Dr. Paul M. Fleiss reveals the gruesome truth that “…his foreskin must be torn from his glans, literally skinning it alive.” Most people do not imagine this is the way that a circumcision is performed, nor are they are aware of how the procedure originated. Male circumcision began in the US during the Victorian Era, as a punishment for masturbation, since the practice desensitizes the penis. As time and society progress, more medically relevant reasons are provided for this unnecessary, and barbaric surgery. The routine circumcision of infants should be discontinued, considering the possible health benefits have been greatly exaggerated and do not warrant abolishing a male’s right to control his own body. A lack of education coupled
In Searching for “Voices”: Feminism, Anthropology, and the Global Debates over Female Genital Operations, Walley discusses the social issues concerning female genital operations as perceived by “westerners”, as well as discusses her ethnographic account of female circumcision. Her main purpose of doing this was to lay the groundwork for “a more productive feminist and anthropological debate” capable of going beyond the binary terms in which female circumcisions are usually discussed. Since female circumcisions are known by a variety of names, such as female genital mutilation and female genital torture, and with her understanding of the negative connotation often associated with those varieties of names, Walley makes the decision to adopt the term female genital operations instead. In 1988, Walley went in the village of KiKhome, in western Kenya as an English teacher and immersed herself in the lives of the people living around the village to better understand the practice of female genital operations as an outsider. One day, some of her students invited her to assist at a female genital operation ceremony. She found out that the participants see circumcision as a rite of passage into adulthood. However, she truly wanted to know the participants’ personal views on the topic rather than the imposed views of their parents and their culture. The four women she interviewed told her that “their custom was good,” and it was something that a person needs to accept with her whole being not to feel the pain. Nevertheless, some of the women told her that they would not want their daughters to undergo circumcision, and that they themselves regretted having done the procedure. Walley finally gave up “searching for real voices,” because what t...