Transcript Ritual Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Female Circumcision in Egypt …

Ritual
Chapter 3- Week 5
Miner- Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
Gordon- Female Circumcision in Egypt …
Ritual
• Rituals involve:
– Predictability
– Some times change
• Turner’s definition
– “Ritual is a stereotyped sequence of activities involving gestures,
words & objects, performed in a sequestered place & designed
to influence magical forces on behalf of actor’s goals &
interests.”
• Durkheim’s definition
– “True nature of religion is ritual participation.”
• Wallace’s definition
– “Ritual is the primary phenomenon of religion, religion in action;
the cutting edge of the tool.”
Types of Rituals
– Rites of passage: passage from one state of
life to a new state of life
• Involves recognition of change
• 3 stages involving separating, luminal space,
outside normal, aggregation to normal.
– Separation
– Liminal
– Aggregation
– Rites of intensification
• continuously reoccur
• Recognition of the continuality of life
Wallace’s five ritual categories
• Technological ritual- control nature
• Therapy & anti-therapy rituals- control health
• Ideological rituals- try to control behavior
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Rites of passage
Rites of intensification
Taboos
Rites of rebellion
• Salvation rituals- control one’s fate/destiny,
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control one’s identity
Revitalization rituals- control community’s fate,
identity.
Rituals as Performance
• Ritual as a theater
– Acting but not “just pretending”
– Games, sports, theater and rituals share basic
qualities
Efficacy
Entertainment Performance
Rites of Passage
• Mark the transition from one stage of life,
season, or event to another.
• “Life cycle” or “Life Crisis” rituals
– i.e. birth, initiation, marriage & death.
– Threefold structure
Separation
transition incorporation
Preliminal
liminal
postliminal
Body Ritual Among
the Nacirema
Chapter 3 Lehman & Myer
By Horace Miner
Body Rituals Among the Nacirema
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Nacirema Culture
-poorly understood
-background
-ritual activity
-focus on the physical body
Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
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Body Ritual
-underlying approach to the body
-daily ceremonies and rites
-shrines
-charms and magical potions
-specialized practitioners
-rites of ablution
Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
“Holy-Mouth-Men”
 -Nacirema oral fixation
 -social impact
 -mouth-rites
 -specialist ceremonial treatment
 -masochistic tendencies?
Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
Latipso
 -temples of the medicine men
 -ritual purification
 -gifts and payment
 -exposing the body
 -temple ceremonies
 -faith
Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
The “Listener”
 -witch doctor
 -susceptibility of children
 -curses and “counter-magic”
Conclusions
 -practices based on an aversion to the body
 -functions ritualized and distorted
 -magic-ridden culture
 -self-imposed burdens
 -position of insight?
Female Circumcision in Egypt
and Sudan: A Controversial Rite
of Passage
Article by Daniel Gordon
Chapter 3- Ritual
Outline
Female Circumcision in the Arab
World
-limited literature
-growing awareness/activism of
“female genital mutilation”
-concerns about passivity
Female Genitalia Operations
Literal circumcision, sunna, “duty” in Arabic
Excision or clitoridectomy & “intermediate
circumcision”
Pharaonic circumcision, tahara forowniyya,
“infibulation”
Rural and urban approaches to operation
Geographic prevalence info
Egypt
less survey info
lower prevalence/more moderate procedures
except Nubian south
El Dareer’s Survey
-extensive statistical survey (1977-81)
-Northern Sudan
-type prevalence
-education level as a factor
-dayas
Recognized Women’s Health
Concern
Egyptian and Sudanese statutes against
radical forms
El Dareer’s work to educate
difficult to assess extent of health problems
culture specific issues
complications described (not quantified)
immediate and chronic concerns
childbirth, sex
medical and psychological sequelae
Endurance of the Practice
-public resistance to enforcement
-religion and tradition-based
rationales
-evidence of religious validation?
-interplay between doctrine and
cultural sense of propriety
-rite of passage?
Cultural Issues
Arabic Code of Modesty
separation and seclusion for women
culturally conceived idea of female sexuality
genital operations as substitutes for total
seclusion
issues of patrilineal purity and changing
conditions
Women Advocates
role of the daya
focus on fertility and de-emphasizing sexuality
“enclosedness”
assertive and symbolic act controlled by women
Other Issues
Issues for Opponents
culturally embedded solutions
peripheral incorporation into health care
system
WHO “passive stance”
Changing Conditions
mothers as a barometer for change
effects of Westernization/urbanization
Cross-Cultural Ethics
-integrating concerns and methods
-position of advocacy
-anthropological perpetuation of a
“cover-up”
-female genital operations as a test
case
-a new integrative model?
-advocating a positioned approach