I'm Explaining Genital Mutilation and Cultural Relativism, So Eat Me!
Everybody had pretty good points regarding the whole circumcision issue. It's actually much more difficult to tackle this issue than it seems.
First off, clitorodectomy (cutting off the clitoris) and infibulation (cutting off much more) is absolutely illegal in the U.S., despite the fact that it is still somewhat prevalent. Male circumcision, however, is not. This practice is extremely prevalent in Africa and parts of the Middle East. It is mainly a Muslim tradition, though it is not commanded in Islam. There are a number of reasons why females get circumcized:
-attractive to males--traditional women believe that no man would marry an uncircumsized woman.
-reduce sex drive, but not for men.
-sanitation and health, though the exact opposite is true. Actually, this puts the woman at great danger of getting infections, tumors, cysts, menstrual problems, urinary tract infections, and can be a major health risk to birthing.
-it's always been done this way. Okay, virtually every culture uses this excuse.
The problem is, feminist anthropologists (mainly American) have tried to educate women about the risks of genital mutilation, but the traditions have a tendency of overpowering their cultural gender role. Therein lies the problem. You can offer up education, but you can't force it on a culture with strong traditions toward particular gender roles.
Feminism in Africa, the Middle East, and other countries can be extremely different from American feminism, depending on whether you're fighting against traditional norms and typified gender roles, or whether you command the respect of your family only exclusively in your household.
Franz Boas (father of modern American Anthropology) insisted upon studying a culture from the context of its own historical development. That basically means you can't place your own values and beliefs onto that of another culture and expect them to line up. I personally believe that circumcision female and male is a highly unnecessary, outdated tradition. But if African women want to put a stop to this, they're going to have to speak out, and request the information we have ready for them. An important goal for an Anthropologist to remember is that while they usually are an agent of change, they are to do what they can to learn about the culture without alienating it, which they will surely do by telling the culture what they think is right and wrong. Stoicism is absolutely important.
Let me know if you think I missed a point.
Another question, you say? Okay.
Are there circumstances in which cannibalism is acceptable, even encouraged?
First off, clitorodectomy (cutting off the clitoris) and infibulation (cutting off much more) is absolutely illegal in the U.S., despite the fact that it is still somewhat prevalent. Male circumcision, however, is not. This practice is extremely prevalent in Africa and parts of the Middle East. It is mainly a Muslim tradition, though it is not commanded in Islam. There are a number of reasons why females get circumcized:
-attractive to males--traditional women believe that no man would marry an uncircumsized woman.
-reduce sex drive, but not for men.
-sanitation and health, though the exact opposite is true. Actually, this puts the woman at great danger of getting infections, tumors, cysts, menstrual problems, urinary tract infections, and can be a major health risk to birthing.
-it's always been done this way. Okay, virtually every culture uses this excuse.
The problem is, feminist anthropologists (mainly American) have tried to educate women about the risks of genital mutilation, but the traditions have a tendency of overpowering their cultural gender role. Therein lies the problem. You can offer up education, but you can't force it on a culture with strong traditions toward particular gender roles.
Feminism in Africa, the Middle East, and other countries can be extremely different from American feminism, depending on whether you're fighting against traditional norms and typified gender roles, or whether you command the respect of your family only exclusively in your household.
Franz Boas (father of modern American Anthropology) insisted upon studying a culture from the context of its own historical development. That basically means you can't place your own values and beliefs onto that of another culture and expect them to line up. I personally believe that circumcision female and male is a highly unnecessary, outdated tradition. But if African women want to put a stop to this, they're going to have to speak out, and request the information we have ready for them. An important goal for an Anthropologist to remember is that while they usually are an agent of change, they are to do what they can to learn about the culture without alienating it, which they will surely do by telling the culture what they think is right and wrong. Stoicism is absolutely important.
Let me know if you think I missed a point.
Another question, you say? Okay.
Are there circumstances in which cannibalism is acceptable, even encouraged?
posted by BoneDaddy at 9:13 PM
3 Comments:
Cannibalism...wow, that's just creepy. The only situation that comes to my mind is the Donner Party. You know, the group of settlers that made their way out on the Oregon Trail but they didn't have any concept of the seasons or months and they hit the trail right before winter hit and the group of people ended up trying to find their way to Oregon in the snow. From history books, they broke off into groups out in the snow. As people became weak, the stronger and youth ate the weak. I see that as an instinct to live no matter how grewsome and ugly that may be. But did that make their choice right...I don't know. Most of them ended up dying anyway, yes, even some of the children. We don't even know if people were really sick or if they just hated someone for leading them in the wrong direction so they ate them to get back at them. Starvation and cold can mess with a person's thought. I really don't know if it was justifiable.
Have you seen ALIVE!? The soccer team that ate the dead to stay alive for like 3 months or somthing like that. I think that was acceptable. In a documentary on the Discovery channel, one of the team members stated that he does not regret eating his teammates for servival. He said it was done out of respect and after the first one... it was agreed apon by the entire group, that if you die, you knew the fate of your body and gave permission. The guy said that he would do it again if he had to.
I think the only time cannibalism will be okay is under life or death circumstances- but it's still not going to be a talked about topic. "Oh, hey, remember when we noshed on Jim back on that boat?" Not even...
On your other topic, I don't think any sort of circumcism is a good thing- both are a form of mutilation of the body, and for those who want to argument that it's healthier for guys, teach their parents to teach them good hygiene as kids.
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