Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Int J Impot Res. 2023 May;35(3):202-211. doi: 10.1038/s41443-022-00581-5. Epub 2022 Jun 14.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), customary female genital modification practices common in parts of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East are inherently patriarchal: they reflect deep-rooted inequality between the sexes characterized by male dominance and constitute an extreme form of discrimination against women. However, scholars have noted that while many societies have genital modification rites only for boys, with no equivalent rite for girls, the inverse does not hold. Rather, almost all societies that practice ritual female genital modification also practice ritual male genital modification, often for comparable reasons on children of similar ages, with the female rites led by women and the male rites led by men. In contrast, then, to the situation for boys in various cultures, girls are not singled out for genital modification on account of their sex or gender; nor do the social meanings of the female rites necessarily reflect a lower status. In some cases, the women's rite serves to promote female within-sex bonding and network building-as the men's rite typically does for males-thereby counterbalancing gendered asymmetries in political power and weakening male dominance in certain spheres. In such cases, and to that extent, the female rites can be described as counter-patriarchal. Selective efforts to discourage female genital modifications may thus inadvertently undermine women-centered communal networks while leaving male bonding rites intact. Scholars and activists should not rely on misleading generalizations from the WHO about the relationship between genital cutting and the social positioning of women as compared to men. To illustrate the complexity of this relationship, we compare patterns of practice across contemporary societies while also highlighting anthropological data regarding pre-industrial societies. Regarding the latter, we find no association between the presence of a female initiation rite and a key aspect of patriarchy as it is classically understood, namely, social endorsement of a gendered double-standard regarding premarital sexual activity. We situate this finding within the broader literature and discuss potential implications.
根据世界卫生组织（WHO）的说法，非洲、南亚和东南亚以及中东部分地区常见的女性生殖器切割习俗是固有父权制的：它们反映了男女之间根深蒂固的不平等，表现为男性主导，构成了对女性的极端形式的歧视。然而，学者们指出，虽然许多社会只有男孩的生殖器割礼，而没有女孩的等价割礼，但反之则不然。相反，几乎所有实行仪式性女性生殖器切割的社会也实行仪式性男性生殖器切割，通常是为了年龄相仿的男孩，女性仪式由女性领导，男性仪式由男性领导。相比之下，在各种文化中，女孩并没有因为性别而被单独挑选进行生殖器切割；女性仪式的社会意义也不一定反映出较低的地位。在某些情况下，女性仪式旨在促进女性之间的联系和网络建设，就像男性仪式通常为男性所做的那样，从而平衡政治权力中的性别不对称，并在某些领域削弱男性主导地位。在这种情况下，从某种程度上说，女性仪式可以被描述为反父权制的。因此，有选择性地劝阻女性生殖器切割可能会无意中破坏以女性为中心的社区网络，而保留男性纽带仪式。学者和活动家不应该依赖世卫组织关于生殖器切割与女性在社会中的地位与男性相比的关系的误导性概括。为了说明这种关系的复杂性，我们比较了当代社会的实践模式，同时强调了关于前工业化社会的人类学数据。关于后者，我们没有发现女性启蒙仪式与经典理解的父权制的一个关键方面之间存在关联，即社会对婚前性行为的性别双重标准的认可。我们将这一发现置于更广泛的文献中，并讨论了潜在的影响。
