Changing practices and shifting meanings of female genital cutting among the Maasai of Arusha and Manyara regions of Tanzania

Abstract

Using mixed methods that combined participant observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews, this study looked at changing practices and shifting meanings of female genital cutting among the Maasai people in Tanzania. The findings suggest that an increasing social pressure to abandon female genital cutting has inspired the hiding of the practice, causing the actual cutting to become detached from its traditional ceremonial connotations. This detaching of cutting from ceremony has created a shift in meanings: the ceremony still carries the meaning of passage into adulthood, while the cutting seems to function as a way of inscribing Maasai identity into the body. The detaching of genital cutting from ceremony offers those willing to continue the practice the opportunity to do so without being prosecuted, and those unwilling to undergo or perform the practice the opportunity to evade it by faking the cutting without being socially sanctioned for it. Findings also suggest changing attitudes towards the practice among the younger generation as the result of education. Maasai culture and the practice of female genital cutting are not static but actively challenged and reinterpreted from within the community, with formally schooled and women taking up leading roles in reshaping gender norms.

Education, Class, and Female Genital Cutting among the Samburu of Northern Kenya: Challenging the Reproduction of the “Ignorant Pastoralist” Narrative in Anticutting Campaigns

“…Many Samburu families continue cutting in secret, often at an earlier age, and sometimes make a less invasive cut which is referred to as Sunna (see also Graamans et al, 2018, p. 80). Similar trends have also been found among other communities in Kenya ( Kiage et al, 2014 ; Van Bavel, 2019 ) and in Tanzania ( Van Bavel et al, 2017 ). Some “analogue” interlocutors who knew the anticutting rhetoric simply disagreed with it.…”

Lessons learned from implementing alternative rites in the fight against female genital mutilation/cutting

“…Practicing people account for it in a variety of ways, even within a single community [14-16]. To complicate things further, there is no standard set of practices -in fact, there are four types of cutting in FGM/C- and also the meanings ascribed to the practice have changed over time [17]. This situation suggests that an implemented intervention that works one day will not necessarily work in the future.…”

“…Second, a perceived 'culture clash' when programs are seen as a form of outsider interference, might actually strengthen the commitment to practices such as FGM/C instead of weaken it [22]. Third, because meanings ascribed to FGM/C are continuously changing [17] and are multi-faceted [15, 16] programs can lever change effectively at one point in time but be superfluous or even contra-indicated at another point in time. Programs also need to be contextualized to a specified target community, since there simply is no one-size-fits-all or holy grail approach.…”

“…As earlier research indicates, although for many the practice of FGM/C signifies a transition from girlhood to womanhood, it simultaneously functions as more than just a rite of passage [14-17], though this particular function is the focal aspect by which ARPs are intended to lever change. To complicate things further, several Maasai and Samburu women had expressed that the practice of FGM/C does not feel like a rite of passage at all [14].…”

Correction to: Au-delà de la volonté: les conditions d’empowerment nécessaires pour abandonner les mutilations génitales féminines à Conakry (Guinée), une ethnographie focalisée

“…En fait, étant donné que les dynamiques socioculturelles liées à la pratique des MGF sont hétérogènes en fonction de divers facteurs (ex. les régions géographiques) [ 6 ] et évoluent dans le temps [ 23 , 24 ], nous soutenons qu’il faudrait une mobilisation colossale de ressources (y compris de temps) pour réaliser une ethnographie classique avant de mettre en œuvre chaque stratégie de santé publique afin qu’elle soit adaptée à son contexte socioculturel [ 9 ], puisque ce type d’exploration implique une longue immersion sur le terrain [ 25 ]. L’ethnographie focalisée est.…”