Transcultural Bodies : : Female Genital Cutting in Global Context / / ed. by Bettina K Shell-Duncan, Ylva K Hernlund.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Rutgers University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Ahmadu, Fuambai,; Boddy, Janice,; Dopico, Mansura,; Hernlund, Ylva,; Johansen, R. Elise B.,; Johnsdotter, Sara,; Johnson, Michelle C.,; Kratz, Corinne A.,; Moore, Henrietta L.,; Obiora, L. Amede,; Piot, Charles,; Rogers, Juliet,; Shell-Duncan, Bettina,; Talle, Aud,
• HerausgeberIn: Hernlund, Ylva K,; Shell-Duncan, Bettina K,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2007]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (432 p.)

Female "circumcision" or, more precisely, female genital cutting (FGC), remains an important cultural practice in many African countries, often serving as a coming-of-age ritual. It is also a practice that has generated international dispute and continues to be at the center of debates over women's rights, the limits of cultural pluralism, the balance of power between local cultures, international human rights, and feminist activism. In our increasingly globalized world, these practices have also begun immigrating to other nations, where transnational complexities vex debates about how to resolve the issue. Bringing together thirteen essays, Transcultural Bodies provides an ethnographically rich exploration of FGC among African diasporas in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. Contributors analyze changes in ideologies of gender and sexuality in immigrant communities, the frequent marginalization of African women's voices in debates over FGC, and controversies over legislation restricting the practice in immigrant populations.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Tables -- Preface -- 1. Transcultural Positions: Negotiating Rights and Culture -- 2. Gender Crusades: The Female Circumcision Controversy in Cultural Perspective -- 3. A Refuge from Tradition and the Refuge of Tradition: On Anticircumcision Paradigms -- 4. Female Circumcision in Africa and Beyond: The Anthropology of a Difficult Issue -- 5. Persistence of Tradition or Reassessment of Cultural Practices in Exile? Discourses on Female Circumcision among and about Swedish Somalis -- 6. Managing Cultural Diversity in Australia: Legislating Female Circumcision, Legislating Communities -- 7. Representing Africa in the Kasinga Asylum Case -- 8. Seeking Asylum, Debating Values, and Setting Precedents in the 1990s: The Cases of Kassindja and Abankwah in the United States -- 9. Making Mandinga or Making Muslims? Debating Female Circumcision, Ethnicity, and Islam in Guinea-Bissau and Portugal -- 10. Infibulation and the Orgasm Puzzle: Sexual Experiences of Infibulated Eritrean Women in Rural Eritrea and Melbourne, Australia -- 11. Experiencing Sex in Exile: Can Genitals Change Their Gender? On Conceptions and Experiences Related to Female Genital Cutting (FGC) among Somalis in Norway -- 12. “Ain’t I a Woman Too?”: Challenging Myths of Sexual Dysfunction in Circumcised Women -- 13. The Failure of Pluralism? -- Bibliography -- Index