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Oct. 31st, 2012 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogWe had an interesting talk in my anthropology class today about female genital modification (FGM). My professor likened popular perception of the issue to any number of other issues that revolve around women; it looks at women as passive recipients of the action and doesn't account for the role of any agency on their own part in it.
I'd used FGM in conversation with a couple of other people as an example of where I felt cultural relativism can go too far. But perhaps the issue is more complicated and nuanced than I originally thought (as are so many things perceived more toward the black and white end of the spectrum). We talked about women's perception of FGM. Our textbook also has an account of an anthropologist from a culture that practices FGM; she wrote about her choice to return home for the procedure and what it meant to her.
There are a wide variety of FGM practices, from versions that are rather less invasive and damaging than male circumcision, to versions that are much more so. We can argue that women are forced by their societal framework to undergo the procedure, but the same could be argued about adult male circumcision as well, which, for me at least, provided a bit more relativity in my perception of it.
And perhaps of most direct relevance to people in Western society, attempts to stop FGM are really having the opposite effect. Especially the more extreme forms become more common and widespread as a result of outsiders trying to ban traditional practices. It becomes a symbol of cultural identity and solidarity; a rejection of outsiders who come in from out of the blue and want to tell people what they can and can't do.
I'd used FGM in conversation with a couple of other people as an example of where I felt cultural relativism can go too far. But perhaps the issue is more complicated and nuanced than I originally thought (as are so many things perceived more toward the black and white end of the spectrum). We talked about women's perception of FGM. Our textbook also has an account of an anthropologist from a culture that practices FGM; she wrote about her choice to return home for the procedure and what it meant to her.
There are a wide variety of FGM practices, from versions that are rather less invasive and damaging than male circumcision, to versions that are much more so. We can argue that women are forced by their societal framework to undergo the procedure, but the same could be argued about adult male circumcision as well, which, for me at least, provided a bit more relativity in my perception of it.
And perhaps of most direct relevance to people in Western society, attempts to stop FGM are really having the opposite effect. Especially the more extreme forms become more common and widespread as a result of outsiders trying to ban traditional practices. It becomes a symbol of cultural identity and solidarity; a rejection of outsiders who come in from out of the blue and want to tell people what they can and can't do.
