An Intimate Rebuke : Female Genital Power in Ritual and Politics in West Africa / Laura S. Grillo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grillo, Laura S., 1956- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (306 pages)

Other Title:

Knowledge Unlatched.

Place of Publication:

Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 2019.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Throughout West African societies, at times of social crises, postmenopausal women â€" the Mothers â€" make a ritual appeal to their innate moral authority. The seat of this power is the female genitalia. Wielding branches or pestles, they strip naked and slap their genitals and bare breasts to curse and expel the forces of evil. In An Intimate Rebuke Laura S. Grillo draws on fieldwork in Cà ́te d'Ivoire that spans three decades to illustrate how these rituals of Female Genital Power (FGP) constitute religious and political responses to abuses of power. When deployed in secret FGP operates as spiritual warfare against witchcraft; in public it serves as a political activism. During Cà ́te d'Ivoire's civil wars FGP challenged the immoral forces of both rebels and the state. Grillo shows how the ritual potency of the Mothers' nudity and the conjuration of their sex embodies a moral power that has been foundational to West African civilization.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

KU Select 2018: HSS Frontlist Books

BiblioBoard internal publisher id: 102071

ISBN:

9781478091639

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access