November 1, 1995 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (408/459-2495)

UC SANTA CRUZ ANTHROPOLOGIST'S NEW BOOK OFFERS INSIGHT INTO AFRICAN CULTURAL PRACTICES THAT HAVE SPARKED OUTRAGE IN THE WEST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--For anthropologist Carolyn Martin Shaw, the decision to address the subject of female genital mutilation in her new book meant confronting much of the feminist rhetoric about clitoridectomy.

"I am not an apologist for this operation--I think it should be ended--but at the same time, I wanted to understand why women participate in it, and I wanted to see the cultural underpinnings that keep it going," says Martin Shaw, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Martin Shaw is the author of the just-published Colonial Inscriptions: Race, Sex, and Class in Kenya (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995), an artful study of Kenyan culture that uses works by historians and ethnographers, as well as novels and films, to reexamine the interactions of whites and blacks and the status of women.

What Martin Shaw discovered during more than twenty years of research was that for many women, clitoridectomy remains central to their identity as women. "Many women cannot imagine what a decent woman would be like if she didn't have this operation," says Martin Shaw. The practice, which is typically performed on girls between the ages of ten and fifteen, is associated with cleanliness and fertility (despite studies to the contrary, notes Martin Shaw). In many African societies, clitoridectomy is not associated with virginity; in some areas, girls traditionally were operated on but were not expected to refrain from premarital sex. Overwhelmingly, though, clitoridectomy stands as a test of a girl's ability to withstand pain--as a precursor to the pain of childbirth--and it remains a rite of adulthood, says Martin Shaw.

The tenacity of the practice is also rooted in cultural practices that have economic consequences, says Martin Shaw. "Having the operation is still equated with being pure, strong, complete--and desirable for marriage, so it is favored by mothers and fathers who want their daughters to have a better life and to be able to take care of themselves," notes Martin Shaw. Conversely, not having the operation is seen by many as unacceptably "modern" and a rejection of traditional values.

In a vivid illustration of the persistence of genital mutilation, Martin Shaw notes that members of the Kenyan national legislature who have helped to pass laws outlawing the practice have nevertheless chosen the operation for their daughters. Ninety-five percent of the women in a Kenyan village studied by Martin Shaw said they would have their daughters clitoridectomized. "In nearby Sudan, clitoridectomy represents elite status, so some members of the lower classes have started performing the operation to make claims to higher social status," adds Martin Shaw.

Ironically, the outrage over female genital mutilation that has been expressed by Western women since the practice became widely known in the mid-1980s may have encouraged the practice by fueling a backlash of support among African women, says Martin Shaw. "African women have been incensed by the reaction of American and European women," she says. "One thing that keeps it going is our critique of it." In her denunciation of female genital mutilation, Alice Walker claims a special connection to suffering African women because of race, but Martin Shaw, an African American scholar, does not find that her race provides a purview on the cultural depth of the practice.

For Martin Shaw, the challenge of trying to understand the cultural value and persistence of clitoridectomy was akin to her desire to examine the impact of blacks on whites in Kenya during the colonial period. In her book, Martin Shaw addresses the writings and experiences of a diverse group, including anthropologist Jomo Kenyatta, who became the first president of Kenya, paleontologist Louis Leakey, British memoirist Elspeth Huxley, Danish writer Isak Dinesen, and American novelist Robert Ruark. "The standard approach is to see that whites came to Africa, and Africans were reshaped," says Martin Shaw. "But it's also true that whites came to Africa, and they were changed. I challenge the conventional wisdom about what whites made out of Africa, and I show what Africa made out of them."

(This release is also available on UC NewsWire, the University of California's electronic news service. To access by modem, dial 1- 209-244-6971.)

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