An Intimate Rebuke : Female Genital Power in Ritual and Politics in West Africa /

An Intimate Rebuke : Female Genital Power in Ritual and Politics in West Africa /

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Throughout West African societies, at times of social crises, postmenopausal women--the Mothers--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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Grillo, Laura S., 1956- (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Durham : Duke University Press, 2018.
Series:Book collections on Project MUSE.
Subjects:
Religion.
Generative organs, Female > Religious aspects.
SOCIAL SCIENCE > Minority Studies.
SOCIAL SCIENCE > Discrimination & Race Relations.
Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography.
Femmes âgees > Côte-d'Ivoire > Vie religieuse.
Femmes âgees > Activite politique > Côte-d'Ivoire.
Organes genitaux femelles > Aspect symbolique > Côte-d'Ivoire.
Organes genitaux femelles > Aspect religieux.
Organes genitaux femelles > Aspect politique > Côte-d'Ivoire.
Older women > Religious life > Côte d'Ivoire.
Older women > Political activity > Côte d'Ivoire.
Generative organs, Female > Symbolic aspects > Côte d'Ivoire.
Generative organs, Female > Political aspects > Côte d'Ivoire.
Côte d'Ivoire.
Côte d'Ivoire > Religion.
Electronic books.
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Summary:Throughout West African societies, at times of social crises, postmenopausal women--the Mothers--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 Côte 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 Côte 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. Highlighting the remarkable continuity of the practice across centuries while foregrounding the timeliness of FGP in contemporary political resistance, Grillo shifts perspectives on West African history, ethnography, comparative religious studies, and postcolonial studies.
Physical Description:1 online resource (328 pages).
ISBN:9781478002635
Access:Open Access

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