Suomen Antropologi Volume 33, 1/2008

Articles

• Webb Keane:

  Religious Practice and the Claims of Anthropology: The Edvard Westermarck Memorial Lecture 2007

  Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 33(1) SPRING 2008, pp. 5-16.

• Janice Boddy:

  Legislating Against Culture: Efforts to end Pharaonic circumcision in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

  Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 33(1) SPRING 2008, pp. 17-32.

  Abstract

  Between 1920 and 1949 the British-led colonial government in Sudan embarked on a largely unsuccessful campaign to stop the practice of ‘female circumcision’ in the northern two thirds of the country, the part where Islam prevails. The form of genital cutting concerned has been identified as the most radical (type 3) in WHO publications, and accounts for approximately fifteen percent of cases world wide; it is practiced mainly in north east Africa, by people of several religious persuasions: Christian, Muslim, and indigenous. In Muslim Sudan it is referred to as ‘pharaonic purification’ and attributed to the ancient Egyptians; in Egypt it is referred to as ‘Sudanese’. The procedure, technically called infibulation, involves removing the protruding clitoris and small labia, then paring the large labia and fastening them together to cover the vaginal opening, leaving a very small opening for the elimination of waste. A thick layer of scar tissue develops that all but closes the entrance to the womb; this must be opened at marriage and further cut to enable birth. The practice has long been a requirement of marriageability in northern Sudan; it is ‘normalized’ and supported by a deep-seated cultural logic of which I have written at length that affirms the aesthetic and moral value of ‘covering’ or ‘closing’ (Boddy 1989). The harm infibulation does is well documented. Significantly, however, while it may condemn women to lives of suffering, it can continue precisely because it seldom immediately kills. Most girls heal and go on to become wives and mothers, though the long-term effects of genital cutting do increase subsequent risks to themselves and their offspring in pregnancy and birth (see e.g., WHO Study Group on Female Genital Mutilation and Obstetric Care 2006). My recent book, Civilizing Women: British Crusades in Colonial Sudan (2007), documents the steps taken by British colonial agents to stop pharaonic circumcision in Sudan, but is also concerned with the historical, political, and cultural contexts in which these efforts were situated. Here I focus on the final phase of the campaign, the law enacted in 1946 that made performing a pharaonic circumcision a criminal offense. But first, let me sketch the earlier phases of the project.

• Heike Drotbohm:

  Of Spirits and Virgins: Situating belonging in Haitian religious spaces in Montreal, Canada

  Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 33(1) SPRING 2008, pp. 33–50.

  Abstract

  So far religious encounters in migratory settings have been largely examined in relation to the pluralizing of religious cultures, the emerging of syncretisms as well as religious conversions. However, many migrants choose to live more than one religion at the same time and integrate themselves into several religious communities with different and sometimes opposing religious agendas. This article concentrates on the Haitian migrant community in Montreal, Canada. On the basis of the parallelisms between Vodou and Catholicism it first examines the parallels between different religious concepts and performances and second, the significance of particular Vodou spirits which act as mediators between different cultures. The article questions the idea of exclusive belongings and highlights the meaning of space as a differentiating factor in the diversification of religious meanings and messages in multicultural settings.

  Keywords Haitian diaspora, religious parallelism, space, spirit possession, syncretism, Vodou

Book Reviews

• Tuomas Pylkkö:

  Laura Aro and Bo Lönnqvist (eds). Autenttinen ihminen—Tulkintoja irtautumisen etnografiasta

  Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 33(1) SPRING 2008, p. 54

• Annika Teppo:

  Arun Saldanha. Psychedelic White: Goa trance and the viscosity of race

  Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 33(1) SPRING 2008, p. 57

Research Reports

• Miia Halme:

  Lectio Praecursoria. Human Rights in Action

  Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 33(1) SPRING 2008, pp. 38-40

• Kati Uusihakala:

  Lectio Praecursoria. Memory Meanders: Place, home and commemoration in an ex-Rhodesian diaspora community

  Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 33(1) SPRING 2008, pp. 41-46

Essays

• Johanna Niemi:

  Janice Boddy. Civilizing Women: British crusades in Colonial Sudan

  Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 33(1) SPRING 2008, pp. 47-53