Balancing on a knife’s edge An analysis of medicalized circumcision in the construction of self in Kajiado,Kenya (2012)

This study is a Exploratory research regarding All FGM/C with the following characteristics:

Author(s): Brendmo Elanor Halvorsen
FGM/C Type(s): All
Health area of focus: None.

Objective: To analyse how the form,meaning,and legitimization of male and female circumcision among the Maasai in Kajiado District changes with medicalization. Furthermore,it explores which implication these changes have on experiences of body and self
Study Population: Women,Men,Circumcisers,Grandmothers,Activists,Daughters
Findings: The study concluded by stating that whether one has a “small cut” or a “big cut”,a medicalized circumcision or a traditional one might have implication for whether your body is seen as strong or weak,as healthy or unhealthy,as traditional or modern. The type of cut becomes important in the construction of self. Medicalization was seen as one element in a larger development. Like the rapid changes in the Maasai society,medicalization was fraught with ambivalence. While it is seen as the best options for these new times,it is concurrently considered to have made the bodies weaker than before. The meaning and function of the ritual of circumcision has gone through a vast change,with the disappearance of pain. While some saw the “painless” circumcision as meaningless and a practice you might as well leave,other recreated the rituals within the realm of pain. The younger generation for instance claimed that it was not “the pain of the knife” which was the worst,but the pain of the healing period. In this way the transformative ritual was recreated and continued

Geographical coverage
Region(s):Eastern Africa
Country(ies):Kenya

Source