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

by Laura S. Grillo

Book Overview

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 C te d'Ivoire that spans three decades to illustrate how these...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1478001550
• ISBN13: 9781478001553
• Release Date: December 2018
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary