The Geography of Male and Female Genital Mutilations

Abstract

The desire by adults to attack the genitals of their infants and young children with sharp knives is a subject about which a tremendous amount has been written, the majority of which attempts to justify and “explain” it, but in a manner which leaves the larger cultural-social backdrop uncriticized. This paper will take a different approach, not only to criticize that “backdrop” but to lift it up, and get a good look at what's going on “behind the curtain” of this deeply emotional and brutal human drama. Genital mutilations were originally studied by the author as part of a larger investigation of the geographical and cross-cultural aspects of human behavior among subsistence-level, aboriginal peoples.1–3 The focus in this paper will be restricted mainly to the phenomenon of male and female genital mutilations, but the larger cross-cultural and psychological-emotional aspects will be exposed and discussed as well.