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Ideology and social inequality in ritual mutilations of sexual features - Circumcision and excision are considered by functionalists within the ritual framework of initiation, whilst structuralists rather see mutilations as signs aimed at categorizing in terms of sex, descent group, etc. Psychoanalysts and feminists tend to make an association with the fear of castration. The author of this article opposes conspiracy theories. Circumcision and excision imply an act of violence against the human body. The author looks for hidden motives. In the literature many references to religious and hygienic motives can be found, but also (other) imaginary motives. They lead to the hypothesis that the genitals are a focus of phantasms, an ideal place to project partly conscious or completely unconscious human desires and fears. A specific and often unconscious motive may be that people want to distinguish themselves from other groups of people, who are considered as inferior, and from animals. In that case the ritual mutilation of sexual features would be a transition from nature to culture, i.e. in the minds of the people concerned. Circumcision and excision imply a fundamental inequality between the sexes in respect of the physical consequences and the accompanying symbolism. The paradox of excision is that manifest adversaries consider this operation as inhuman, whilst the women concerned often expect to become more human by it.
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How to Cite: Van Der Grijp, P. (1992) “Ideologie en sociale ongelijkheid bij rituele verminkingen van geslachtskenmerken”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen. 37(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95113