Making the Mark is Published
Anthropology faculty member Miroslava Prazak published a new book on female genital cutting, Making the Mark: Gender, Identity, and Genital Cutting, in which she weaves together a rich mosaic of the voices contributing to the debate over this life-altering ritual.
Prazak examines the question of how circumcision affects the rights of girls in a culture where initiation forms the lynchpin of the ritual cycle at the core of defining gender, identity, and social and political status. The ethnography explores the complexities of genital cutting in the social, political, and cultural life of Kuria people in rural Kenya.
This is one of the few books on the subject of female genital cutting to give voice to evolving perspectives of practitioners--especially through a period of intense anticutting campaigning on the part of international NGOs, local activists, and donor organizations. Prazak presents the dilemmas families face in responding to human-rights anti-FGM discourse and initiatives.
Published by Ohio University Press.