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OverviewThroughout 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 Cote d'Ivoire that spans three decades to illustrate how these rituals of Female Genital Power (FGP) constitute religious and political responses to abuses of power. When deployed in secret, FGP operates as spiritual warfare against witchcraft; in public, it serves as a political activism. During Cote d'Ivoire's civil wars FGP challenged the immoral forces of both rebels and the state. Grillo shows how the ritual potency of the Mothers' nudity and the conjuration of their sex embodies a moral power that has been foundational to West African civilization. Highlighting the remarkable continuity of the practice across centuries while foregrounding the timeliness of FGP in contemporary political resistance, Grillo shifts perspectives on West African history, ethnography, comparative religious studies, and postcolonial studies. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Laura S. GrilloPublisher: Duke University Press Imprint: Duke University Press Weight: 0.612kg ISBN: 9781478001201ISBN 10: 1478001208 Pages: 296 Publication Date: 07 December 2018 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of Contents"Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part I. Home and the Unhomely: The Foundational Nature of Female Genital Power 19 1. Genies, Witches, and Women: Locating Female Powers 21 2. Matrifocal Morality: FGP and the Foundations of ""Home"" 54 3. Gender and Resistance: The ""Strategic Essentialism"" of FGP 81 Part II. Worldliness: FGP in the Making of Ethnicity, Alliance, and the War in Côte D'Ivoire 117 4. Founding Knowledge/Binding Power: The Moral Foundations of Ethnicity and Alliance 121 5. Women at the Checkpoint: Challenging the Forces of Civil War 152 Part III. Timeliness: Urgent Situations and Emergent Critiques 171 6. Violation and Deployment: FGP in Politics in Côte D'Ivoire 175 7. Memory, Memorialization, and Morality 198 Conclusion. An Intimate Rebuke: A Local Critique in the Global Postcolony 228 Notes 239 References 255 Index 275"ReviewsAn Intimate Rebuke is strikingly original and unprecedented. Laura S. Grillo's anthropological investigation positions Female Genital Power as a powerful reminder of the agency of African women as the bearers of moral authority and the embodiments of ancestors. --Chantal Zabus, author of Out in Africa: Same-Sex Desire in Sub-Saharan Literatures and Cultures ""A detailed and thoughtful history of Côte d’Ivoire that gives due placement to civilian women who have largely been ignored in the definitive historical monographs. . . . Grillo’s scholarship has groundbreaking strengths. For those interested in religion, her detailed documentation of myth, ritual, secret societies, symbolism, witchcraft, and the appeal to the spiritual domain—and her defense of the inclusion of this knowledge as a requisite in understanding a country’s history—is utterly exquisite. . . . The work is inimitable—Grillo is sensitive, sensible, and devotes attention to detail."" -- Dianna Bell * Reading Religion * “Ultimately, Grillo demonstrates how knowledge of the moral authority of women elders remained and remains embedded in West Africa and that women enact FGP to defend not only social equity and justice but also their own rights. An Intimate Rebuke will be required reading for all future analysis of women’s authority and mobilization.” -- Jill E. Kelly * African Studies Review * “Grillo’s work redefines our understanding of the use of ritual and moral values in the current postcolonial political order by focusing on the ignored phenomenon of Female Genital Power.... Grillo’s work is an important contribution to the study of gender, religion, history, and politics, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire but also in the whole West African subregion.” -- Carole Ammann * Religious Studies Review * A detailed and thoughtful history of Cote d'Ivoire that gives due placement to civilian women who have largely been ignored in the definitive historical monographs. . . . Grillo's scholarship has groundbreaking strengths. For those interested in religion, her detailed documentation of myth, ritual, secret societies, symbolism, witchcraft, and the appeal to the spiritual domain-and her defense of the inclusion of this knowledge as a requisite in understanding a country's history-is utterly exquisite. . . . The work is inimitable-Grillo is sensitive, sensible, and devotes attention to detail. -- Dianna Bell * Reading Religion * Ultimately, Grillo demonstrates how knowledge of the moral authority of women elders remained and remains embedded in West Africa and that women enact FGP to defend not only social equity and justice but also their own rights. An Intimate Rebuke will be required reading for all future analysis of women's authority and mobilization. -- Jill E. Kelly * African Studies Review * Grillo's work redefines our understanding of the use of ritual and moral values in the current postcolonial political order by focusing on the ignored phenomenon of Female Genital Power.... Grillo's work is an important contribution to the study of gender, religion, history, and politics, particularly in Cote d'Ivoire but also in the whole West African subregion. -- Carole Ammann * Religious Studies Review * Author InformationLaura S. Grillo is Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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