Essay 1

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Anthropology

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Oct 30, 2023

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Essay 1 Every society and population have culture. It’s what gives us our values, the traditions we learn and follow, the reason different societies follow different customs and practices. The belief of Santa Clause is just one example, in America the traditional Santa is a big man in a red suit with a long, white beard. But in the United Kingdom the traditional Father Christmas wore a green cloak, a wreath of holly or ivy, and carries a staff with him (Santas Around the World, n.d.). And in Spain children are visited by three men known as Los Reyes Magos (the three wise men), rather than just one. Anthropologists are the people that study all different cultures around the world. They give insight into the different traditions practiced by thousands of different cultures around the world. While doing so, anthropologists keep a holistic perspective (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, & McBride, 2016, p. 3) when studying and researching other cultures and practices. This is done in order to avoid ethnocentrism, the belief that your culture is the only proper or correct one (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, & McBride, 2016, p. 3). Avoiding biases such as that is important in anthropology so you can truly study and understand why other cultures have different beliefs and customs from your own. This is also important to understand cultural relativity, so you don’t use your own culture as a comparison to others and you can fully understand other cultures and why they think and behave differently. One of the biggest differences between cultures is each once has their own standards of beauty. In America, our beauty standards change with the times. In the 50s women like Marilyn Monroe were praised for having curves and being “bigger”, during the 90s/early 2000s being stick thin became the new standard (Body and Beauty Standards, 2021, p. 1), and women with curves were deemed as fat. Current beauty standards expect women to have curves but also have a small waist and flat stomach. This is where the talk of plastic surgery comes in, in 2020 women accounted for 98% of cosmetic plastic surgery done in the United States, with some of the top five procedures done being breast augmentation, liposuction, and nose jobs (Plastic Surgery Statistics Report, 2020, p. 11). Some of which were done on teenagers as young as 13 (Plastic Surgery Statistics Report, 2020, p. 6). While teenagers, ages 13-19, only make up roughly 2% (Plastic Surgery Statistics Report, 2020, p. 6). of the cosmetic surgery done that year, it’s still considered acceptable in America to allow a young teenager to get a non-medically necessary cosmetic surgery done. If we allow and see young women surgically changing their bodies here in the United States, why do some people so harshly judge other cultures similar practices? One example of another culture physically and surgically changing their bodies for non- medical reasons is female genital cutting. FGC is a procedure most common among African women and girls, which usually involves removing some, if not all, of the rest of the outer genitalia. FGC is classified into four different types, each of which depends on the extent of the genitalia removed. The first type, Type I, involves full removal of the clitoris. Because this type results in a smooth scar it’s very type to miss if examined by an untrained examiner. Type II, also known as Excision, is the most common type of FGC, which involves full removal of the clitoris and partial if not total removal of the labia minora. No stitches are involved in Type II which results in raw tissue fusing together during the healing process. Infibulation is the third type of FGC, in these cases almost all of the external genitalia is removed, resulting in a seal covering

the urethra and most of the vaginal opening. Any other type of mutilation is Type IV, this can include stretching the labia/clitoris, burning the clitoris and surrounding tissue, and even getting vaginal piercings. Why female genital cutting/circumcision and not female genital mutilation? Many women that have undergone FGC say that they would wish to stay circumcised given the choice, that being called “mutilated” is demeaning and barbaric language. A statement from 2009, from “African Women are Free to Choose” (Ahmadu, Ahmadu, Finoh, 2009), sheds light on how the women of Sierra Leone feel about the practice of FGC, and why women do it and want to do it. Despite the claims made against FGC, that it was designed by men to control women, that it eliminates sexual desire, the women of Sierra Leone openly disagree with these accusations. For them, it’s their transition into womanhood and a celebration of their heritage. They raise the point that the same women in the west that deem FGC as barbaric mutilation also celebrate “designer vaginas” and various vaginal cosmetic surgeries (Ahmadu, Ahmadu, Finoh, 2009),, all of which would fall of Type IV of FGC. In the west there’s multiple types of vaginal cosmetic surgeries that are openly promoted, including labiaplasties, clitoral hood reduction, labia majoraplasties, monsplasty, and vaginoplasty (Aesthetic Genital Plastic Surgery, n.d.). All of which include some form of cutting and/or removing the outer genitalia. But still FGC among African women is seen as disgusting and abusive, while FGC among western women is almost desired. This double standard is a good example of ethnocentrism. Since it’s a different culture than what others are used too it’s deemed as wrong, despite the immense support from the women that have gone through it themselves. For them, not being circumcised is what’s seen as disgusting, and women that aren’t usually become outcasts. This is where cultural relativity is needed, without it it’s a battle for one culture to be sign as “right” instead of the other, rather than understanding each culture has different reasons for what they believe is the right way to do things. It’s still an ongoing fight among multiple countries because of some wanting FGC to be made illegal and others wanting to continue their traditions. In the United States, FGC is completely against the law for any woman under 18 with no exceptions for tradition or culture. It’s punishable by fines or up to 5 years in prison (U.S. Government Fact Sheet on Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C), n.d.). However, as of 2018, places like Sudan, Liberia, Somalia and others, FGC is still completely legal (Bathas, 2018, p. 1). Somalia has the worlds highest amount of FGC procedures, with around 98% of the women living their having undergone circumcision, even though it’s constitution prohibits the practice, it has no actual laws criminalizing it (Bathas, 2019, p. 1). While FGC is one of the most criticized beauty standards, other cultures have different types of body modification to increase beauty. One example is neck elongation, a practice commonly used in India, Africa, and Asia, as a long neck is seen as beautiful and desirable. But this is a practice that could also been seen as harmful or abuse, since the neck isn’t actually lengthened, the collar bone and ribs actually get pushed down, making the neck look longer (History Daily, n.d.). That’s why it is typically started when girls are young as children’s bones are more pliable making it easier to push down the collar bones. Another tradition that could be criticized is scarification, usually done as a rite of passage during the transition from childhood to

adolescence in order to harden the body. This is done in African Tribes as well as Melanesia and Australia. Scarification has many techniques associated with it, including burning and branding, removing skin, cutting skin, interfering with the healing process to increase the scarring, and more. An example of a process of scarification is shown on a Surma woman in south-western Ethiopia (Garve et al., 2017). They use a wooden hook or sharp thorn to raise the skin, then remove the skin with a razor blade. The process takes several hours with ash and mud being put into the wounds to irritate it, and unsanitary water being used to wash away coagulated blood (Garve et al., 2017) . During the healing process scabs are continuously removed and again coated with mud and sometimes feces to increase the chances of keloid scarring (Garve et al., 2017), which is favored and wanted. As mentioned before, in the west we have our own ways of modifying our bodies that are generally deemed as socially acceptable here. Even at as young as 2-3 years old, young girls will be given hair extensions, fake eyelashes, fake teeth, just for child beauty pageants. For other cultures, that could be seen as abusive or wrong to modify your child’s body in those ways. Even during teenage years girls under 18 can get permission to get plastic surgery, such as breast augmentation, rhinoplasties, or liposuction. Every culture has it’s own different standards of beauty and different ways of achieving it, even if other cultures disagree with it. When it comes to female genital circumcision, it should be the opinion of the woman getting it that matters, rather than the opinions of others who may judge and demean their culture. The same should go for any type of body modification, if someone wants to elongate their neck or scar themselves it’s their choice to carry on that part of their tradition and culture.

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Citations Garve, R., Garve, M., Türp, J. C., Fobil, J. N., & Meyer, C. G. (2017). Scarification in sub- Saharan Africa: Social skin, remedy and medical import. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 22(6), 708-715. https://doi.org/10.1111/tmi.12878 Batha, Emma. “Factbox: Female Genital Mutilation around the World: A Fine, Jail or No Crime?” Reuters, 13 Sept. 2018, www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-fgm-lawmaking- factbox/factbox-female-genital-mutilation-around-the-world-a-fine-jail-or-no-crime- idUSKCN1LT2OS . “U.S. Government Fact Sheet on Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C).” Travel.state.gov, travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/fact-sheet- on-female-genital-mutilation-or-cutting.html#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20exception%20for. Harris, Karen. “Neck Elongation: Rare Facts & Stories about It You Haven’t Heard.” History Daily, historydaily.org/what-you-didnt-know-about-the-practice-of-neck-elongation/9. “Bradley University: Body & Beauty Standards.” Www.bradley.edu, www.bradley.edu/sites/bodyproject/standards/#:~:text=According%20to%20Hoff %20(2019)%2C . American Society of Plastic Surgeons. PLASTIC SURGERY STATISTICS REPORT 2020. 2020. “Santas around the World.” Worldstrides.com, 2023, worldstrides.com/blog/2018/12/santas- around-the-world/#:~:text=Today%2C%20Father%20Christmas%20closely%20resembles. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023. Vanguard, The Patriotic. “Statement by African Women Are Free to Choose (AWA-FC), Washington DC, USA.” The Patriotic Vanguard, 21 Feb. 2009, www.thepatrioticvanguard.com/statement-by-african-women-are-free-to-choose-awa-fc- washington-dc-usa . Haviland, William A, et al. The Essence of Anthropology. 4th ed., Australia, Cengage Learning, 2016.