Female Circumcision and Genital Operations in Egypt and the Sudan: A Dilemma for Medical Anthropology

Abstract

Editor's Note: The author of this W. H. R. Rivers prize essay, a medical student simultaneously working on an M. A. in anthropology, reviews medical information on the sequelae of the various forms of genital surgery performed in Egypt and the Sudan and examines these procedures in cultural context. This juxtaposition of the health consequences of the procedures and their cultural meanings serves to raise in dramatic form both ethical and methodological issues inherent in the cultural relativist stance of our discipline. I have therefore asked several anthropologists to comment on the essay. The five commentators have been selected because they have carried outfieldwork in Egypt, the Sudan, or another area of Africa where female genital operations are performed and/or because they are concerned generally with issues of gender and health.