Menstrual Taboos Research Articles

English

The Gumuz are indigenous peoples in Northwest Ethiopia having their own unique cultural values and traditions among which marriage practices and gender role socialization are just two of them and this study aimed to explore these practices. The study was conducted in Dibate District, Benishangul Gumuz Region, using inductive qualitative ethnographic design. Participants were adolescent school girls, mothers, elderly women, experts from culture and tourism, and Women, Youth and Children’s Affairs offices and experts from non-governmental organizations. Participants were selected using snow ball sampling techniques. Data were collected from twenty-five participants through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation. Data collected through these methods were analyzed thematically. Parental beliefs, gender role expectations, menstrual and delivery practices, food taboos, sister exchange marriage, polygyny and females considered as male ‘properties’ were the major themes emerged from data analysis. The findings of this study imply that there is a need for awareness creation education on gender equality and about the negative consequences of avoiding some types of food items by Gumuz females. Key words: Gumuz, food taboos, sister exchange marriage, menstrual taboos.

Theorizing a model information pathway to mitigate the menstrual taboo.

The impact of menstruation on the society is directly seen in the educational opportunities, quality of life and professional endeavors of females. However, lack of menstrual hygiene management has indirect implication on the balance and development of the society and nation. This study is set in the Indian context. The researcher identifies actors with a potential of mitigating menstrual taboo and then theorizes an optimal information pathway to mitigate menstrual taboo. Diffusion of innovation, framing and agenda setting theories contribute as frameworks in the creation of an optimal pathway to dissolve the menstrual taboo. The actors identified in this model are scholars, health activists, students, NGOs, media, government, corporations and villages or communities. The determinants for the direction and the order of the pathway to diffuse knowledge and confidence among these actors are the ultimate goal and sustainability of the model, strengths and weaknesses of actors, and actors' extent of influence. Considering the absence of an existing alternate, this model pathway provides a solid framework purely from a theoretical perspective. Theoretically, this model pathway is possible, practical and optimal.

“I Didn't Tell Anyone Because I Was Very Afraid”: Girls' Experiences of Menstruation in Contemporary Ethiopia

ABSTRACTMenstrual health is central to girls' well-being and connected to their rights to health, education, safety, nondiscrimination, and autonomy. This article reports an investigation of girls' experiences of menstruation in present-day Ethiopia. Results, based on data collected from 120 girls in two regions, illustrate the challenges associated with menstruation, including menstrual taboos and cultural beliefs about menstruation, myths about menstruation and sex, restrictive social expectations related to marriage, and interpersonal interactions. These challenges diminish girls' health, education, safety, and autonomy and, in so doing, underscore the relevance of menstrual health to human rights agendas that seek to advance girls' well-being.

Mini-k’iwh’e:n (For That Purpose—I Consider Things)

Historically, studies of Indigenous menstrual practices were mired in assumptions that these practices were oppressive toward women. The high regard for menstruation as demonstrated through Indigenous women’s coming of age ceremonies and the continuing rituals of menstruation among Indigenous peoples has not been critically engaged with, and is often relegated to dismissive and oversimplified statements. The Western menstrual taboo not only influences theories of Indigenous menstrual customs but also relies on settler colonial rhetoric to help support a continuing politics of taboo. Although there have been numerous cultural studies of modern menstrual discourse focused on how contemporary Western menstrual practices are rooted in patriarchal bias, even self-declared feminist literature treats the menstrual taboo as nearly universal to Indigenous menstrual practices. This article provides an Indigenous feminist critique of contemporary menstrual discourse. I begin with a short history of settler colonialism and menstrual discourse and then analyze contemporary popular menstrual discourse. The final part of this article is an intervention on the assumed Indigenous menstrual taboo by looking at menstrual practices of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, located in Northern California, to demonstrate that for this culture and society, there is no menstrual taboo. It is through this in-depth analysis of Hupa menstrual practices that we see how Indigenous feminisms challenge settler colonialism and provide a decolonizing lens to contemporary scholarship that not only imagines alternative analyses but also acknowledges that these alternatives did, have always, and will always exist.

Claiming the public sphere: Menstrual taboos and the rising dissent in India

abstractThe stigma of ‘purity and pollution’ that is associated with the menstruation of women is deeply embedded in the Indian culture and curtails women’s freedom of movement, the right to education and the right to worship. Feminists and legal activists have questioned the widespread practices of menstrual taboos and the need to place limits on menstruating women’s entry to places of worship and the public sphere. The activism around menstruation that has recently erupted has resulted in protests and legal challenges which seek to reaffirm women’s right to control their own bodies and for their monthly menstruation to be free from social and religious practices which in effect involve segregation, exclusion and often humiliation.

Religious restrictions and cultural taboos related to menstruation in adolescent girls: A school-based cross-sectional observational study

Introduction: The period of adolescence needs special attention because of the turmoil an adolescent faces at different stages of development, different circumstances and needs, and diverse problems. In India, there are multiple restrictions and taboos related to menstruation. In many communities, the mention of the topic is taboo even today. Objective: To evaluate the religious restrictions and other taboos practiced during menstruation by adolescent school girls. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conductedin four schools. Girls in the age group of 13-18 years, who have attained menarche and gave verbal consent to participate, were included in the study. A pre-designed, validated questionnaire that captured information on the cultural taboos practiced during menstruation was administered to the participants. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 15 and the percentage of menstral taboos that were practiced on average was determined. Factor analysis was done to determine the most practiced taboo. Results: A total of 1522 adolescent girls participated in the study. The average age of attaining menarche was 13.08±3.5 years. 81.2% (n=1236) of the participants, predominantly from the Hindu community, did not attend religious functions during menstruation. More than half of them (56.6%) did not sleep in their usual place during menstruation. 40.1% of them (n=611) were not allowed to enter the kitchen. 69.3% (n=1054) of the participants had restrictions on certain food items. Only 5.4% (n=82) of them did not go to school during menstruation. Factor analysis showed that the two most important factors contributing to the taboos were restrictions on religious functions and on sleeping in the same place. Menstrual taboos were prevalent more in younger and less-educated girls (p=0.037 and 0.000, respectively). Conclusion: Restrictions during menstruation are still prevalent in many communities. The two most important cultural taboos are sleep restrictions and religious restrictions. Cultural taboos are prevalent more among less-educated and younger adolescent girls.

A ‘Discreet Dance’: technologies of menstrual management in Australian public toilets during the twentieth century

Across the twentieth century, the technologies available to Australian women for managing menstruation were transformed. Products for staunching blood flow changed from bulky, re-usable rags to ‘invisible’, disposable pads and tampons. Disposal facilities changed from the humble waste bin, through to incinerators, and eventually to specialised, antibacterial ‘sanitary disposal units’. The greatest impact of these shifts was felt in public toilets: places where women must deal with private bodily functions in semi-public, communal environments. Promotional materials for menstrual products and disposal facilities promised that use of their technologies would obviate age-old menstrual taboos, emancipating women from the anxiety and mortification long associated with menstruation. This paper draws upon oral histories to argue that by the close of the twentieth century the reverse was true. Increasingly efficacious and convenient menstrual products meant that Australian women could more convincingly maintain ‘menstrual etiquette’ by keeping their monthly bleeding almost completely concealed.

An exploration of mothers' attitudes towards their daughters' menarche

Menarche is a significant milestone for young women, representing an important juncture between girlhood and maturation. The limited literature that exists suggests that a mother's reaction to her daughter's first periods can shape her experiences and perceptions of menstruation which, in turn, may impact on her self-image and, consequently, sexual risk taking. However, very little is known about UK mothers' attitudes towards their daughters' menarche. This paper aims to add to the body of knowledge by applying a postmodern critique, a Derridian deconstructive analysis, to a discussion thread found on mumsnet.com – a UK parenting website. The thread is concerned with a mother's response to her daughter's menarche to which other mothers respond. The deconstruction revealed a number of meta-narratives and themes within the text: secrecy, sorrow, a lack of competency and knowledge, power, gender and motherhood. Unwittingly, the women appear to be socialising their daughters to comply with and perpetuate the menstrual taboo that they endured themselves, thus repeating the cycles of shame associated with menstruation. The findings of this critique suggest that menstrual education is an area that requires more attention, particularly in the context of perceived menstrual shame and its impact on sexual decision-making.

Reframing Menstruation in India: Metamorphosis of the Menstrual Taboo With the Changing Media Coverage

In this study I hypothesize metamorphosis of the menstrual taboo by examining the image and perception shifts of two social taboos—HIV/AIDS and homosexuality—from estranged taboos to embraced social issues. Trends identified in their media framing and respective image shifts were applied to menstruation in India. Based on my understanding of theory, topic, and geographical location, I construct a metamorphosis. I contribute the hypothesized final stage of metamorphosis, and explain how framing is likely instrumental in bringing about these changes.

The personal experience of dysmenorrhoea: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

This study explored six women's experiences of primary dysmenorrhoea using semi-structured interviews analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Rather than focusing on pain, participants broadened the study focus to coping with the menstrual process as a whole. This was seen to be mediated by menstrual taboos and by the theme of 'order', arising from a strong feeling of a menstrual timetable and the need for rational explanation. Another theme was pain as a separate entity, which was connected to the theme of order. Placing dysmenorrhoea in its context may be useful for health-care professionals treating women with the condition.

Women wearing white: Discourses of menstruation and the experience of menarche

This study examines how dominant societal discourses of menstruation are appropriated, rejected, or interpreted as adolescent girls make meaning of their menarche. Thirteen women ages 18–21 participated in flexible in-depth interviews to retrospectively recount their menarcheal experience. A variation of the Reading Guide was used for primary data analysis, which identified four themes highlighting girls’ ambivalence regarding menarche. Participants were conflicted at menarche about their putative status as ‘women’; used imprecise, distancing language when discussing menstruation; engaged in material and discursive practices of concealing menstruation; and referenced a community of menstrual suffering. Further, discourse analysis of participants’ talk suggests their continued discomfort. We argue that girls experience menarche ambivalently in relation to menstrual taboos, body shame and emergent womanhood. Negative discourses of menstruation and women’s bodies converge to set girls on a problematic gendered trajectory at menarche that can be expected to inform meaning making and experiences across the lifespan.

Construction of Negative Images of Menstruation in Indian TV Commercials

Menstruation is a perfectly normal physiological process; however, it is problematized in TV commercials. In the current study, a thematic analysis of 50 Indian TV commercials was conducted to identify the latent themes. Social captivity, restrictions, professional inefficiency, and physical and mental discomfort emerged as major themes after the analysis. The knowledge that manufacturers use such themes for image building and creating a conducive buying environment may prevent the reinforcement of menstrual taboos in Indian society. It can also guide the manufacturers in ideating and creating positive and healthier ways of advertising female hygiene products.

The Function of Ethnicity, Income Level, and Menstrual Taboos in Postmenarcheal Adolescents’ Understanding of Menarche and Menstruation

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in knowledge about menstruation, feelings of preparation for menarche, and menstrual attitudes of early adolescent girls from different ethnic groups and income levels. An interaction between ethnicity and income level was also investigated. Participants were 165 postmenarcheal adolescent girls’ (ages 11–15) from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, who were categorized into four groups: higher income European Americans, lower income European Americans, higher income African Americans, and lower income African Americans. It was predicted that African Americans, lower income participants, and lower income African Americans would score lower on a menstrual knowledge test, report feeling less prepared for menarche, and report more negative menstrual attitudes (i.e., fewer positive feelings about menstruation, more negative feelings about menstruation, and less openness toward menstruation) than European Americans, higher income participants, and any other income level and ethnicity grouping. Not all hypotheses were fully supported. Participants’ lacked accurate menstrual knowledge and felt unprepared for menarche, but menstrual attitudes were ambivalent. Ethnicity and income level alone did not play a substantial role in girls’ understanding of menarche and menstruation; however, they did interact. Overall, higher income European Americans fared better than the other participants. Theories and research regarding girls’ understanding of menarche and menstruation must take sociocultural factors into account.

Conservation Is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea (review)

Reviewed by: Conservation Is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea Alex Golub Conservation Is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea, by Paige West. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. ISBN cloth, 0-8223-371206; paper, 0-8223-3749-5; xxx + 320 pages, tables, maps, photographs, appendixes, abbreviations and acronyms, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, US$79.95; paper, US$22.95. The year 2006 was a stellar one for the anthropology of Papua New Guinea. Major publishers produced monographs that demonstrate the continuing ability of Melanesianists to produce important and original works. Conservation Is Our Government Now is a fine example of this trend; detailed and yet accessible, it is an excellent book that deserves to be widely read by anthropologists, students, and development and conservation professionals. Conservation examines the Crater Mountain Wildlife Management Area, [End Page 626] a biodiversity project that was active in the late 1990s. The argument could easily go down the well-worn path of examining the "impact" of "global" forces on "local" people. Instead, West chooses the more ambitious goal of examining how Crater Mountain is imagined as a place by multiple stakeholders, and how that imagination affects the political economy of Papua New Guinea. West's approach is shaped by work in political ecology, the critical geography of Neil Smith and David Harvey, and, most surprisingly, Vincent Crapanzano's literary-philosophical anthropology. In my opinion, much of this literature hinders rather than helps the work of understanding what are already extremely complex issues. However, West makes the best out of what might not be the most promising literature. For this reason Conservation will be of great interest to those concerned with issues of scale-making discussed in the literature on economic and political geography. West's grasp of the literature in her field is excellent. The bibliography of Conservation is remarkably deep and demonstrates a thorough knowledge of dissertations and the published literature as well as the enormous "grey literature" of reports, conference papers, and unpublished studies that are so central to contemporary conservation. However, most of the citations, along with technical notes, are relegated to footnotes in order to keep up the pace of the narrative. This is a kindness to nonspecialists, but academics will want to be sure to consult the end matter closely since it often contains important parts of her argument. Although the theoretical stakes of this work are high, the strength of Conservation is its ethnography. West's writing is itself an example of the activity she examines, and issues of reflexivity are inescapable. Additionally, she speaks to multiple audiences: other anthropologists (including the senior scholars who have worked in her area), her Papua New Guinean informants, and conservation biologists. This problematizes any easy ethnographic authority. Luckily West avoids narcissistic postmodern reflection and solves the problem by adopting a simple, almost confessional style. In her remarkable opening chapter, for instance, West cuts across time and space recounting episodes of her life in order to demonstrate the multiple connections between Crater Mountain and Manhattan. Here West manages to downplay her expertise while quietly demonstrating a sure-handedness with the data that leaves no doubt as to the extent and depth of her knowledge. She also minimizes her own authority by quoting at length. At one point when West's husband visits her in the field, she receives advice from her adopted mother about the importance of observing menstrual taboos—a speech that is printed verbatim. The end of the book also includes an appendix featuring the demands of dissatisfied residents of Crater Mountain, a move that allows West to keep her promise to them to make their voices heard. This is a difficult line to walk and West's prose is not particularly sophisticated or literary—this is Hemingway, not Henry James. At times West's heart-on-sleeve style threatens to veer into naïveté, and I suppose not every [End Page 627] reader will be charmed by the picture of her and her informant recreating scenes from the 1975 documentary, The Ax Fight. On the whole, however, I think this sort of thing is delightful and opens the ethnography...

Islam dan Menstrual Taboo

Menstrual taboo has been historically conceptualizedby most societies as a curse for women. Such concept of menstruation deteriorates the social position and status of women in community. This article aims to discuss how Islam deals with the menstrual taboo. This is important, because all the ideas permeates by the menstrual taboo influence they way people deal with their women through the development of frame of thought, value system as well as behavioral system. Islam states that the misogynist myth of menstrual taboo and negative view toward menstruating women is contradictory to Islamic values which respect the equality of men and women before God. Unlike the doctrines believed in other religions which say that menstruation is a symbolic curse for women because of mother Eve's mistake, Islam considers it is a natural function decreed by God to maintain the life of human race.

Dari Mitos Menstrual Taboo Ke Dunia Kecantikan dan Fashion

Menstrual Taboo is a never ending phenomenon. We can study about it from different points of view: medical, psychological, anthropological, mythological, theological as well as ideological perspectives. Talking about the popular myth of menstrual taboo, there are "evil eyes", "huts" etc, that protect women in her monthly period. Right now, the myth of menstrual taboo has deviated into the farms of menstrual creations such as the present of cosmetology like Kohl, eye liner, shoes and fashion. Jilbab, as a code of women's dress has actually been widely practiced far before emergence of Islam. Nevertheless, when Islam come to be spread, jilbab was associated with several superstitions, one of them is menstrual taboo. In the last ten years, Jilbab for teenagers and young women has been "booming in Indonesia. Many schools from elementary to university, and governmental offices as w~U have made jilbab as part of their official uniforms.

Teologi Menstruasi: Antara Mitologi dan Kitab Suci

Menstruation - called haid in Islamic fiqh, is not seen as merely physical, biological function of women's bodies. According to most traditional societies, this very exclusive women's experience is apparently perceived to be a symbol signifying specific meaning and myth. Unsurprisingly almost all societies have conceptualized what so called menstrual taboo in an anthropological tradition within their cultural systems. One of the major implications of these ideas of menstrual taboos is the emergence of devices signifying the event of menstruation, such as cosmetics, high heel footwear, and jilbab. Another significant impact is the restriction of women's social role and engagement. This article is addressing these two mythical and social implications of menstrual taboos and compare them with Islamic doctrines of haid.

Siklus dan Terjadinya Menstruasi Serta Pandangan Islam di Dalamnya

Women have experiencedvarious discriminationsin most part of humans' history. We have witnessed violence against women portrayed and reported through mass media. Such violence also occurs in Muslim states, including Indonesia. Surprisingly there is also violence against women committed on the basis of their biological realities, namely monthly period. Menstruation has been conceptualized a curse for women so that they feel and endure the consequences of the primordial sin committed by Eve 'the symbolic woman'. This article will argue that such understandingof menstrual taboo is rooted in ancient story, and not from Islamic teaching.

Re-Interpretasimenstrual Taboo Dalam Al-Qur'an: Menggagas Fiqih Egalitas-Humanis

This article is intended to re-exanune and offer a new interpretation to the Qur'anic verses dealing with the issues of menstruation. One of the major problems in the Qur'an is the fact that it is the basic maraji' and mashadir (references) for the formulation of Islamic law and advices on religious matters. In many cases people fail to differentiate between the Qur'an and books of Qur'anic interpretation; the Qur'an has been equated with exegesis of the Qur'an. Further, the Muslim scholars who wrote tafsir are mostly male and live in a patriarchal society, accordingly patriarchal values penetrates into their thoughts. Besides this patriarchal bias in the interpretation, the social realities of Muslims have changed too, in a speed pace. Consequently, the formulation of Islamic fiqh should be changed appropriately to address the current issues, including the idea of menstrual taboo by re-interpreting the Qur'an. This article is therefore not only offering a new light to the interpretation of the text which promotes humanitarian and egalitarian values but also identifying the patriarchal biases in the process of interpreting the Qur'an.

Thicker than Water: The Origins of Blood as Symbol and Ritual (review)

Reviewed by: Thicker than Water: The Origins of Blood as Symbol and Ritual Julian M. Murchison Thicker than Water: The Origins of Blood as Symbol and Ritual. By Melissa L. Meyer . New York: Routledge, 2005. Pp. 272. $95.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper). In Thicker than Water Melissa Meyer pursues an ambitious project that aims to investigate the symbols and rituals that comprise what she understands to be human beings' universal "obsession" with blood as a physical substance. In the course of the book Meyer incorporates and examines wide-ranging sources of information that include the historical and the ethnographic. Bringing these disparate sets of information together, Meyer presents an argument for "patterned heterogeneity" indicative of extensive geographic and historical "cultural continuity" (205). She finds evidence for this continuity by examining the role that blood plays at different stages in the human life cycle beginning with conception and childbirth and extending into menarche and initiation rituals. [End Page 158] Meyer's writing is clear and informative. The reader does not have to decode a lot of jargon or unnecessarily complex language, but the reader will find a text dense with information and ideas. The book is divided into seven chapters, with introductory and concluding chapters bracketing five substantive chapters examining the origins of human culture; conception, pregnancy, and childbirth; initiation rites; menstruation; and sacrifice. In the substantive chapters specific examples tend to be predominant, and at times the treatment of these examples is lengthy. While the overall argument is relatively clear, the reader may occasionally wonder how the interesting detail furthers the central argument. The book opens with a detailed consideration of the biology and psychology of blood as a symbol of universal importance. These scientific fields seem a logical starting point for Meyer's premise of universality. She marshals evidence that indicates that the color red is particularly salient and meaningful for physiological reasons. Then she proceeds to introduce and to evaluate Chris Knight's "sex strike theory," which suggests that blood is a key substance at the root of the development of human culture, linking female sexual receptivity and fertility to male provision of meat. While Meyer offers important points of critique for this theory, it remains the heart of chapter 2 and in many ways the foundation for the rest of Meyer's argument. Here the reader encounters the beginning of key distinctions for Meyer: female versus male blood; blood of menstruation and childbirth versus blood of hunting and sacrifice; and blood of biological reproduction versus blood of social reproduction. In subsequent chapters the argument elaborates on these key distinctions by examining key moments in humans' life cycles. The significance of blood as a substance seems to stem largely from its relationship to women's bodies and to fertility and reproduction. However, according to Meyer, blood's role and significance extend well beyond this connection to women and to biological reproduction. In fact, Meyer suggests that blood with this association is in tension with the blood of sacrifice and social reproduction. Though it is an understated part of Meyer's argument, she suggests that, usually in concert with increased social complexity, men have often established the blood that they control (the blood of sacrifice and social reproduction) as symbolically and ritually more important than the blood of women (the blood of menstruation, fertility, and reproduction). Here her detailed examples from history and ethnography cover examples from menstrual taboos to male bloodletting rituals. The breadth of Meyer's research for this book is impressive. It is well documented, and Meyer works with great facility in drawing on the work of both historians and anthropologists as well as work in the biological sciences. A close reader of Thicker than Water will encounter a very extensive and substantive review of the relevant literature that will be extremely helpful for [End Page 159] anyone interested in Meyer's ideas and looking to read further. A reader with more experience in the relevant fields will likely find interesting reminders of and connections with important works. As I read chapter 6 on sacrifice, for example, I found myself thinking back to James Frazer and...