Prisoners of Ritual
An Odyssey Into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa
by Hanny Lightfoot-Klein
(c) 1989, Harrington Park Press
10 Alice St
Binghamton, NY 13094-1580
ISBN 0-918393-68-X
Prisoners of Ritual now has an official Web page,
maintained by the author. (Click here)
"This is an illuminative book... It is also an illustrously fair-minded book.
Among writings on genital mutilations, therefore, it is unique in giving
the reader a 360 degree understanding of the social and personal
significance of such practices. It tells the truth and the truth is
devastating. For small girls, it is catastrophically traumatizing. Yet,
because the book does not sensationalize, wrath does not override
compassion, and the gateway to change is unlocked and kept open.
In addition to being a contribution to the scholarship of anthropological
sexology, Prisoners of Ritual is an adventure story---
an extraordinary midlife odyssey of a solo woman's desert `walkabout'
through the spaces and minds of Nilotic Africa. There's nothing else
quite like it!"
---John Money, PhD, Director Psychohormonal Research Unit, Professor
of Medical Psychology, and Professor of Pediatrics, Emeritus, The Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine
Contents
- PART I
- Chapter 1. The Interviews: Procedure and Rationale
- Chapter 2. Female Circumcision if African Countries in General, and Sudan in Particular
- Chapter 3. Sudan: The Current Situation
- Chapter 4. Episodes and Conversations
- Chapter 5. Voices of Reason
- Chapter 6.A History of Clitoral Excision and Infibulation Practices in the Western World
- Chapter 7.Male Circumcision
- Chapter 8.Overview
- PART II
- Chapter 9. Images
- Chapter 10. A Sudanese Odyssey
- Appendix I: Interviews with Women
- Appendix II: Interviews with Men
REVISED, DD/MM/YY = 09/12/95