Abstract EN:

This sociological and ethnological analysis of ritual female excision practices was carried out in a traditional bamanan society in mali, where every young girl is subjected to removal of the entire clitoris with or without the excision of the labial minora (excision type ii). The thesis adopts an analysis of this practice in terms of ritual and demonstrates the need to place female excision/genital mutilation in the context of the wider values of the bamanan society. Thus, the pain and suffering endured during the excision ritual can be seen to play a major role in imposing the norms, values and behaviour that are required of women in the context of the dominant gender relations in this society. An analysis of the economic and social structures of the bamanan society serves to illustrate the subordinate position of women generally and leads to an analysis - based on observation and the songs sung during the excision ritual - of the parallel, but not equivalent, role played by male circumcision and female excision in the structuring of social relations and in the reproduction of traditional values, notably in terms of gender relations. However, the bamanan society is undergoing considerable change - the spread of western values, the gradual increase in the influence of moslim beliefs and transformations in the system of economic production. This changing context has a considerable influence on the female rituals, both in terms of their timing (birth, puberty, marriage) and of their adoption (comparison of urban and rural areas); its serves to transform the significance that such rituals had in the traditional bamanan society. This thesis aims to show that the future of female excision is closely tied up with the response that the bamanan society constructs in the face of "modernity".