Women heal women: spirit possession and sexual segregation in a Muslim society.
Social science & medicine (1982) January 1, 1985 DOI: 10.1016/0277-9536(85)90208-4 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractIn Northern Sudanese society, men control women's sexuality and fertility through practices like infibulation and arranged marriage, yet women themselves perform the rituals of infibulation and manage ceremonies around key life stages, thereby asserting their reproductive power. The zar healing cult, a woman-centered and woman-run ritual, fits within this symbolic system, reflecting the complex interplay of male authority and female agency.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Northern Sudanese society |
| Citations | 29 |
| Key finding | Women in Northern Sudan both uphold and symbolically assert their reproductive power through rituals such as infibulation and the zar cult, despite male control over their sexuality and fertility. |
Abstract
Sexual segregation and sexual asymmetry are prominent features of Northern Sudanese society. Women's sexuality and fertility are powerful and polluting, carrying with them the danger of dishonor and needing to be controlled and directed to their 'proper' social ends by men. Men pay for their daughters' infibulation, retain the right to dispose of them in marriage, honour their wives after childbirth, and claim children of the union for their patriline. However, it is women who actually practice infibulation and who keep firmly within their hands all the ritual surrounding vital stages of their life cycle. Throughout, women symbolically assert the fundamental nature of their reproductive power. The healing cult of the zar fits into this symbolic system with its woman-centred, woman run curative ritual.