Boys' circumcision and girls' puberty rites among the Swahili of Mafia Island, Tanzania
- 23 January 1976
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Africa
- Vol. 46 (1) , 21-33
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1159090
Abstract
Opening Paragraph: In the north of Mafia Island, the rites surrounding the circumcision of boys and the first menstruation of girls are no longer, if indeed they ever were, universally performed. This article attempts to explain this situation, and in so doing, draws on some of Turner's work on symbolism. In particular, his distinction between different levels of meaning expressed by symbols—the exegetical, the operational and the positional (1962)—is followed in a discussion of the political implications of performance or rejection of the rites.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Essays on the Ritual of Social Relations.American Sociological Review, 1964