Applying anthropology to female genital mutilation / cutting

In this article we review how anthropologies from various subdisciplines, from social to evolutionary anthropology, are contributing to our understanding of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). We focus on four key questions: what are the origins of FGM/C; what functions and meanings are linked to FGM/C; how does FGM/C persist and/or change; and how can anthropology inform policy and practice? We identify how anthropological research has challenged generalizations about FGM/C, showing how FGM/C practices and meanings vary between and within groups and can change, disappear, and reemerge, and that these practices are closely interlinked with other practices and institutions. Anthropologists have also shown that FGM/C is held in place by a range of factors, and that social contacts can have significant influence on people’s attitudes and behaviors. Finally, we highlight how anthropologists have also shown how anti-FGM/C efforts can have unforeseen harmful consequences and have critically interrogated the international response to FGM/C, including the ethnocentrism in what is construed as harmful genital cutting.