Debating virginity-testing cultural practices in South Africa: a Taylorian reflection
In January 2016, a perennial row over virginity testing was renewed, pitting traditional adherents of Zulu cosmology and cultural practices against human rights advocates. The paper does not position itself within this debate. Rather, it adopts a meta-perspective in order to understand why the debat...
| Published in: | Journal for the study of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Contributors: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
ASRSA
[2016]
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| In: |
Journal for the study of religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Africa
/ Zulu
/ Cosmology
/ Woman
/ Virginity
/ Personal right
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BB Indigenous religions KBN Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Further subjects: | B
Charles Taylor
B Human Rights B Zulu culture B Cosmology B secular theology B Social Imaginary B virginity testing |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In January 2016, a perennial row over virginity testing was renewed, pitting traditional adherents of Zulu cosmology and cultural practices against human rights advocates. The paper does not position itself within this debate. Rather, it adopts a meta-perspective in order to understand why the debate arises in the first instance. Using Charles Taylor as a guide, it argues that the pre-modern porous self in the West was innately tied to a cosmology. The self was porous precisely because it saw itself as part of that cosmology. But with the onset of modernity, the self becomes increasing 'buffered', as a self that does not belong to that cosmology but is self-owned and self-regulated. This paper contends that the practice of virginity testing has to be seen in the light of the porous conception of the self and opposition to the practice in the light of the buffered conception. And as such, the opposition at base is seeking to preserve its specific view of the world against a practice it sees as undermining its implicit ' theological' perspective. |
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| ISSN: | 2413-3027 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religion
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