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The Origins and Maintenance of Female Genital Modification across Africa

Bayesian Phylogenetic Modeling of Cultural Evolution under the Influence of Selection

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Abstract

We present formal evolutionary models for the origins and persistence of the practice of Female Genital Modification (FGMo). We then test the implications of these models using normative cross-cultural data on FGMo in Africa and Bayesian phylogenetic methods that explicitly model adaptive evolution. Empirical evidence provides some support for the findings of our evolutionary models that the de novo origins of the FGMo practice should be associated with social stratification, and that social stratification should place selective pressures on the adoption of FGMo; these results, however, are tempered by the finding that FGMo has arisen in many cultures that have no social stratification, and that forces operating orthogonally to stratification appear to play a more important role in the cross-cultural distribution of FGMo. To explain these cases, one must consider cultural evolutionary explanations in conjunction with behavioral ecological ones. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our study for policies designed to end the practice of FGMo.

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Notes

  1. Also known as Female Circumcision, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Female Genital Cutting (FGC), or a combination of these terms, such as FGM/C. The terminology one should use when discussing this practice is a matter of concern. We purposefully avoid using the term “mutilation” in the text of this paper because we feel that it is unduly value-laden. Likewise, we feel that it is wrong to distance the practice of female genital modification from male genital modification (circumcision) because such an action seems to validate one type of unnecessary, non-consensual removal of genital tissue (common in “Western” culture), while stigmatizing a similar practice in other cultures. We use the more neutral term FGMo to contextualize the practice within the wider anthropological scope of body modification.

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Acknowledgments

CTR designed and tested the Bayesian models, conducted analysis, and wrote/edited the paper. PS designed the mathematical models and wrote/edited the paper. KE collected and compiled the ethnographic and linguistic information and edited the paper. PL conducted the alternative phylogenetic analysis and wrote/edited the paper. MBM conceived the study, reviewed the literature, and wrote/edited the paper.

We thank the UC Davis Behavioral Ecology and Cultural Evolution lab groups for helpful comments and critiques, Richard McElreath for feedback on the mathematical model, Richard McElreath and Andrew Gelman for providing code and advice on model comparison using WAIC, and the Stan Development Team for making Stan freely available and open source, and for providing impressive levels of software support and consulting. Mark Grote gave significant advice concerning model notation and provided statistical consulting that much improved our methodological framework. Charlie Nunn and Bruce Rannala gave helpful suggestions early in the analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioral Sciences Program, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA

    Cody T. Ross

  2. Centre for Studies of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Pontus Strimling & Patrik Lindenfors

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Karen Paige Ericksen

  4. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Monique Borgerhoff Mulder

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Ross, C.T., Strimling, P., Ericksen, K.P. et al. The Origins and Maintenance of Female Genital Modification across Africa. Hum Nat 27, 173–200 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-015-9244-5

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