List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xv Glossary xvii Frequently Mentioned Names xxi Chronology of Events Discussed in the Text xxv Introduction 1 Part 1: Imperial Ethos 11 Chapter 1: The Gordon Cult 13 Interlude 1, Zar and Islam 47 Chapter 2: Tools for a Quiet Crusade 52 Interlude 2, Colonial Zayran 77 Chapter 3: "Unconscious Anthropologists" 82 Interlude 3, Spirit Tribes 103 Part 2: Contexts 107 Chapter 4: Domestic Blood and Foreign Spirits 109 Chapter 5: North Winds and the River 128 Chapter 6: Cotton Business 152 Part 3: The Crusades 177 Chapter 7: Training Bodies, Colonizing Minds 179 Chapter 8: Battling the "Barbarous Custom" 202 Chapter 9: Of "Enthusiasts" and "Cranks" 232 Chapter 10: "More Harm than Good" 261 Chapter 11: The Law 285 Chapter 12: Conclusion: Civilizing Women 305 Notes 321 References Cited 373 Index 391
In this original and meticulous work of historical ethnography, Janice Boddy deftly offers an acute analysis of imperial ambition and the gendering of policy on both sides of the colonial divide, as well as some wryly observed lessons for 'civilizing missions' of the present day. This is a major contribution that will change the terms of debate. -- Michael Lambek, author of "The Weight of the Past: Living with History in Mahajanga, Madagascar" Janice Boddy's Civilizing Women is a sensitive and superbly researched exploration of issues in the history of British-Sudanese relations that resonate strongly with the present. Focusing on the way that the British attempted to reform the personal lives of northern Sudanese women through introducing modern hygiene, health, and family morals, she illuminates a whole social world. Based on many years of firsthand research in the Sudan and on archival sources, this book probes the silent zones of gender relations and the inequalities of imperial power in a new way. -- Wendy James, University of Oxford This very well-written book marks the first sustained attempt to look at gender in the Sudanese historical record and to ground the history of Condominium rule in a broader cultural framework. -- Susan M. Kenyon, author of "Five Women of Sennar: Culture and Change in Central Sudan" Engaging and detailed, Civilizing Women creates a lively picture of events, places, people. Scholars interested in the Sudan, as well as colonial Africa more generally, will find this work invaluable. Janice Boddy sets a new standard for colonial studies by anthropologists--she seems to have combed every inch of the archives in both the United Kingdom and Sudan, and the material comes to life through her artful prose. -- Lesley A. Sharp, author of "The Sacrificed Generation: Youth, History, and the Colonized Mind in Madagascar"
Janice Boddy is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. She is the author of "Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan" and coauthor of "Aman: The Story of a Somali Girl" (Random House), which has been translated into fourteen languages.
Boddy sounds a cautionary note for contemporary interventionists who would flout local knowledge and belief. Frauen Solidaritat Anthropologist Boddy scoured the archives in Britain and Sudan to study attempts by British health care workers in northern Sudan to stop or at least redirect female genital cutting, the phrase that now covers female circumcision. But the author cleverly also deals with Sudan's history. -- B.M. du Toit Choice The book's most important contribution is the documentation of the development of midwifery training schools and their linkage to the control of women's bodies. This is the core of Boddy's argument, and she has done an exceptional job of organizing and presenting the colonial administration's political-cultural imperatives for the development of these schools. -- Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban Journal of Middle East Women's Studies
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