Sunday, May 25, 2008

More on penile expropriation

Great article on penis theft by Frank Bures in June's Harpers magazine.

Posted by Jeremy at 1:03 pm

4 comments:

Waffarian,  7:45 pm  

Very interesting....although I kind of hoped YOU would do some research on the matter! heheheh

But great insight...always believed it was a "mental state"...more psychological....at the same time all that juju talk freaks me out as well...I won't lie..I guess everybody just sticks to "better be safe than sorry"...so in one way, the culture sucks us all in whether we like it or not!

Anengiyefa,  9:49 pm  

Great reading. It puzzles me though, how Nigerians who claim to have had their penis stolen, suddenly discover that it has reappeared, and just at the point where they are about to be examined. Also, I wonder why the author Mr Bures, has compared these Nigerian stories with physically verified incidences in Asia, where victims' genitals were actually examined by medical pracitioners and found to be abnormal.

Moreover, can the cases in Nigera really be said to be as a result of a mental disorder? As far as I'm aware, it is true that no physical evidence exists in Nigeria of anyone whose penis was magically stolen, and which did not suddenly reappear. In Asia, the condition of the shrinking of the penis was said to be a disease, a culture-bound phenomenon. But in Nigeria where there is no evidence of a disappeared penis, no such disease has been reported. Perhaps it is to the majority of the Nigerian population who fear that they maight lose their genitals through magic, that the term "ethnic hysteria" should apply.

omidanbellafricaine,  3:38 am  

Mmm... quite interesting. We actually discussed culture bound syndromes and the inadequacy of the DSM-IV in my medical anthropology class and the professor mad the same point the "Columbine" like trends in US is directly related to America's gun culture hence all mental illnesses are culture bound. Does anyone think the result would differ if a Nigerian man bumped into those men like Mr. Bures did? I mean maybe the men automatically dismissed Mr. Bures as a penis stealer because he was white. When I was a kid, I was afraid of old women because they looked like the witches in Yoruba movies. You know they fit the description I was fed.

omidanbellafricaine,  3:45 am  

Mmm... quite interesting. We actually discussed culture bound syndromes and the inadequacy of the DSM-IV in my medical anthropology class and the professor mad the same point the: "Columbine" like incidents in the US are directly related to America's gun culture hence all mental illnesses are culture bound.

Does anyone think the result would differ if a Nigerian man bumped into those men like Mr. Bures did? I mean maybe the men automatically dismissed Mr. Bures as a penis stealer because he was white. When I was a kid, I was afraid of old women because they looked like the witches in Yoruba movies. You know they fit the description I was fed.

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