Helpmeet and Priest

Things ordinarily tabooed in Asante society may be harnessed for their inherent spiritual power in specific rituals.
…
The king's public violation of his taboo paradoxically sharpened his spiritual power. - Frimpong
“For, if bleeding, not having political rights, and not shedding blood are
causally linked, then whether we take sacrificial exclusion to be a
product of having no political rights, or having no political rights to be
a product of sacrificial exclusion, the bleeding at least must be the
cause and not the product of either sacrificial or political deprivation.”
Women and Sacrifice in Classical Greece
Robin Osborne Page | 1
women were a part of that “nature” which it was culture’s

project to master and transcend.
Lévi-Strauss
helpmeet
& priest
the menstruant - the sacred
and the profane - in asante
and other societies
compiled by
amma birago
Origin of Menstruation -- Douglas has suggested that,

menstruation could be assumed to have a priestly and
therefore divine source.
“A woman does not pour libation on a stool.”

An Akan proverb
With the Asante only menopausal women, or in certain cases those who are willing to live asexual life seem to be admitted for religious rituals. In
traditional religion, women are declared unclean by the natural flow of blood associated with procreation. Oduyoye
Things ordinarily tabooed in Asante society may be harnessed for their inherent spiritual power in specific rituals. …
Participation in affairs of state was not encouraged, for the

onset of menstruation might have untoward and unpredictable
consequences for those in contact, even indirectly, with the
woman. The Asante attitude was most vigorously in practice
in the case of the king's wives still able to bear children. They Page | 2
were secluded in a harem for most of the time.
Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -
Akyeampong and Obeng

Lévi-Strauss
Increasingly, as the Asante state established itself from the eighteenth

century, female spiritual roles came to be held by women past the stage
of menopause, these women being seen as "ritual men." Such old
women acquired elderly privileges such as the right to cut their hair
short (dansikra), wear their cloths in a male fashion, drink liquor, and
pour libations. Childbearing women were sidelined in public affairs
because of male notions about the spiritual danger presented by
menstrual blood.
“When women are reported performing sacrifice it is never as mothers,

but almost always in some specifically non-childbearing role: as virgins
(or dressed as if they were virgins), as consecrated unmarried women,
or as post-menopausal women.”
Throughout Your Generations Forever:
Sacrifice, Religion, and Paternity
Nancy Jay
“For, if bleeding, not having political rights, and not shedding blood are causally
linked, then whether we take sacrificial exclusion to be a product of having no
political rights, or having no political rights to be a product of sacrificial
exclusion, the bleeding at least must be the cause and not the product of either
sacrificial or political deprivation.”
Robin Osborne Page | 3
Osborne is troubled by the privileging of female physiology, although it should be noted that Detienne does not
make his arguments in the stark terms of biological determinism nor is he alone in seeing the connection between
the categories of shedding blood or bloodshed.
Reclaiming The Role Of The Old Priestess:

Ritual Agency And The Post-Menopausal Body In Ancient Greece
Kristen Marie Gentile
… When the king returned home, … and he returned the embraces

of his wives. But being afterwards told by some of the superintendents that
these women were more or less indisposed from a natural female cause [menstruation],
he was inflamed to the highest pitch of indignation, and in a paroxysm of anger caused
these unhappy beings to be cut in pieces before his face; giving orders at the time
to cast the fragments into the forest, to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey.
When I was urging how does one really know when

it is acceptable to use one’s left hand, I was given this allegory in reply:
“Look, when women are menstruating we don’t allow them in the chief’s palace.
But what happens, if all the men have gone to war, and there is something
to be done in the palace? Then the women just have to go there!”
Purity and Impurity - Frimpong

It has been suggested that equality as a concept cannot be applied to Akan/African culture, since role differentiations
in Akan/Africa are clear and are not meant to be valued hierarchically. Although it is true that, in Akan custom,
women are in charge of shrines and cultic centers, it is also observable that there are more women in the secondary
roles of mediums and cultic dancers than there are women who serve as high priests of shrines or as healers. Even
more obvious is the fact that more women than men are clients of the divinities of the cults. These can be explained
by the fact that traditional taboos associated with menstruation exclude women from sacred roles.
Although women play significant roles in the Akan traditional society and religion both as ritual specialists and
upholders of community norms and traditions, many of these roles that women play in the religion and society seem
to be somewhat ambivalent and viewed as both helpful and detrimental to society. Rosalind Hackett best describes
this idea of ambivalence when she states: ‘Women are respected for their procreative powers and nurturing role, and Page | 4
their links with the earth and the ancestors. However, in some societies, women may be regarded as the purveyors of
evil and misfortune, often in the guise of witches, and polluters of the sacred.’ It is very clear that apparent
prejudices are shown to women in religion and society by virtue of their sex in Akan society.
With the Asante only menopausal women, or in certain cases those who are willing to live asexual life seem to be
admitted for religious rituals. In traditional religion, women are declared unclean by the natural flow of blood
associated with procreation. One is seen to be unclean by the very fact that one is a woman. Women are excluded
from sacred rituals until they become men. Women we know, become men when they no longer menstruate.
Most rituals are performed either on women or because of women. Among the Akan for example, naming children
is the prerogative of men because only men are deemed to have the capacity to be spiritual protectors. A second
principle to be followed is that persons who are free from any flow of blood must prepare food and drinks for the
spirit world. Blood in Akan has a dual character; it is holy but it is also inauspicious when found where it should not
be. As a result, women’s participation in this ritual as in others is often limited. In family rituals, men usually
officiate, and menopausal women do so in extreme cases or in supportive roles.
Among the Akan, women feature prominently in ritual dances and singing, as in mmommome, a war - the support
ritual of singing that is specifically a female activity. When rituals are being performed to show unity with the
ancestors, women join in feasting and dressing up, but not in sacrificing. There is a prohibition, however, against
women wearing masks, even when the ancestor being represented is a woman. Men have arrogated to themselves
the prerogative of representing the spirits that shaped the history and the destiny of the community. exclusion of
women from such community rituals has obvious political and social implications and may lie behind men’s
unwillingness to have women in positions of responsibility that include authority over men. Purification rituals for
women are more frequent. Women may undergo purification after a man’s failure to accomplish a task, after a
husband’s death, or after childbirth. These purification rituals are very often prescribed by men diviners and
performed on women by women.
Purity and Impurity -
Frimpong on Odudoye

The Asante were obsessed with order and feared disorder. The
forest or bush constituted "an area of disorder, potential power
and danger."
The Asante were and are acutely aware that their culture, in the most literal sense,
was hacked out of nature. And this understanding … engendered the abiding fear that,
without unremitting application and effort, the fragile defensible place called culture
would simply be overwhelmed or reclaimed by an irruptive and anarchic nature.

T.C. McCaskie
Page | 5
The presence of menstrual women contaminated these shrines.
But menstrual blood was also spiritually powerful because it
was fertility fluid.

In fact, the greatest Asante shrine, the Golden Stool, was periodically
contaminated with menstrual blood to sharpen its power. It is done
once a year. When it comes to mmusumuru adee, when we come to
cleanse something, first, we dirty it. Then they do certain things for it to
come back with renewed power. You can make an analogy with corn.
To grow corn, you put the seeds in the soil, where it rots. Then green
corn stalks sprouts out of the rotten seed.
According to Oduyoye, the fear behind all these taboos

and injunctions begin to be apparent when one analysis why brafo
(woman in her period) must not touch a Suman (talisman). A male
suman or ritual object that becomes involved with menstruating
women is in danger. To be in contact with brafo is to have all
one’s powers annulled. She renders one vulnerable to
evil spirits because she annuls all other powers.
Purity And Impurity - Frimpong
Among the Akans, a chief who experiences bleeding for the first time should be purified without delay to avoid
profaning or contaminating the sacred stools. If the bleeding persists, then he has to be destooled and all other sacred
objects he has come in contact with in the palace have to be purified with the blood of a sheep. It is believed that
blood offered in such a situation tends to fully bridge the gulf, which has been created between the ancestral spirits
and the community (which the chief represents) as a result of the profanity of the bleeding. At the same time the
blood offered revitalizes the spiritual force of the stools in the palace representing the ancestors. The ritual
implication is that when blood profanes an object or a being, a more vital blood is ritually used to neutralize it. This
is to say that, the ritual blood is able to neutralize the diminishing or dead life force of the contaminated person or
being.
Circumcision, which entails the shedding of blood, implies diminishing life’s vital force in Akan belief. Since blood
represents life, to shed blood by any means is to terminate life or reduce the life span. Therefore circumcision has no
ritual significance for the Akan. It is alleged that whilst uncircumcision increases life’s spiritual potency and
reproductive powers of man, circumcision, on the other hand, tends to destroy the genitals and reduces the vital
force. Thus the royals of Ashanti of Akan were forbidden to mutilate their bodies or shed their blood, since the royal
blood represented the soul of the nation.
In the perception of the Akan people, circumcision does not make one ritually sacred; neither does it ally one to the
supernatural spirits nor serve as a ritual sign of belonging to them. Since circumcision does not enhance ritual or
sacred value, but tends to diminish the vital force before the enstoolment of a traditional ruler, an inspection of the
genitals of the chief-elect is made privately by the “chief-makers” to ensure that the traditional ruler to be is ritually Page | 6
unblemished by circumcision.
Things ordinarily tabooed in Asante society may be harnessed for their

inherent spiritual power in specific rituals. During the odwira festival,
for example, the Asantehene ordered the slaying of an ox - an act
tabooed to him as a member of the Bosomnmuru ntoro - at Abogyawe,
a sacred spot in front of his palace. The king's public violation of his
taboo paradoxically sharpened his spiritual power.
Two things emerge from the concept of impure blood:

1. The diffusion of its impure energy renders its destructive influence efficacious and contagious to the sacred.
2. It is a common belief that it is fed upon by witches and is influenced by other evil forces. Blood oozing from any
part of the human body is considered as losing vital force. It is said that evil spiritual forces, which are often
attracted to it, contaminate such blood. And on account of contamination, the person is ritually classified as
“unclean.” He should thus not approach, touch, or talk to any sacred being. He should likewise not perform any
sacred ritual or be present at its performance. He is thought to exert a profane vital influence on the ritual by his
mere presence.
One may be told that a traditional ruler, for instance is sacred and therefore restricted by a number of prohibitions
without being told the basis of his sacredness; or that a menstruating woman is profane without knowing what
impure blood implies or the basis of its profanity.
Among the Akan, the mysterious power that manifests in a being or an object helps differentiates it from the
“ordinary”. … A traditional ruler for example by virtue of the ancestral stool he occupies is said to be sacred and
therefore taboo. He has to observe a number of restrictions as custom demands. For instance, he may not talk to
certain persons directly. The clothes he wears, the bowl he eats from and uneaten food should not be used by
anybody except perhaps his own wife and children who share his sacredness since this could lead to illness or even
death. The traditional ruler is regarded as being in a state of danger if he fails to observe the restrictions or does not
take cultic and customary precautions. It is believed that automatic and immediate punishment or disaster will be
meted out to him if he breaks any of the taboos.

Lévi-Strauss

Women also give birth and before a woman can give birth she has to menstruate.
However, the phenomenon associated with childbearing by a woman, namely
menstruation and child birth blood are seen as impure unlike the Earth deity who is Page | 7
always seen as sacred and venerated.
The question is why has it always been accepted that blood from women is impure? In Akan/African culture and
religion, female blood impurity has both religious and cultural implications. Religiously female blood is impure
because it is split outside the sacrificial act. Culturally, any act that sheds blood except within a sacrificial act is
considered impure. The feelings of female blood impurity was handled both religiously and culturally in the
Akan/African societies through rituals. The ritual elements consist of segregation or separation, purification,
exhibition, celebration and incorporation.
in connection with puberty and birth, women, during menstruation and

birth, carry a contagion and require ceremonial cleansing. Because of
this Akan belief, women are usually excluded from cultic leadership.
[An] antipollution measure and is intended to avoid the ritual contamination of that which is holy. In many Akan
religions where women are priestesses, such women priestesses, who are menstruating, are not allowed to minister
to their gods. Women who are not priestesses are also not allowed, during their periods, to enter a shrine for
consultation. R. Edet has also said that, in connection with puberty and birth, women, during menstruation and birth,
carry a contagion and require ceremonial cleansing. Because of this Akan belief, women are usually excluded from
cultic leadership.
Purity and Impurity – Frimpong

The Akan Concept of the Sacred and the Profane
In Akan thought, certain objects and beings with distinctive characteristics have the potential of affecting life
positively or negatively; these include natural phenomena, animals, mediums and spirits. Those, which affect life
positively and have pervasive and persuasive characteristics, are what the people conceive as distinctively sacred;
whilst those that affect life negatively and have dissuasive characteristics are profane. Behind the sacred and the
profane is a life-power or vital force that makes them contagious and essentially ‘dangerous.’ In religious terms, the
sacred assumes a superior position to the profane. It is that which is separated from the profane and secular; and it is
that which is respected and protected. One would notice that a particular stone, for instance, which has been
identified as distinctively sacred is separated from the rest. Such a stone may be placed in an obscure place, and may
be fenced with barbed wire or hedges to designate its uniqueness. Sacrifices, libation and prayers offered to such a
stone might signify that the stone is not a mere physical object but an impersonal force.
Oduyoye observes that among the Akan, food and drink for the spirit world must be prepared by persons who are
free from any flow of blood, which is sacred. Blood in Akan society has a dual character. It is holy but it is also
inauspicious when found where it should not be. As a result, women’s participation in this ritual, as in others, is
often limited. In addition, women in Akan culture are prohibited from sitting in the male section of the royal house
during their menses. This is considered a kind of antipollution measure and is intended to avoid the ritual
contamination of that which is holy. In many Akan religions where women are priestesses, such women priestesses,
who are menstruating, are not allowed to minister to their gods. Women who are not priestesses are also not
allowed, during their periods, to enter a shrine for consultation. R. Edet has also said that, in connection with
puberty and birth, women, during menstruation and birth, carry a contagion and require ceremonial cleansing.
Because of this Akan belief, women are usually excluded from cultic leadership.
Page | 8
The Asante, who symbolize their royal ancestors with black stools, believe that by smearing these stools with blood
(the seat of life) they are brought into close contact with the ancestors who are symbolized by the stools.
In the Akan religious culture the ancestors worshipped/venerated appear to have been always male ancestors.
Although descent among the Akan is traced in the female line, female ancestors are scarcely mentioned during the
pouring of libation.
In addition, Akan ethnic group is matriarchal and so believes in the existence of a common ancestress through which
all clan members, both male and female trace their lineage. Thus though the Akan believe in the existence of female
ancestors, they, like their living counterparts, are relegated to the background.
Underlying this matrilineal understanding of lineage is the belief that it is the mother who transmits blood (mogya),
one of the elements that constitute the Akan human person, to the child.
The Taboo of Menstruation in Akan Religious Culture

A taboo against women during menstruation is common in Akan communities. Menstrual blood is seen as “dirty”.
Not only are women considered to be ‘impure” during these periods, but in danger of communicating their impurity
to others. Thus though the onset of menarche is celebrated in Akan communities, the general trend is to stigmatize
the event. Menstruation is not mentioned by name in many Akan communities.
Although women are regarded as producers of life, they are also seen as spiritual sources of danger. The ritually
“dangerous” nature of women is expressed in notions about the polluting nature of blood, especially the blood of
menstruation and childbirth. It is such notions of pollution, which underlie rituals intended to separate “unclean”
women from contact with others or to neutralize the sources of pollution.
Thus in connection with religious functions menstruating women are banned from the shrines, neither are they
allowed handling or touching of religious objects or personalities. For instance, among the rules to be observed by
trainee priestesses is one, which stipulates that she should voluntarily absent herself from the shrine for seven days
each month during her menstrual period. This ban stems from the belief that menstrual blood is impure and
dangerously harmful to sacred objects. Hence during this period women are banned from entering palaces, shrines,
and other places where rituals are performed. This taboo must be rigidly upheld and severe penalties are levied if it
is infringed.
It is interesting to note that though women serve as mediums, a virgin, preferably before she attains puberty, is
chosen for this office. Otherwise, a woman of advanced age or one who has ceased from childbearing and
cohabitation is qualified to hold this office.
In the olden days (and even now in some rural areas), menstruating women have to move to an outer house meant
for those regarded as “ritually unclean.” They were also forbidden to cook for their husbands. To illustrate this
position of women, we consider an Akan proverb that says, “A woman does not pour libation on a stool.” If she does
the stool will become polluted. The stool is regarded as an important element in Akan traditional spirituality. It is
seen as the embodiment of the ancestors. Hence there is the need to avoid its contamination in order to avert any
disastrous consequences on the victim and her community. This proverb therefore stresses the need to safeguard the
solidarity of the group that is symbolized by the stool. A similar proverb states that a woman does not climb a tree.
If she does the tree will die. The principle here, as well is that the woman in her impure state may pollute the tree
and cause it to die.
Edet has said that ritual is a means by which humanity controls, constructs, orders fashions, or creates a way to be
fully human. Edet maintains that rituals give meaning to the world, renews, and makes things right. It saves, heals Page | 9
and makes whole again. For this reason, ritual is essential for our lives. Akan rituals are religion in action. They are
rites, ceremonies and symbols through which the Akan express humanness. Since the Akan operate with an
integrated worldview that assigns a major place to religious factors and beliefs, Akan rituals have an import that is at
once psychological, spiritual, political, and social.
We agree with Edet’s view that women’s rituals in Africa and for that matter in Akan society fall under ideology
which aims at controlling, in a conservative way, the behavior, the mood, the sentiment, and values of women for
the sake of the community as a whole. Elaborate ritual ceremonies for women include puberty, childbirth and
widowhood. A brief examination of key rituals and festivals in Akan societies can give us insight into how religion
informs and shapes women’s lives, and to some extent how life shapes religion.
Increasingly, as the Asante state established itself from the eighteenth

century, female spiritual roles came to be held by women past the stage
of menopause, these women being seen as "ritual men." Such old
women acquired elderly privileges such as the right to cut their hair
short (dansikra), wear their cloths in a male fashion, drink liquor, and
pour libations. Childbearing women were sidelined in public affairs
because of male notions about the spiritual danger presented by
menstrual blood.

“A woman does not pour libation on a stool.” an Akan proverb. … If she does the stool will become polluted.
The stool is regarded as an important element in Akan traditional spirituality. It is seen as the embodiment of the
ancestors. Hence there is the need to avoid its contamination in order to avert any disastrous consequences on the
victim and her community. This proverb therefore stresses the need to safeguard the solidarity of the group that is
symbolized by the stool.
Asaase Yaa is the queen of the underworld, is venerated as the owner of men and custodian of public morality with
the ancestors because she gives birth to fruits that feed humankind. In the same vein, the woman in Akan is
respected for her childbearing abilities and also seen as the owner of the children she bears. Thus the Akan is
matriarchal. However, unlike Asaase Yaa whose day (Thursday or Friday is recognized and respected, because she
needs rest, the menstruating woman who also needs rest as she prepares to conceive to give birth is seen as
dangerous and impure. Mother earth is sacred and there are taboos to protect her sanctity from being violated
because she gives birth. Women also give birth and before a woman can give birth she has to menstruate. However,
the phenomenon associated with childbearing by a woman, namely menstruation and child birth blood are seen as
impure unlike the Earth deity who is always seen as sacred and venerated.
spirit world. Blood in Akan has a dual character; it is holy but it is also inauspicious when found where it should not Page | 10

Lévi-Strauss
As one can see, the potency of menstruation looms large in African traditional thinking and is therefore an important
factor for rejecting women’s ordination (position in the church). In her study of the Asante, Oduyoye gives an
impressive list of taboos constricting the life of women in their prime. She said for most ritual meals, the cooks were
male, although sometimes the senior wife of the traditional ruler (Ohene) would be responsible. Old women fetch
the water for the ancestors to wash their hands at the Awukudae festival early in the morning, and the food cooked
by men. All this is done in order to prevent the possibility of having the participation of menstruating women in
religious rituals. Menstruation is believed to have such potency that it is able to annul all prayers and render rituals
ineffective
As further proof of religion forming the totality of Akan/African culture, we find the social bonds that unite
Akan/African families together are usually also identical with religious ties, and the family becomes not only a
social unit but also a cultic one.
Traditional rulers and kings play a dual role in Akan/African societies. They are the political or administrative
officials as well as religious personages. Queen mothers play subsidiary role. K.A. Busia points out that the chief
derives his authority from the fact that he sits on the stool of the ancestors. He is also the religious official who
represents his people before their ancestors, and in the context of Akan society, the chief is a Pontifex Maximus, an
‘intermediary between the royal ancestors and the tribe.’
Busia further wrote: From the moment that the chief is enstooled his person becomes sacred. This is emphasized by
taboos. He may not strike, or is struck back by anyone, lest the ancestors bring misfortune upon the tribe. He may
never walk bare-footed, lest when the sole of his foot touches the ground some misfortune befall the community. He
should walk with care lest he stumble. If he stumbles, the expected calamity has to be averted with a sacrifice. His
buttocks may not touch the ground. That would also bring misfortune. All these taboos remind the chief and
everybody that he, (the chief) occupies a sacred position. He is the occupant of the stool of the ancestors. For this
reason, he is treated with the greatest veneration.
Mother earth is sacred and there are taboos to protect her sanctity from being
violated because she gives birth. Women also give birth and before a woman can
give birth she has to menstruate. However, the phenomenon associated with
childbearing by a woman, namely menstruation and child birth blood are seen as
impure unlike the Earth deity who is always seen as sacred and venerated.
Page | 11
ineffective.
Women are excluded from sacred rituals until they become men.
Women we know, become men when they no longer menstruate.

The 1818-1819 Palace Coup
In 1820 when Joseph Dupuis visited Kumase at the height of Asante power, the asantehene had experienced a recent
coup engineered by royal women. The coup plotters, led by the asantehemaa (the queen mother), timed their bid for
power to coincide with Asante's war with the northern vassal kingdom of Gyaman (1818 1819). Kwadwo Adinkra of
Gyaman had aroused Asante anger by making himself a golden stool to rival that of the Asantehene. The complexity
of this rebellion, with its play on spiritual power, is best captured by citing Dupuis at length.
When the king was about to open the campaign against Gaman, he collected his priests, to invoke the royal fetische,
and perform the necessary orgies to ensure success. These ministers of superstition sacrificed thirty-two male and
eighteen female victims, as an expiatory offering to the gods, but the answers from the priests being deemed by the
council as still devoid of inspiration, the king was induced to make a custom at the sepulchres of his ancestors,
where many hundreds bled. This, it is affirmed, propitiated the wrath of the adverse gods. The priests then prepared
a certain fetische compound, which they delivered to the king, with an injunction to burn the composition daily in a
consecrated fire pot within the palace; and upon no account to neglect the fire, so as to suffer it to go out; for as long
as the sacred flame devoured the powder, he would triumph over his enemies.
When the king joined his army he commissioned his eldest sister (then governess of the kingdom), to attend strictly
to the sacred mystery, telling her that his crown and life both depended upon her vigilance, and the fulfilment of his
order. He selected also three wives to whom he was more attached than the rest, to watch by turns over the
mysterious rites, in conjunction with his last-mentioned sister.
During the king's absence, this arbitress of fate formed a connexion with a chief of Bouromy [Bono], whose
ambition suggested a plan to seat himself upon the throne.
In this conspiracy, seventeen of the king's wives and their families are said to have joined; the fire-pot was broken to
pieces, and the chief commenced arming his party. But the king, added my informer, who had sustained heavy
losses in the early part of the war, and was unable to account for the audacity of the enemy, performed an
incantation over a certain talisman, which gave an insight into what was transacting in the capital.
… When the king returned home, … and he returned the embraces of his wives. But being afterwards told by some
of the superintendents that these women were more or less indisposed from a natural female cause [menstruation], Page | 12
he was inflamed to the highest pitch of indignation, and in a paroxysm of anger caused these unhappy beings to be
cut in pieces before his face; giving orders at the time to cast the fragments into the forest, to be devoured by birds
and beasts of prey.
The women deployed mystical powers to challenge the king's political power. The omnipresence of blood in
Dupuis's account-human blood sacrificed to the gods and ancestors, and menstrual blood used by royal wives
against the king-is significant in understanding this attempted coup. … The asantehene's war gown (batakari kese)
was studded with amulets and talismans, and his finger-rings also had some spiritual power. Hence his anger at
discovering that the wives who came to embrace him were menstruating. The seriousness of the king's reprisals
underscore how gravely he took this rebellion.


According to Oduyoye, the fear behind all these taboos
and injunctions begin to be apparent when one analysis why brafo
(woman in her period) must not touch a Suman (talisman). A male
suman or ritual object that becomes involved with menstruating
women is in danger. To be in contact with brafo is to have all
one’s powers annulled. She renders one vulnerable to
evil spirits because she annuls all other powers.
Even though women bear and nurture children and thus preserve life, they are by
virtue of the natural flow of blood, considered to be a source of defilement or a
source of danger. In the normal sense women’s genital organs are said to have
potential powers to defile the sacred. They are endowed with negative properties
that can alter and cause the sacred to lose its very essence.

In fact, the greatest Asante shrine, the Golden Stool, was periodically contaminated
with menstrual blood to sharpen its power. It is done once a year. When it comes to mmusumuru adee,
when we come to cleanse something, first, we dirty it. Then they do certain things for it to come back with
renewed power. You can make an analogy with corn. To grow corn, you put the seeds in the soil,
where it rots. Then green corn stalks sprouts out of the rotten seed.
Page | 13
Things ordinarily tabooed in Asante society may be harnessed
for their inherent spiritual power in specific rituals. During the
odwira festival, for example, the Asantehene ordered the
slaying of an ox-an act tabooed to him as a member of the
Bosomnmuru ntoro - at Abogyawe, a sacred spot in front of
his palace. The king's public violation of his taboo
paradoxically sharpened his spiritual power.



Nancy Jay
According to the literature and my own informants, Oglala women can take an active role in a number of rituals only
during prepubescent and postmenopausal stages of their lives. During their re-productive stage restrictions are
placed on their participation. For example: only "virgins" (prepubescent girls) are permitted to touch or carry the
sacred sun dance pole. They also may handle the sacred pipe and other sacred paraphernalia normally proscribed for
pubescent women. Postmenopausal women may assist in ritual curing, pick sacred herbs, and instruct young women
at puberty and childbirth.
A reconsideration of Lévi-Strauss’s work on symbolism and myth
- Chris Knight

For women, the moment at which they can no longer bear children is indicated by the cessation of menses. This
bodily change for women – menopause -is a significant change in their reproductive status.
A woman’s inability to bear children is marked physically by the cessation of menses, and so it is more frequently
discussed in the ancient sources. In addition, because a woman’s role in society is more closely tied to her
reproductive capabilities, the end of menses is a more notable event.
One may be told that a traditional ruler, for instance is sacred and therefore
restricted by a number of prohibitions without being told the basis of his
sacredness; or that a menstruating woman is profane without knowing what
impure blood implies or the basis of its profanity. Page | 14
Among the Akan, the mysterious power that manifests

in a being or an object helps differentiates it from the “ordinary”.
Such a being or object is classified as taboo and what is taboo is what
they may conceive as sacred or profane which is expressed almost
exclusively through taboos. However the sacred and the profane
represent two poles of a dreadful domain, they are mutually
exclusive and contradictory in every sphere of life.
Despite the matrilineal focus of Akan societies, men hold most traditional leadership positions. Male succession to
inherited positions is, however determined by relationship to mothers and sisters. Consequently, a man’s valuable
property is not passed on to his children, but to his brother or sister’s son. A man may also be expected to support
the children of a maternal relative, whether deceased or alive, an expectation that may conflict with the interests of
his own children. … nevertheless they tend to think the Akan are most profitably considered together with
matrilineal societies. ... the balance is far more heavily weighted on the side of the matrilineal lineage than of the
jurally inferior and noncorporate paternal line.
In light of this view of the world and this mode of understanding, the traditional Akan, like other Africans,
experience as living what the Western mind takes to be merely an inert or lifeless material world. To the Akan the
material world is animated, trees, forests, rivers, stones, animals, etc., have spirits in them. These trees and so forth
are, then, forces and energies to be reckoned with in life. Matter and spirit are understood as inseparable. Underlying
the various forces and energies of the material world and, indeed, of the whole of the universe, is a Vital Force, who
gives meaning to these forces and energies.
What Busia said with reference to the whole of Africa is true of the Akan: The Akan understanding of reality as
animated or energized by the creator conceived of as the universal Vital Force establishes an ontological relationship
among all things in the context of a hierarchical (bi da bi akyi) order of things. The assumption that there is such a
hierarchically ordered ontological relationship among all things does not allow the Akan, or other Africans, to see
things in isolation. It has been noted that in the mind of the Akan, as in the mind of all Africans reality is both
relational and interactional. This understanding of reality affects their understanding of the human person.

The Asante universe contained numerous participants-spirits, humans, animals, and plants. It was a universe of
experience in which some of the participants were invisible. This happens in cultures where the empirical and the
meta-empirical worlds have an ongoing discourse. Although some animals and plants had a potent life-force (Twi:
sasa), it did not necessarily make them objects of worship (the realm of religion). The Asante universe was suffused
with power. Onyame (the Supreme Being) had created a universe impregnated with his power. Power was thus
rooted in the Asante cosmology, and individuals and groups that successfully tapped into this power source
translated this access into authority if they controlled social institutions.
Authority (political power) could be monopolized, but access to power (Twi: tumi:, "the ability to bring about Page | 15
change") was available to anyone who knew how to make use of Onyame's powerful universe for good or evil. As
Malcolm D. McLeod points out, knowledge was the key to power: "Many religious activities were, by definition,
mysterious and secret.
Most Asante did not expect to know much about their gods; to those who did knowledge was power."' And
knowledge was an acquired or an innate quality for some individuals. Thus, power had no gender or age
delineations.
The Asante were and are acutely aware that their culture, in the most literal sense, was hacked out of nature. And
this understanding (which is historically and materially accurate) engendered the abiding fear that, without
unremitting application and effort, the fragile defensible space called culture would simply be overwhelmed or
reclaimed by an irruptive and anarchic nature. The Asante were obsessed with order and feared disorder. The forest
or bush constituted "an area of disorder, potential power and danger." The bush quickly reclaimed abandoned
settlements and cultivated areas, where human exertion had become remiss. Yet its luxuriance underscored the
fertility of the soil, while the forest housed powerful spirits and forces that humans could tap to their benefit.
At three levels of Asante social organization-family, lineage, and state-women

were crucial in their roles as biological reproducers and as economic and social
producers. Though the emergence of the Asante state diminished the political
visibility of women, their role as social critics and as ritual specialists was
germane to the functioning of the body politic.
The deities themselves were gendered, and female deities sometimes required female spokespersons "who knew the
ways of the deity." The river deity, Asuo Abena, in Dwaben, required an obosomfobaa ("priestess"), and so did
Buronyaa in Effiduase. Moreover, certain rituals were best performed by women: for example, the cleansing and
social reintegration of social deviants, such as kleptomaniacs and witches, through tutuwbo. The Asante believed
such anti-social acts were caused by evil spirits, and public ridicule "severs the link between the human being and
the anti-social spirits." Increasingly, as the Asante state established itself from the eighteenth century, female
spiritual roles came to be held by women past the stage of menopause, these women being seen as "ritual men."
Such old women acquired elderly privileges such as the right to cut their hair short (dansikra), wear their cloths in a
male fashion, drink liquor, and pour libations.
Childbearing women were sidelined in public affairs because of male notions about the spiritual danger presented by
menstrual blood. For such women, Wilks points out that: Participation in affairs of state was not encouraged, for the
onset of menstruation might have untoward and unpredictable consequences for those in contact, even indirectly,
with the woman. The Asante attitude was most vigorously in practice in the case of the king's wives still able to bear
children. They were secluded in a harem for most of the time.

The conception is that while the blood flows, life runs out. Page | 16
This makes her destructive. The redoubtable force that is put into play
in menses and childbirth and the contagious nature of the impure blood
that is discharged have led Akans to believe that the menstruant or
the parturition woman has exceptional potential power
which is destructive in essence.
If there is any one belief, which is considered to be peculiar to women with regard to profanity, it is the one
regarding the flow of blood. Even though women bear and nurture children and thus preserve life, they are by virtue
of the natural flow of blood, considered to be a source of defilement or a source of danger. In the normal sense
women’s genital organs are said to have potential powers to defile the sacred. They are endowed with negative
properties that can alter and cause the sacred to lose its very essence. Since women’s genital organs have been
conceived as a source of danger or defilement, anyone who comes into direct contact with them becomes profane. It
is for this reason that those who have sex and have not taken a bath are forbidden to touch approach or communicate
with the sacred or forbidden to take part in any cultic ritual. A menstruate is believed to be in a “destructive state.”
She is said to have lost or wasted the precious life contained in the fluid discharged. The conception is that while the
blood flows, life runs out. This makes her destructive. The redoubtable force that is put into play in menses and
childbirth and the contagious nature of the impure blood that is discharged have led Akans to believe that the
menstruant or the parturition woman has exceptional potential power which is destructive in essence.

When the king joined his army he commissioned his eldest sister (then
governess of the kingdom), to attend strictly to the sacred mystery,
telling her that his crown and life both depended upon her vigilance,
and the fulfilment of his order. He selected also three wives to whom
he was more attached than the rest, to watch by turns over the
mysterious rites, in conjunction with his last-mentioned sister….
Is Sacrifice Necessarily Patriarchal?

A Reappraisal of Sacrifice in Relation to Social Reproduction
Leslie Goode
In regard to the Ashanti, Jay argues that ritual sacrifice is not performed by, or on behalf of, the matrilineage. Since
the validation of paternity is not required in matrilineal societies, the latter can dispense with sacrifice. … Sacrifice
does, however, take place among the Ashanti. But this is always in connection with 'B' groups. These are headed by
a chief, and their cult is directed to deceased "office-holders" - much as in foregoing cases - with present-day
sacrificers becoming the ancestors for succeeding generations. … Additionally, Jay also argues that the paradigm
instance of a group 'B' cult - sacrifice to the royal ancestors of the Ashanti king himself - is actually a patrilineal cult. Page | 17
This is possible, despite matrilineality, because the practice of cross-cousin marriage, favoured by the Ashanti and
adhered to by the kings, meant that their paternal and maternal lines converged at the second ascending generation.
… sacrificial cult occurs among the Ashanti, it reflects a principle of patrilineal organization that cross-cuts at a
political level the elsewhere dominant pattern of matrilineal kinship structure. It need hardly be stated that this
picture of the Ashanti differs quite radically from the picture of patrilineal societies that has emerged in the
foregoing cases.
It is safe to conclude that there are no forms of sacrifice in Ashanti

that bear a direct relationship to matrilineal family organization as such". …
Nancy Jay
… the Ashanti suggests a radical discontinuity between institutions of kinship on the one hand and politico-
religious institutions, on the other. This conforms nicely to Jay's conception of a dichotomy between nature and
culture, birth and social paternity in traditional societies. It is, nevertheless, quite at odds with the impression that
emerges in our own case studies of an underlying continuity and homogeneity across the ritual field.
Leslie Goode

The Akan Concept of the Sacred and the Profane
In Akan thought, certain objects and beings with distinctive characteristics have the potential of affecting life
positively or negatively; these include natural phenomena, animals, mediums and spirits. Those, which affect life
positively and have pervasive and persuasive characteristics, are what the people conceive as distinctively sacred;
whilst those that affect life negatively and have dissuasive characteristics are profane. Behind the sacred and the
profane is a life-power or vital force that makes them contagious and essentially ‘dangerous.’ In religious terms, the
sacred assumes a superior position to the profane. It is that which is separated from the profane and secular; and it is
that which is respected and protected. One would notice that a particular stone, for instance, which has been
identified as distinctively sacred.
According to Oduyoye, the fear behind all these taboos and injunctions begin to be apparent when one analysis why
brafo (woman in her period) must not touch a Suman (talisman). A male suman or ritual object that becomes
involved with menstruating women is in danger. To be in contact with brafo is to have all one’s powers annulled.
She renders one vulnerable to evil spirits because she annuls all other powers.
The menstrual blood makes women unclean and dangerous as G. Nantakyiwah writes: The basic belief underlying
most of the views on menstruation, especially, is that the menstrual blood, besides being unclean, is also considered
as dangerous, potent, so that any direct or indirect contact with it is believed to render all powers weak, impotent and
interactive.
In her paper at the Pan African Conference of Third World Theologians in Accra, Oduyoye remarks ‘as far as the
cultic aspect of religion goes, women now as before, are relegated.’ She said in most traditional religious festivals,
the only active participation of women is in providing the dishes for feasting that accompanies the rituals. Oduyoye
again stresses that, women doing the dancing and cooking for festivals do not compensate for their exclusion from Page | 18
the “Holy of Holies” in the festivals. With the Asante only menopausal women, or in certain cases those who are
willing to live asexual life seem to be admitted for religious rituals. In traditional religion, women are declared
unclean by the natural flow of blood associated with procreation.
spirit world. Blood in Akan has a dual character; it is holy but it is also inauspicious when found where it should not
Among the Akan, women feature prominently in ritual dances and singing, as in mmommome, - The support ritual of
singing that is specifically a female activity. When rituals are being performed to show unity with the ancestors,
women join in feasting and dressing up, but not in sacrificing. There is a prohibition, however, against women
wearing masks, even when the ancestor being represented is a woman. Men have arrogated to themselves the
prerogative of representing the spirits that shaped the history and the destiny of the community.
Purity And Sacrifice - Frimpong


Nancy Jay
Purity And Sacrifice - Frimpong
Purification rituals for women are more frequent. Women may undergo
purification after a man’s failure to accomplish a task, after a husband’s death,
or after childbirth. These purification rituals are very often prescribed by men
diviners and performed on women by women.
ineffective.
Among the Akan, the mysterious power that manifests in a being or an object helps differentiates it from the
“ordinary”. Such a being or object is classified as taboo and what is taboo is what they may conceive as sacred or Page | 19
profane which is expressed almost exclusively through taboos. However the sacred and the profane represent two
poles of a dreadful domain, they are mutually exclusive and contradictory in every sphere of life. It is therefore
imperative to create water-tight compartments between them since they cannot co-exist without one losing its unique
characteristics. The contagious of the profane, for example, always causes it to debase, degrade and destroy
instantaneously the essence in terms of which the sacred is defined. The sacred is therefore placed outside common
usage, guarded and protected by restrictions and prohibitions. A traditional ruler for example by virtue of the
ancestral stool he occupies is said to be sacred and therefore taboo. He has to observe a number of restrictions as
custom demands. For instance, he may not talk to certain persons directly. The clothes he wears, the bowl he eats
from and uneaten food should not be used by anybody except perhaps his own wife and children who share his
sacredness since this could lead to illness or even death.
What constitutes the profane? In Akan life and thought, the profane has undesirable religious connotations. In the
ritual sense, it is anything whose nature or spiritual force could destroy the sacred essence of a being or an object
and thereby renders it valueless or powerless. On account of its dangerous influence or destructive nature, the Akan
refer to it as akyieade (that which is unclean) or akumde (that which pollutes). The belief is that once the profane
comes into contract with any “ordinary” or sacred being or object, the ‘ordinary or sacred is contaminated. There is a
multiplicity of profane objects and beings. In the normal sense, natural phenomena and natural species, which not
personified or treated with reverence or used for ritual purposes are conceived as (ordinary.) However, those, which
are conceived as extremely dangerous and could, alter both the sacred and the “ordinary,” are what the Akan term
profane. Menstrual women fall into the category of profanity.
It was identified that the leading purpose of Akan religious culture is to make certain that harmony exits between the
living and the ancestors. For the Akan, a good society is one in which there is peaceful coexistence between the
living, the gods and the ancestors. Having children is a good sign that one has a good relationship with the ancestors.
The living communicates with the ancestors through blood sacrifice which is usually poured on the ground. In this
way, the living supplies blood which the ancestors lack and so the ancestors are appeased and in turn bless the
community or an individual. Menstrual blood is also poured onto the ground (where the ancestors “live”) through
washing. Menstrual blood is human blood and so can be considered as more precious, suitable and desirable as
sacrifice to the ancestors than animal blood since they were once human beings. If menstrual blood can be
considered as very important to ancestors and a source of regular blood supply for the ancestors so as to maintain the
continuous contact/relationship that the living Akan community seeks with the ancestors, then it will no longer be
seen as impure. Akan communities may then be able to see the menstruating woman from a different perspective.
She can be viewed as one who makes sacrifices on behalf of the community, one who makes contact with the
ancestors on monthly basis and so she cannot be considered as impure.
Menarche which is a special period in every Akan woman’s life but also seen as a period that the woman becomes
“unclean” would then be viewed as a period when a young woman is first connected with her ancestors through
shedding of her first blood so that she will also be blessed with many children. Again, it was recognized that the
Akan believe that daughters are the media for ancestors to come back to the earth as human beings. This is possible
because daughters menstruate.
Because in the Akan worldview women are the ones that are connected to a common ancestress through whose help
the extended family members came into existence, it becomes easy to link menstruation with purity and divine.
Page | 20
The Akan is found to be very religious. Their cult of the ancestors is the most powerful aspect of the religious life in
traditional Akan society. In connection with this cult is the belief that it is through one’s mother (who the Akan
believe is connected to a common ancestress in the spiritual world) that one has his or her spiritual connection. The
Akan’s identity is therefore traced through the mother-bond since children are gifts from this common ancestress.
However, menstrual blood which is highly associated with child bearing (something that is highly valued and at the
same time coming from the ancestors in Akan culture) is considered impure, potent and dangerous in the Akan
religious culture.
Menstrual blood … occasionally fit to be an honorific offering to a god.

The first napkin worn by a virgin was to be saved for use as a cure for
the plague The Curse Delaney, Lupton, and Toth
Blood Magic; The Anthropology of Menstruation

Buckley and Gottlieb
Menstrual blood is seen as polluting when it symbolically encodes an underlying social-structural ambiguity
regarding women and things female. On the one hand a society may have a consciously developed an ideology of
male superiority but, on the other, it may also permit women access to at least some kinds of power, thereby in a
sense undermining its own ideology of male dominance. The common fact of menstruation among all women
challenges the social order of a male-dominated society and defines and bounds a female subgroup within the
society, thereby creating a new separate and dangerous order.
Re-claiming a sacred understanding of the menstrual taboo

Women are therefore in exile from their own fidelity because of this de-spiritualisation, which in turn has created a
scission between the sexes, and is today present in cultural exchange. It is for this reason that Irigaray pursues a
feminine genealogy, towards the reclaiming of “a dimension of the divine” for women. She calls for an investigation
by women into a pre-patriarchal period in history when gynocratic traditions where in existence, in order for women
to reclaim their Spirituality, and reinstate an oracle of femininity culturally.
The living communicates with the ancestors through blood sacrifice which is usually poured on the ground. In this
way, the living supplies blood which the ancestors lack and so the ancestors are appeased and in turn bless the
community or an individual. Menstrual blood is also poured onto the ground (where the ancestors “live”) through
washing. Menstrual blood is human blood and so can be considered as more precious, suitable and desirable as
sacrifice to the ancestors than animal blood since they were once human being.
They smear with blood the golden god, the wall,

and the utensils of the entirely new god. The new god
and the temple become clean.”
The Hittite text Ulippi ðiv,
Page | 21

project to master and transcend
(1978: 221-2).
it is argued by men that women’s ritual power

“is not controlled by the women themselves; rather it is they
who are seen to be controlled by their nature and their bodies.”
The crucial point about this case is that it demonstrates a clear opposition between menstruation and birth, even if
the menstrual blood in this example might not refer to the “first flush” but rather to the blood of someone who has
reached the menarche. Blood from a menstruating woman has a negative impact on someone who has just given
birth because menstruation indicates the absence of pregnancy and thus the lack of fertility. Blood from a
menstruating woman would then counteract the vital processes associated with creation. To the dual character of the
elements of creation mentioned above - existence being embedded in nonexistence (or potential existence) - should
be added another ambiguity, namely, the contrast between the various agents or containers of the life-giving
processes - an opposition corresponding to the Egyptian distinction between this world and the other world.
Reproductive Power; Menstruation, Magic, and Taboo
Natalie Rose Dyer
Blood is meant to flow within the body, not seep out. However, blood transgresses the borders of the body during
menstruation and childbirth. As Owen points out: ‘The fact that women can bleed without dying added to their
numinous power in ancient times’
The eternal social order

According to Jay, sacrifice generally makes possible the
stripping away the limits of biology and mortality (associated
with women) so that one enjoy membership in an eternal
social order.
A Remedy For Having Been Born Of Woman
Pamela Eisenbaum
Again the awareness that men’s religious significance is

bestowed in the hands of women tends to give the latter some form
of power over men which women can to use their advantage.
“The menstrual taboo” as such does not exist. Rather, what is found in close cross-cultural study is a wide range of
distinct rules for conduct regarding menstruation that bespeak quite different, even opposite, purposes and meanings.
Many menstrual taboos, rather than protecting society from a universally ascribed feminine evil, explicitly protect
the perceived creative spirituality of menstruous women from the influence of others in a more neutral state, as well
as protecting the latter in turn from the potent, positive spiritual force ascribed to such women. Page | 22
Menstrual “Taboo” in Ancient Egypt
Paul John Frandsen
effective as a love charm, could ward off river daemons and other evil
spirits, and was occasionally fit to be an honorific offering to a god.
The first napkin worn by a virgin was to be saved for use as a cure for
the plague The Curse Delaney, Lupton, and Toth
Women are considered unclean, carnal, and polluting. Women must be controlled and
sanctioned. These taboos have been largely abolished in Christian culture, but not
entirely in Orthodox Jewish culture.
Natalie Rose Dyer
Some of the most prominent of these features are gender-related, such as an opposition between sacrificial
purity and the pollution of childbirth, and a rule that only males may perform sacrificial ritual.
In the polarity between blood sacrifice and childbirth, killing receives a positive value and giving birth a negative
value.
Sacrifice as Remedy for Having Been Born of Woman - by Nancy Jay

A review by E. A. Castelli (ed.), Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader
What is not explained, however, is the enormous fear of menstruation which is

experienced by men in many traditional societies. Extraordinarily destructive
supernatural potencies are attributed to the blood, far exceeding the dangers of
substances which are simply “unclean”.
Menstruation And The Origins Of Culture
Sacrifice as Remedy for Having Been

Born of Woman - Nancy Jay
Feminist scholars cannot limit themselves to studying the participation of
women in culture, society, or history, important as this is. Nor can we, like
traditional scholars, take for granted the exclusion of women from vast areas
of cultural life. Rather, we must subject these areas to critical analysis in order
to disclose and to demystify the gender relations that underlie them.
Blood Magic; The Anthropology of Menstruation Page | 23

Buckley and Gottlieb
… Menstrual blood is seen as polluting when it symbolically encodes
an underlying social-structural ambiguity regarding women and things
female. …The common fact of menstruation among all women
challenges the social order of a male-dominated society and defines and
bounds a female subgroup within the society, thereby creating a new
separate and dangerous order.
Sacrifice as Remedy for Having Been

Born of Woman
Nancy Jay
Feminist scholars cannot limit themselves to studying the participation of
women in culture, society, or history, important as this is. Nor can we,
like traditional scholars, take for granted the exclusion of women from
vast areas of cultural life. Rather, we must subject these areas to critical analysis
in order to disclose and to demystify the gender relations that underlie
them.
The pattern of taboo draws attention to the

ambiguous position women in the society. Women
were dangerous, but they were dangerous because
they were powerful. They may have been inferior
men, but they posed a threat.
Attitudes to Menstruation in Seventeenth-Century
England
Patricia Crawford

project to master and transcend
(1978: 221-2).
it is argued by men that women’s ritual power

“is not controlled by the women themselves; rather it is they
who are seen to be controlled by their nature and their bodies.”
Menstruation And The Origins Of Culture -
Page | 24
… the threat which men may see in this, the “political inversion” through which men usurp the symbolic potency of
menstruation whilst turning real menstruation into a female curse or burden – and finally the link in male ideology
between mastery over nature and men’s dominance over women.
“ ... Yet the order in this case poses a threat, since it is a structure provided by women, not men, a phenomenon Fore
and other New Guinea groups attempt to neutralize by male rituals of imitative menstruation..., letting blood from
penis and nose”. In this way, “a political inversion is accomplished; menstruation is dirty and demeaning for
women, strengthening and purifying for men.”
- Chris Knight
The Menstrual “Taboo” in Ancient Egypt

“The menstrual taboo” as such does not exist. Rather, what is found in close cross-cultural study is a wide range of
distinct rules for conduct regarding menstruation that bespeak quite different, even opposite, purposes and meanings.
Many menstrual taboos, rather than protecting society from a universally ascribed feminine evil, explicitly protect
the perceived creative spirituality of menstruous women from the influence of others in a more neutral state, as well
as protecting the latter in turn from the potent, positive spiritual force ascribed to such women. In other cultures
menstrual customs, rather than subordinating women to men fearful of them, provide women with means of
ensuring their own autonomy, influence, and social control. “The menstrual taboo,” in short, is at once nearly
universal and has meanings that are ambiguous and often multivalent.
The Menstrual “Taboo” in Ancient Egypt
Paul John Frandsen


Nancy Jay
To be in contact with women at the time of menstruation threatens masculine

virility. Hence, women are subject to menstrual taboos that seek to ostracise
them from cultural life.
The Curse; A Cultural History of Menstruation
Delaney, Lupton and Toth

The development of this connection between sacrifice and patrilineality arises because Page | 25
social structures “idealizing in order to ensure this separation between descent through
sacrifice and biological descent, women are generally excluded from direct sacrificial
practices. In many cultures, this exclusion is achieved through the establishment of the
dichotomy between the purity of sacrifice and the pollution of menstruation and/or
childbirth. This opposition between bloodshed in sacrifice and blood shedding by women
excludes women from performing sacrificial acts. Typically only adult males - those in
the position to be fathers - have the ability to sacrifice.

… sacrificial cult occurs among the Ashanti, it reflects a principle of patrilineal organization that cross-cuts at a
political level the elsewhere dominant pattern of matrilineal kinship structure. It need hardly be stated that this
picture of the Ashanti differs quite radically from the picture of patrilineal societies that has emerged in the
foregoing cases.
Leslie Goode
It is safe to conclude that there are no forms of sacrifice in Ashanti

that bear a direct relationship to matrilineal family organization as such". …
Nancy Jay
Reclaiming The Role Of The Old Priestess

The development of this connection between sacrifice and patrilineality arises because social structures “idealizing
eternal” male intergenerational continuity meet a fundamental obstacle in their necessary dependence on women’s
reproductive powers.” Thus, men have an anxiety about women’s reproductive powers due to their reliance upon
women for the continuation of their society. Therefore, in patrilineal societies, men take control and regulate the
reproductive power and rights of women by establishing a lineage system to control inheritance and the means of
production.
The emphasis on sacrifice in patrilineal societies allows for the development of social reproduction, instead of
relying on biological reproduction (childbirth); descent becomes social and ritual in nature and, therefore, is no
longer dependent on women.
In order to ensure this separation between descent through sacrifice and biological descent, women are generally
excluded from direct sacrificial practices. In many cultures, this exclusion is achieved through the establishment of
the dichotomy between the purity of sacrifice and the pollution of menstruation and/or childbirth. This opposition
between bloodshed in sacrifice and blood shedding by women excludes women from performing sacrificial acts.
Typically only adult males - those in the position to be fathers - have the ability to sacrifice. Jay notes the rarity of
female sacrificers, and “when women are reported performing sacrifice it is never as mothers, but almost always in
some specifically non-childbearing role: as virgins (or dressed as if they were virgins), as consecrated unmarried
women, or as post-menopausal women.”
Page | 26
“For, if bleeding, not having political rights, and not shedding blood are causally linked, then whether we take
sacrificial exclusion to be a product of having no political rights, or having no political rights to be a product of
sacrificial exclusion, the bleeding at least must be the cause and not the product of either sacrificial or political
deprivation.”
Robin Osborne
Osborne is troubled by the privileging of female physiology, although it should be noted that Detienne does not
make his arguments in the stark terms of biological determinism nor is he alone in seeing the connection between
the categories of shedding blood or bloodshed.


The question is why has it always been accepted that blood from women is impure? In Akan/African culture and
religion, female blood impurity has both religious and cultural implications. Religiously female blood is impure
because it is split outside the sacrificial act. Culturally, any act that sheds blood except within a sacrificial act is
considered impure. The feelings of female blood impurity was handled both religiously and culturally in the
Akan/African societies through rituals. The ritual elements consist of segregation or separation, purification,
exhibition, celebration and incorporation.`

“Myths present ideas that guide perception, conditioning us to think and even perceive in a particular way,
especially when we are young and impressionable. … They define good and bad, right and wrong, what is natural
and what is unnatural among the people who hold the myths as meaningful. It was quite apparent that the myths and
legends that grew from, and were propagated by, a religion in which the deity was female, and revered as wise,
valiant, powerful and just, provided very different images of womanhood from those which we are offered by the
male-oriented religions of today” (Stone, 4-5).
The influence of religion and philosophy on a culture, the founding ideas that make up the consciousness of a
society, runs so much deeper than what its members decide it to be. The impact of remembered history is very
strong and very deep.
Natalie Rose Dyer
Page | 27

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Things ordinarily tabooed in Asante society may be harnessed for their inherent spiritual power in specific rituals.

women were a part of that “nature” which it was culture’s

Origin of Menstruation -- Douglas has suggested that,

“A woman does not pour libation on a stool.”

Participation in affairs of state was not encouraged, for the

women were a part of that “nature” which it was culture’s

Increasingly, as the Asante state established itself from the eighteenth

“When women are reported performing sacrifice it is never as mothers,

Reclaiming The Role Of The Old Priestess:

… When the king returned home, … and he returned the embraces

When I was urging how does one really know when

Purity and Impurity - Frimpong

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

would simply be overwhelmed or reclaimed by an irruptive and anarchic nature.

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

According to Oduyoye, the fear behind all these taboos

Things ordinarily tabooed in Asante society may be harnessed for their

Two things emerge from the concept of impure blood:

women were a part of that “nature” which it was culture’s

Purity and Impurity - Frimpong

in connection with puberty and birth, women, during menstruation and

Purity and Impurity – Frimpong

The Taboo of Menstruation in Akan Religious Culture

Increasingly, as the Asante state established itself from the eighteenth

Purity and Impurity - Frimpong

women were a part of that “nature” which it was culture’s

Purity and Impurity - Frimpong

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

Purity And Impurity - Frimpong

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

“When women are reported performing sacrifice it is never as mothers,

Throughout Your Generations Forever:

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

Among the Akan, the mysterious power that manifests

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

At three levels of Asante social organization-family, lineage, and state-women

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -

Is Sacrifice Necessarily Patriarchal?

It is safe to conclude that there are no forms of sacrifice in Ashanti

Purity And Impurity - Frimpong

“When women are reported performing sacrifice it is never as mothers,

Throughout Your Generations Forever:

Purity And Sacrifice - Frimpong

Purity And Impurity - Frimpong

Menstrual blood … occasionally fit to be an honorific offering to a god.

Blood Magic; The Anthropology of Menstruation

Re-claiming a sacred understanding of the menstrual taboo

They smear with blood the golden god, the wall,

women were a part of that “nature” which it was culture’s

it is argued by men that women’s ritual power

The eternal social order

Again the awareness that men’s religious significance is

Sacrifice as Remedy for Having Been Born of Woman - by Nancy Jay

What is not explained, however, is the enormous fear of menstruation which is

Sacrifice as Remedy for Having Been

Blood Magic; The Anthropology of Menstruation Page | 23

Sacrifice as Remedy for Having Been

The pattern of taboo draws attention to the

women were a part of that “nature” which it was culture’s

it is argued by men that women’s ritual power

The Menstrual “Taboo” in Ancient Egypt

“When women are reported performing sacrifice it is never as mothers,