Anna Kasafi Perkins, Contributor"Never trust anything
that bleeds for five days and doesn't die."
Women who are called to the ministry struggle against various cultural perceptions of femaleness and the 'woman's place'. There is a particular negative way that women are viewed which is compounded in the religious sphere: Women are seen as unclean. Some people may dismiss this as old-time something, but the experiences of some women say otherwise.
One female pastor recalls being told by both male and female members of her congregation, often in a very belligerent manner, that women are unclean and especially so when they are having their period.
The expectation is that women should not be on the altar or distributing communion when they are menstruating. Imagine the distraction of some members of the congregation as a woman tries to preach the word of God: Is she seeing her period? Can I take the bread from her today? The dilemma worsens when the pastor is pregnant. Such cultural taboos and attitudes may play an often unacknowledged role in the question of women's leadership in the Church. That's the trouble with menstruating women.
Special power
In so many ancient cultures, the bodily processes of the female of the species were regarded as intriguing, disconcerting, even
dangerous. In ancient Judaism, for example, menstrual blood was assigned a special power, far beyond its simple biological function.
Jewish theologian Blu Greenberg argues that this is not surprising given menstrual blood's very real connection with matters of life and death, birth and the destruction of a potential living organism.
The absence of menstrual blood signalled new life; menstrual blood signalled death, as the body issued forth dead or unfertilised ova.
Menstruating women were governed by the law of Niddah, the law of physical separation during menstruation. This law has undergone development over time and appears in Scripture within two different contexts: taboos dealing with other forms of defilement, impurity and death (Leviticus 15); and taboos associated with forbidden sexual relations (Leviticus 18).
The two contexts are often interwoven. Today, relatively few Jews outside of the Orthodox community observe the Niddah. (Some prohibit a Niddah entering a synagogue.)
The ritual of purification involves, after a minimum of 12 days separation, the woman going to a ritual bath (mikveh) where she is immersed several times, recites a ritual blessing and is pronounced 'kosher' by the mikveh attendant.
Taboos still strong
Some women observe the Niddah today as a sign of their Jewishness and for the significant meanings that they see it giving to their lives as women and their relationship with the men they love.
In Jamaica, our own menstrual taboos are still strong and far reaching, but are more readily apparent in some religious communities like the Bobo and in certain rural areas.
Certainly, these taboos and perceptions can be traced to the impact on the Jamaican psyche of a certain Old Testament way of being Christian but few may be aware that the "stream" may also have been fed by our African forebears.
The Akan people from the former Gold Coast (Ghana) have themselves various rituals and attitudes about menstruating that may have melded with and reinforced those in Christianity. The depth to which such menstrual taboos run raises questions for the Church and how it is called to deal with such cultural issues, some would say superstitions, that undermine interpersonal and social relationships today, in particular the full acceptance of women to leadership in the church.
Menstruation in the Akan community is surrounded by many traditions. Traditionally, women in that condition are moved from their homes and put in a house at the outskirts of the village.
Because a menstruating woman is considered unclean she is not allowed to cook her husband or another male's food, cross or fetch water from certain rivers; greet or talk to the chief; touch some of the traditional musical instruments; or touch or come into contact with protective or destructive medicine. Any woman who breaks these prohibitions is dealt with harshly. The basic belief underlying the numerous prohibitions associated with menstruation is that menstrual blood is so dangerous and potent that any direct or indirect contact with it is believed to render all powers impotent and inactive. Therefore, besides being unclean, the menstruating woman is also dangerous and must be isolated and avoided, especially by men and certain religious personalities.
Even women who carry out religious functions, such as traditional priests, are forbidden to enter religious shrines when they are menstruating. (Elizabeth Amoah, Femaleness: Akan Concepts and Practices).
There are numerous points of similarity to be seen between these actions and those of the priestly Rasta community, the Boboshanti. Of course, the interpretation of the traditions may differ.
Moral and social implications
Elisa J. Sobo in her article Menstrual Taboos, Witchcraft Babies and Social Relations in the collection Daughters of Caliban states that health-conscious Jamaicans associate the menses with uncleanliness. Sobo posits that the association partly stems from the influence of Christianity on the island.
But, she says, more importantly, it has to do with the belief in the ability and inclination of women to use their menstrual blood wickedly, to manipulate men. (The root of this belief may be in our Akan heritage.) Menstrual symbolism in Jamaica, therefore, involves more than simple physical impurity: The uncleanness associated with menstruation has important moral and social implications.
According to some traditional beliefs held by some rural Jamaicans, menstrual blood itself is considered clean, the waste matter which is carried down by the blood is not. Regular menstruation is therefore desirable as it promotes health by removing toxins. However, a body in the process of cleaning itself is sick. This is paradoxical because menstruating women can claim to be clean but sick at the same time. Calling menstruation sickness serves to keep women from pursuing certain activities, and this highlights the pollution they carry. This is oppressive of women.
Double-sided
The flip side of this notion of sickness, however, is that it can be used by women to avoid daily duties. Menstruation's uncleanness is also double-sided since female power - however limited - flows from it. This is especially so of menstrual blood because it transports toxins from the body and can cause sickness simply because of the waste it contains.
At the same time menstrual blood can be used to control the minds of those whose bodies it enters. This is what is said to happen when women tie men (secure their love and money) by using their menstrual blood in cooking, especially in stew peas. If too much of this menstrual blood is fed to a man, the tradition maintains that he will become sick or even die.
Sobo argues that menstrual rhetoric is often used as a means of confirming or legitimising claims about pre-existent, problematic relationships. She retells the story of May and Uncle. For several months uncle sensed a tension in his relationship with May. He then experienced some abdominal pain which alarmed him.
One day he 'bucked up' a small bottle with some liquid which he took to an obeah man who confirmed that May had been tying him with her monthly flow. This explained Uncle's bad belly and the feelings he had been having about May and her excessive demands for affection from him.
Bad belly
He felt that had he not publicly denounced her sin and left her she would surely have killed him. Sobo remarks that May may or may not have been too demanding or Uncle may simply have fallen out of love. In any case, Uncle felt the relationship was no longer a good one.
"The bad belly physically represented his sense that too many demands were being made on him. Indeed, May's alleged desire to control his decisions regarding what he would do for her brought the sickness on to begin with.
Whether or not May had behaved poorly, she was now partnerless and her character had been maligned. Menstrual rhetoric had been used against her by Uncle and by his friends as a way to validate his act of desertion.
This same menstrual rhetoric is at play in the church where female pastors are subtly or otherwise made to feel that they are unclean and not worthy to be offering public sacrifice and praise. Which female pastor doesn't quake inside when she has to preach on Isaiah 64.6: "All your righteousness is like filthy rags."
The image of blood-soaked menstrual cloths as a sign of unrighteousness and uncleanness simply adds to the troubles of menstruating women.
Dr. Anna Kasafi Perkins is Dean of Studies at St. Michael's Theological College. Dr. Perkins may be reached at perkiperks@hotmail.com.
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