ABSTRACT
Based on ethnographic research, this chapter describes the role of the Protestant Church in influencing attitudes and behaviour related to female genital cutting among the Loita Maasai of Southern Kenya. Loitai identified the Protestant Church as one of the key actors speaking out against female genital cutting in Loita. Yet, the impact of the church on female genital cutting seems contradictory. On the one hand, many Loitai who convert to Protestantism say they abandoned the cut, as well as other practices defined as “impure” by the Church. On the other hand, the harsh “anti-culture” stance of the Protestant Church seems to have unintended consequences among non-Protestant Maasai, potentially undermining change related to female circumcision that has been happening and reinforcing circumcision as a marker of Maasai identity. Many Loitai experience Protestant discourses that oppose female genital cutting and Maasai culture for being “backward” and “impure” as yet another threat to Maasai culture and society. Within a context where cultural erosion is strongly feared, such discourses lead to defensiveness among non-Protestant Maasai and reinforce support for female genital cutting as an identity marker of “real Maasai” and as a way of protecting Maasai culture.
