ABSTRACT
Menstruating women should not cook and if they do no one should eat the food that they prepare because to do so would be highly dangerous. The menstruant’s power and menstrual taboos may be understood through an examination of the culturally constructed role that fluxing menstrual blood plays in reproduction, kinship, and general health. Blood is the primary and most thought about bodily component, but the most important part of the inner body or “structure” is the “belly.” A substance improperly propelled can meander off course and slide into an unsuitable tube or bag, lodge, and cause problems. Menstrual blood itself is pure and clean; it is the waste matter and semen carried down by the blood that is “unclean.” Women have a vested interest in male beliefs in their power for it promises to help them control and “hold onto” their men.
