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Scarification: Body Scarification In West Africa

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Body modifications have been practiced all around the globe for over hundreds of years. One modification that was and still remains extremely popular today is scarification. Scarification comes from the Latin word “scarificare” which literally means “to scratch open” (Ojo 2008: 355). The process may involves branding, burning, freezing, or cutting into the skin to intentionally influence wounds that create designs, pictures, or words. Scarification among tribes is typically practiced in order to be accepted in the society, attain beauty, and become one with the spiritual world.
One way that scarification is used is to identify each other in a certain tribe. The people of West Africa use facial scarification to identify one another from a certain …show more content…
In the far past, people did not have science to explain almost everything. This made most people afraid of everything they made contact with. There was thunder and lightning and death and storms. These aspects were scary to indigenous people. These indigenous people developed theories to explain what was happening around them. The events were caused by the wrath of God. That was the only explanation. It was comforting back then to know that a higher power was watching over you. So in order to fulfill the Gods’ orders certain modifications had to be done in order to please the Gods (Favazza 1996: …show more content…
Scarification may harm and add trauma to the skin and other sensitive areas in the body (Sweetman 1999: 62). Scarification is thus considered to be unsafe by many. Infections are a big concern because not only does it hurt, the materials for inducing the wounds need to be sanitary. Sanitary means to be kept clean at all times. It is not uncommon, especially if the wound is being irritated, for an infection to develop around the wound (Ayeni, Olubimpo, Olubukunola, Ayeni, and Jackson 2006: 218). The person doing the scarification needs to have very detailed knowledge of the anatomy of human skin. If a worker is not skilled enough they can cut the tools too deep into the skin, burn the metal too hot for the skin, or burn the skin for too long (Featherstone 1999:

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