Quand les femmes font corps.

Stéphane Gros (1)

1 CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes

In this chapter, I examine the seldom studied but now obsolete tradition of facial tattooing among Drung women in Yunnan province, China. In particular, I analyse the progressive, quasi-initiatory transition into womanhood established by tattoos, both during girls’ playful trial tattoo sessions, or on the occasion of the formal execution of the facial tattoo by a fully experienced woman. Female tattooing—by puncturing the skin, causing bleeding and pain—sustains and marks the social and physiological time of the transition to nubility. I show that tattooing can be understood as a processual construction of womanhood that is inseparable from the exchanges that take place between women and from the specific relationships involving fertility, which is transmitted, “revealed,” and represented by tattooing.

Mots clés: Chine, Corps humain, Image du corps

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

Stéphane Gros. Quand les femmes font corps.: Le tatouage facial féminin chez les Drung du Yunnan . Brigitte Baptandier. Le Battement de la vie. Le corps naturel et ses représentations en Chine, Société d'ethnologie, pp.163-187, 2017. ⟨halshs-01689005⟩