{"product_id":"the-age-of-sex-custom-law-and-ritual-in-twentieth-century-east-africa-hardback-9780299352004","title":"The Age of Sex; Custom, Law, and Ritual in Twentieth-Century East Africa (Hardback) 9780299352004","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Age of Sex\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eCustom, Law, and Ritual in Twentieth-Century East Africa\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eCorrie Decker (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780299352004\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 8 July 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e344 pages, 0 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e“Decker’s decolonial-historical analysis of the intersecting concepts of sexuality and age is a refreshing eye-opener, revealing the embeddedness of these concepts in complex cultural, economic, and political constructions coupled with racist imperial (mis)representations. It is an invitation to rethink conventional sex laws.” - Sylvia Tamale, author of \u003cem\u003eDecolonization and Afro-Feminism\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eAs in much of the world, societies in precolonial East Africa—what is today Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda—used rites of passage to chart an individual’s social and developmental progress toward adulthood. Under European colonialism, from the 1890s to the 1960s, colonial judicial systems and the emerging genre of ethnography converged to subject African people to standardized definitions of childhood and adulthood. The coexistence of rites of passage and chronological age regulations generated confusion well into the postcolonial era, and the question of when childhood ends sparked extensive debate about gender, race, and development. Corrie Decker argues that ultimately these debates came down to “the age of sex.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The “age of sex,” a term Decker conceptualizes in this carefully researched monograph, refers to the hypothetical moment when a “girl” becomes a “woman” capable of engaging in heterosexual activity, and a “boy” becomes a “man” imbued with the right and responsibility to have heterosexual intercourse. Colonial ethnographic studies reduced complex precolonial rites of passage to “puberty rites” fixated on these sexual transformations. The resulting stereotypes influenced, in turn, how colonial and postcolonial court officials decided age-of-consent and other sex crime cases. Court rituals thus legally transformed girls into women by ruling on their sexual maturity, and boys into men by sentencing them to corporal punishment marking their acceptance of sexual responsibilities.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Introduction \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part I: The Age of Sex in Ethnography\u003cbr\u003e 1 Rites of Passage \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 2 Puberty Rites \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 3 Sexual Rites\u003cbr\u003e Part II: The Age of Sex in the Courts\u003cbr\u003e 4 The Age of Institutions \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 5 Sexual Ability \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 6 Rights and Responsibilities \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Wisconsin Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52530916393240,"sku":"9780299352004","price":49.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-age-of-sex-custom-law-and-ritual-in-twentieth-century-east-africa-hardback-9780299352004","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}