The fertility of the post-fertile: Concepts of gender, aging and reproductive health among the Giriama of Kenya

Among the Giriama of Kenya, post-menopausal women are custodians of the central, ritual objects of a female cult that is believed to enable reproductive health. By asking why cult custodians must be women and must be post-menopausal, this paper explores cultural constructions of gender, aging, health, and power. The solution to the paradox of how post-fertile women enable fertility illustrates the salience of ethnomedical beliefs for informing explorations into conceptions of gender and the life course. It can also shed light upon variations in involvement of women and men as ritual specialists in non-western societies.