E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 59 However, as will be seen in chapter II, female genital mutilation is not peculiar to the Sudan or to Islam. 12 See Mohamed Talbi, Plaidoyer pour un islam moderne, Cérès éditions, Desclée De Brouwer, 1998, p. 65. 13 In hunter-gatherer and warrior societies, unequal distribution of power between the sexes probably predated religions and was believed to have been based on prestige associated with hunting and warfare, which only men could pursue owing to their greater physical strength. See Jack Goody, “Le chasseur de mammouths et la cuisinière”, Histoire, No. 245, July-August 2000, p. 14. 14 See Albert Samuel, Les femmes et les religions, Editions de l’atelier, 1995, pp. 42 and 158 ff. See also Emna Ben Miled, “Etude comparative du statut sexuel des femmes dans le monde méditerranéen, berbère, et africain”, Revue tunisienne de sciences sociales, 1985, p. 75. The author explains that many cultural practices such as polygamy and repudiation, harems, temporary unions, the taboo of virginity, the wearing of the veil, etc. are not of African or Muslim origin but can be traced to the ancient Mediterranean civilizational heritage of Greece and Rome in particular. See, in the same vein, Jacques Frémeaux, “Le point de vue de l’historien”, Colloque: Femmes et Islam: rôle et statut des femmes dans les sociétés contemporaines de tradition musulmane, Paris, CHEAM Symposium, 15-16 December 1999, Centre des hautes études sur l’Afrique et l’Asie modernes, Paris, 2000, p. 14. 15 See Femmes et religions (note 8 above). The author points out that, in the Old Testament, two out of forty-six books are devoted to women and over 80 per cent of the characters are men. 16 See Odon Vallet (note 8 above). 17 E. B. Tylor (Primitive Culture, 1871), cited by Pascal Perrineau, “Sur la notion de culture en anthropologie”, Revue française de science politique, No. 5, 1975, p. 948. The related concept of civilization appears to be geographically broader and encompasses a number of nations, with each national culture being just a particular form. The phenomena of civilization are thus essentially international and extranational. See Marcel Mauss, “Note sur la notion de civilisation”, cited by Perrineau, loc. cit., p. 954. The notion of civilization at the same time assumes the sense of refining and mollifying in relation to the savage state. See Philippe Benetton, “Histoire des mots: culture et civilisation”, Travaux et recherches de science politique, Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, No. 35, 1975, Paris, pp. 33, 68 and 69. 18 The Latin root word for culture, “cultura”, meant initially cultivated land or farming and subsequently, by extension, in a figurative sense, intellectual activity. See Henri Pallard, “Culture et diversité culturelle”, Droits fondamentaux et spécificités culturelles, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1997, p. 22, and the bibliography in note 2. 19 See Françoise Armengaud, “Religions du livre et religions de la coutume”, Revue métaphysique et de morale, p. 259. 20 Not to be confused with State religion.