1. Can the category 'culture' (or religion) be used?	​Yes. Scarification is a ritual activity during which the body is incised for decorative purposes. It is a practice charged with symbolic value, in which cultural symbols are constructed and deconstructed on the body for reasons that vary depending on the context in which they are practised. Often scarifications are used to mark members of a social group, for religious reasons (signaling conversion to a new religion), to cure illnesses or as ritual elements in rites of passage or initiation, or to show that one has passed through certain important phases of the life cycle.
2. Description of the cultural (or religious) practice and group.	The term scarification refers to the making of shallow cuts in the skin for ritual purposes. This practice has been used for many centuries, especially in parts of Africa (including present-day Benin, Sudan and Nigeria) as well as on the American continent (among the Maya) and in Australia, to indicate a person's membership of a social group, or to mark a rite of passage to adulthood, or to project signs of social and family identity, so as to distinguish oneself from other social groups. Scarifications can be performed with different instruments such as a knife, a piece of glass or a sharp stone, and can be 'flat' or with relief, the latter obtained by lifting pieces of skin with a hook. Sometimes scarifications are left to heal without further intervention or filled with irritating substances such as salt, vinegar, ash, clay or gunpowder, to leave deep and permanent scars; or, to change the natural colouring of the skin, pigments may sometimes be introduced into the wounds, so as to highlight the pattern more. Generally speaking, on a technical level, three modes can be distinguished:   One is performed with superficial cuts in the first layer of the skin two to three millimetres deep; the pattern is traced and then the cuts are made with a scalpel. Another, the technique known as branding, involves a burn that can be done with red-hot metal blades, which leaves a thinner wound because it is a kind of pencil with a 'u' point that burns the skin. The other technique consists of removing pieces of skin with a scalpel. Often, after the practice, one tries not to overdo the wound care, because it could erase part of it and the result of the scar would not be as desired.   Scarification is a tradition that has become less common today, but is still present in several African contexts, including Benin and Nigeria, and in most cases it is a sign of social identity made for identification purposes, easily recognisable by the intricate designs and details with which it is made. An example can be found in some groups of the Dinka people in Southern Sudan: when the Dinka (male or female) pass from infancy to childhood, the 'smith' forges a small blade and makes a series of lines on the child's forehead and cheeks that will forever mark the exact membership of the group. When the child grows up, the same 'smith' forges a new blade and makes new incisions, this time on the child's abdomen. In this way it becomes clear, through the dripping of blood and the stoic endurance of pain, that he is no longer a child, and that from that day on he has bravely entered adult life. In the case of women, these scars are drawn on the breast, immediately after the first menstruation. There is also much evidence of scarification in the past: for example, the ancient Maya scarified the body to beautify it, and this procedure was also used among the Bubi people of Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea), before it was banned by the colonial authorities. On the island, it was common to make more or less deep cuts in parallel lines on the face of children between the ages of three and five, cuts that were then treated in such a way as to cause large scars, so that members of the same group could not only beautify their bodies, but also recognise each other in case of exile or slavery. In Ethiopia, on the other hand, due to religious heterogeneity and the widespread presence of Christianity, Islam and local religions, there is a wide variety of body modification and decoration practices, including the scarification of the cross, performed through the representation of a cross on the forehead and used to demonstrate one's faith after conversion to Christianity. Among the Houedas of the Republic of Benin, scarification of children is believed to create a bond with ancestors. After having their faces scarred, individuals are given new names and their hair shaved off, before being brought before an oracle whose task is to help them communicate with previous generations.
​3. Embedding the individual practice in the broader cultural (or religious) system.	To understand the social value of scarring, it is important to bear in mind that they not only represent the identity of the group to which they belong, but also characterise the identity of the individual within the group. To be clearer, it can be argued that the individual belongs to a group through the scars, and that the group recognises the individual through the scars; this process of identification is key and allows us to understand the social value acquired by the scarifications, which are therefore presented as a means of fusion between the social group and the individual, and vice versa. For instance, in most West African social groups that adopt this practice, scars play an important role in the gender identity and sexual expression of the individual. They can, in fact, be seen as elements of attraction, and are believed to help enhance the ability to stimulate potential sexual partners, as is the case among Tivs in Nigeria. These peoples also believe that simply touching scars can induce powerful erotic sensations in both men and women, and can awaken a strong sexual desire. Other types of scarring, however, have curative purposes. Following the medicinal tradition of some groups on the African continent, which combine medicine with magical remedies, scarring can be seen as a very important remedy. If the family of a sick person or the healer of the group realise that the ailment is caused by an evil spirit that has entered the body of the sick person, it is believed that a series of scarifications performed with the necessary rituals will expel the harmful spirit. In some tribes in Equatorial Guinea, marks are made even before the illness, in a kind of preventive medicinal magic; small, almost imperceptible incisions on the temples and limbs (made when the individual is a child) are thought to protect the individual from attacks by possible evil spirits that contaminate people's health. Whatever the social purpose of scarification, it seems quite clear that it is a symbolic activity related to identity. One must, in fact, consider that the public presentation of the body occurs according to three parameters that are inherent in human nature as a social being: identity, social hierarchy, and the need for interaction with other social groups. For this reason, identity - both personal and social - is what defines us within a community or collective, and which delimits us in relation to others, and cannot be understood without the performativity of social presentations, which also pass through the social presentation of the body. Social logic requires that we know who we are within the collective, what place we occupy within the different hierarchical situations, what and with whom we exchange benefits; such logic also makes it easier to understand the reasons for bodily modifications.
4. Is the practice essential (to the survival of the group), compulsory or optional?	It depends. In some contexts, where there are scarifications with defensive motives, the practice is certainly decisive for the survival of the group. For example, among some pastoralist populations on the African continent, where there may be a close relationship between livestock rearing and warfare (defending livestock by force or stealing them by violence when they are scarce are common practices), these marks serve as a warning to outsiders and as a sign of respect between members of the same group. Male members of the Suri (Ethiopia), for example, mark their right arm with a horseshoe if they have killed another male member of an enemy group, while they mark a horseshoe on their left arm if the victim is a woman. Whether to signal that one is a great warrior or to indicate the passage from childhood to puberty or from puberty to adulthood, each sign indicates a degree of pain that the individual must overcome with the required courage. In populations in which such practices are still performed, a man who has not performed the scarification ritual may be branded a coward and cast aside by the rest of the group; therefore, in such a case, the practice could be considered obligatory.
​5.     Is the practice shared by the group, or is it contested?	It depends. In many urban contexts, scarification may have lost its values and the way it is perceived. Modern methods of cosmetic modification (creams, lotions, makeovers in the operating room) and new globalised beauty standards have in some contexts led to a dissipation of the aesthetic purpose of scarification, and in some cases a prohibition of it. Especially in African urban contexts, people prefer a new haircut or a new brand of lipstick to the pain of skin-cuts, which in many cities are perceived as rural, old-fashioned or even the fruit of ignorance. In the cities, a kind of stigma has developed around scarifications, which causes embarrassment or low self-esteem in those who bear them. Some women cover the marks with make-up, others go so far as to undergo cosmetic surgery to remove them. It happens in all the nations of the world: as cities become more crowded, inter-ethnic coexistence is accentuated, removing traces of ancestral rites and customs that poorly fit the dominant social models of the West.
​6.     How would the average person belonging to that culture (or religion) behave?	These are often voluntary choices or dictated by the need for identification within the group. In general, a person socialised within a group that practises scarification and has preserved its value system, even if they urbanise or emigrate to another country, follows the ritual and has it practised on their children. In other cases, urbanisation or emigration may lead to a spontaneous abandonment of the practice.
​7.     Is the subject sincere?	As is the case when other cultural practices interfere with physical integrity (See in this Guidebook entries Male Circumcision, Female Genital Mutilation), the sincerity of the subject is to be ascertained on the level of non-existence of a harmful intention towards minors or unjustified forms of violence. It would be useful to investigate this aspect:   on the type of scarification carried out, on its outward appearance: the scarifications have particular, almost patterned shapes, they respond to structured patterns (certain number of lines or other signs in certain points of the body, such as cheeks, forehead, abdomen). The structured and 'patterned' component is indicative of a ritual sign rather than of injuries inflicted randomly for the sole purpose of inflicting pain on the child or torturing him; on the function of the practice in the subject's cultural or religious system; on the child's perception of ritual signs, especially since some of them are performed during adolescence when the child is capable of expressing consent.
8.     The search for the cultural equivalent: the translation of the minority practice into a corresponding (Italian) majority practice. ​	Tattoos, piercings and other types of body modification, such as plastic surgery, have become a global phenomenon that has rapidly spread and become part of society over the last thirty years (since 1990 a phenomenon that has been on the rise). In identification processes, appearance plays an important role and modern Western society is, therefore, becoming more and more accustomed to these modifications, even if some continue to be more accepted than others. It is therefore not difficult for the majority society to understand how body modification is a clear social phenomenon, linked to aesthetic canons that are more or less transient, but always linked to socially defined norms and values. One author (Korbin 1980) referred to a further cultural equivalent of scarification: orthodontic procedures and implants performed on minors. The author does not distinguish between those forms of intervention that are necessary for the health of minors and those that have a purely aesthetic reason, such as correcting 'crooked teeth'. Rather, the author emphasises the fact that in both cases these are painful, potentially traumatic, imposed interventions aimed at fulfilling a social function: ensuring the acceptance and identification of the individual in the group (if you have crooked teeth, or if you do not have scarification in your face, you do not conform to the group).
9.      Does the practice cause harm? ​	The practice causes (physical) harm because it permanently diminishes the physical integrity of the individual. As described above, the procedures are painful and take a long time to heal. However, once the wound has healed, the only thing that remains is the ritual mark; in this sense, scarifications are often comparable in pain and 'permanence' on the body to other forms of body modification such as those performed through tattoos. The 'damage' is aesthetic, according to the majority's perception and not to those who adhere to the practice and who seek precisely this end result. There are no other complications following wound healing, unlike, for example, some forms of FGM (see Item Female Genital Mutilation in this Guidebook). In relation to the functions explicated by such ritual signs, one must not underestimate the social damage and marginalisation that could be generated towards the individual belonging to a given community if he or she does not submit to such interventions, especially in cases in which he or she is firmly convinced of adhering to them. A similar argument can also be made when the same signs take on a 'curative' value with regard to minors and are carried out in the belief that they protect against illnesses, such as those that occur during childhood. The harm can be analysed by the practitioner of the majority culture according to two perspectives (as, moreover, can happen for other practices that concern the physical integrity of minors): from the point of view of the group that performs the practice (called the 'emic' perspective in anthropology); or from the point of view of the group that does not perform the practice and attributes profoundly different meanings to it, in response to its own cultural and value context. In the perspective of the minority group emerges the social harm, procured to the subject who is in fact prevented from exercising the practice, on himself or on his own children, who thus must renounce the functions of identification, initiation and care typical of the practice in question. The perspective of the majority group, on the other hand, claims physical harm (which, however, in a perspective of adherence to the practice is destined to vanish with the healing of wounds), looks at ritual signs solely and exclusively from an internal perspective, as injuries inflicted, and therefore punishable beyond the functions assumed by them.
​10.  What impact does the minority practice have on the culture, constitutional values, and rights of the (Italian) majority?	For the majority culture, the practice of scarification has a strongly negative and disfiguring meaning, lacking justification, especially when it concerns particularly exposed areas of the body such as the face. The constitutional values on which the cultural practice impacts are: a) that of physical integrity, which becomes intangible for minors, especially in relation to bodily modifications that affect parts of the body such as the face; b) that of the self-determination and freedom of minors with respect to their identity, given that these signs are often seen as a form of imposition. In a more general context, the practice also seems to be detrimental to the concept of 'public order' (this value has sometimes appeared in English judgments that generally concern body modifications defined as 'extreme'; the discourse also concerns public health and the fact that society should not have to bear the burden of illnesses and complications resulting from these unjustified interventions), the signs cause a certain discomfort for individuals who are unfamiliar with them, especially in a strongly homologated society where individuals find it difficult to accept the physically 'different'. In the criminal field, the practice could be relevant, as happened for instance in the area of female genital mutilation, in relation to a specific provision, Article 583-quinquies of the Criminal Code (Deformation of the appearance of the person by means of permanent facial injuries), a specification of the case of grievous bodily harm. However, it should be pointed out that this provision was introduced by Law No. 69/2019, referred to as the 'Code Red', in reference to the sadly well-known phenomenon of attempted disfigurement through acids thrown on the face of victims, usually women. The reference to this phenomenon shows how, despite the fact that there may apparently be a coincidence, one moves within conducts that have nothing in common. The intent to scar, disfigure and maim the subject is excluded in the case of ritual marks on the face (as well as in the case of tattoos on the face that no judge today would subsume within such a theory, given the familiarity with the practice in Western culture). In the civil law sphere, the fact could primarily be relevant in the sphere of family law, with regard to the adequacy of parental capacity and in relation to the regulation of the disposition of the acts of one's own body (or the body of one's children). Generally speaking, in addition to the child's right to physical integrity, the parents' right and duty to bring up their children according to their own system of values, as well as the self-determination of the individual and thus also of the child, are also involved. The latter should, however, operate in a twofold sense, both to protect the same from practices that are not shared and in an authorising sense in relation to particularly heartfelt practices.
​11.   Does the practice perpetuate patriarchy?	The practice does not perpetrate patriarchy. It is performed indifferently by and on individuals of both sexes. It could, if associated with pain and suffering be traced by the majority culture to a form of patriarchy, understood as authoritarianism, subjection and control by adults over minors or as a form of imposition.
12.  What good reasons does the minority present for continuing the practice? The criterion of an equally valid life choice.	Behind the bodily modifications is a clear search for identity, carried out individually or in a group, with the intention of creatively expressing one's preferences, tastes, beliefs and perceptions. Often the modifications are the expression of non-conformity and/or resistance to socially established norms and standards, the expression of dreams, ideals, fears, stories, memories, ideologies and/or subaltern beliefs, which are implemented out of an identity need, or are useful to distinguish oneself from the majority. It is a form of communication through the body, in which interests and perceptions of beauty and/or aesthetics are rewritten and transformed for functional matters. Scarification has a great communicative capacity because, for those who practise it, it continues to preserve their ancestry or belief, and to manifest it continuously.