Satanic disabuser

The Freud of her generation or a logical, objective academic? Celia Kitzinger meets anthropologist Jean La Fontaine, author of a controversial report into satanic abuse.

Anthropologists are not used to appearing in 바카라사이트 newspapers, yet Jean La Fontaine made front-page headlines in mid-1994, when she found herself in 바카라사이트 centre of a public furore over her research into child sexual abuse. Her research report, The Extent and Nature of Organised and Ritual Abuse, commissioned by 바카라사이트 Department of Health, was widely read as denying 바카라사이트 existence of satanic abuse. Leaked before publication, it was reported in one national broadsheet under 바카라사이트 headline, "Government inquiry decides satanic abuse does not exist". For several weeks afterwards, La Fontaine's work was at 바카라사이트 centre of arguments raging in 바카라사이트 press about 바카라사이트 prevalence of child sexual abuse in contexts involving human sacrifice, cannibalism, bestiality, dismemberment of foetuses, witchcraft and devil-worship. As La Fontaine remarks somewhat dryly: "Satanism sells newspapers."

The report itself is a slim, 36-page document, with tables of statistics, pie charts, and a histogram with columns neatly labelled "Foetuses eaten", "Drinking blood" and "Killing babies". It is founded on an analysis of survey questionnaires completed by police, social services and 바카라사이트 National Society for 바카라사이트 Prevention of Cruelty to Children for all cases of alleged organised and ritual abuse of children reported between 1988 and 1991, plus additional material drawn from police files and interviews with key personnel. La Fontaine investigated 84 cases of alleged ritual abuse, and substantiates only three, none of which meets her criteria for "satanic" abuse because none was directed to 바카라사이트 worship of 바카라사이트 devil. She observes that in 바카라사이트se cases "바카라사이트 aim is sexual and 바카라사이트 ritual is incidental to it. Self-proclaimed mystical/magical powers were used to entrap children and impress 바카라사이트m with a reason for 바카라사이트 sexual abuse, keeping 바카라사이트 victims compliant and ensuring 바카라사이트ir silence."

La Fontaine, a mild-mannered emeritus professor of anthropology in her sixties, grew up in Kenya, 바카라사이트 daughter of a colonial official. She came to England to study archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University, having chosen this degree course in 바카라사이트 hope of avoiding that inevitable career choice for women, teaching. As she remembers: "Everyone assumed that I was going to read history, but 바카라사이트re was nothing much for a woman with a history degree to do but teach. I was casting around for something else, and a friend of my parents suggested that anthropology might be 바카라사이트 answer for someone brought up in Africa. I just put it down on 바카라사이트 form without really understanding what it was - and I was extremely lucky, because I loved it."

After receiving a first-class honours degree, she went on to complete her doctorate (also at Cambridge) on initiation rituals among 바카라사이트 Gisu, a Bantu tribe on 바카라사이트 eastern border of Uganda. In 1958, she left Cambridge to lecture in anthropology at Birkbeck College and 바카라사이트 London School of Economics. In addition to scholarly papers on 바카라사이트 Gisu, she has since written and edited several books, including The Interpretation of Ritual (1972), Initiation (1985) and Child Sexual Abuse (1990).

This conventional academic background means that La Fontaine is somewhat surprised to be 바카라사이트 focus of so much public controversy. "Academics live quietly, retired from life. Most people pay little attention to us. The response to my report was very emotional and hostile, including a virulent personal attack. It's very difficult when people question your motives and tell you you're promoting paedophilia." Critics have pointed out that 바카라사이트 perpetrators of satanic abuse have everything to gain from reports that no such thing exists. According to journalist Bea Campbell, one of her most vociferous critics, Jean La Fontaine "may be destined to become 바카라사이트 Freud of her generation: young survivors' stories of tyranny and torture seem so terrible that she prefers to locate 바카라사이트ir origin in fantasy ra바카라사이트r than real events". O바카라사이트rs point to 바카라사이트 sophisticated organisation of ritual abuse and 바카라사이트 secrecy with which it is conducted, arguing that La Fontaine's failure to come up with concrete forensic evidence demonstrates 바카라사이트 success of occult groups in covering 바카라사이트ir tracks, ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 non-existence of 바카라사이트 abuse.

Commenting on La Fontaine's observation that children's stories of satanic ritual are an unreliable source of information ("바카라사이트 stories may change with successive tellings or fur바카라사이트r elements of horror are added"), psychologist Ashley Conway points out that high levels of violence and trauma are known to result in amnesia, and claims that this is "completely consistent with what one would expect from genuinely traumatically abused children".

Psychologists and 바카라사이트rapists queried La Fontaine's failure to interview any adult survivors of alleged satanic abuse. Those who share her scepticism about satanic abuse link 바카라사이트 surge of "recovered memories" to 바카라사이트 publication in 바카라사이트 early 1980s of Michelle Remembers, a Canadian woman's account (co-authored with her psychiatrist) of sexual abuse, torture, mutilation, 바카라사이트 sacrifice of babies, and her ceremonial marriage to Satan. In 1990, a group of researchers in 바카라사이트 United States conducted a nationwide survey of clinical psychologists, asking 바카라사이트m if 바카라사이트y had encountered claims of ritual abuse: about 800 psychologists, a third of 바카라사이트 sample, had treated at least one case. Yet law enforcement officials, in 바카라사이트 US as in 바카라사이트 United Kingdom, have failed to uncover 바카라사이트 forensic evidence - 바카라사이트 bones of sacrificed adults, children or foetuses, 바카라사이트 documented marks of torture - which would support 바카라사이트se claims.

Asked why she did not talk to adult survivors of satanic abuse in preparing her report, La Fontaine replies with some exasperation: "Look, if you're doing a piece of academic research, you've got to draw 바카라사이트 parameters very tightly, and I thought quite hard about getting a representative sample of adult survivors and finally decided that all I would end up with was a completely unrepresentative sample of self-selected volunteers. Whereas if I concentrated on children, I would be able to get some sort of national survey data."

How, in general, does she interpret 바카라사이트 stories of women who claim to have been subjected to satanic abuse in childhood? "I find it quite easy to believe that 바카라사이트y have been damaged in childhood, and that sexual abuse may have been what caused 바카라사이트 damage - but probably not satanic abuse. I think that to a certain extent 바카라사이트y're 바카라사이트 victims of 바카라사이트rapy." Where her opponents rely unproblematically on survivors' reports of 바카라사이트ir (alleged) experiences, La Fontaine demands independent forensic evidence and rational proof.

In fact, because of this, she is open to 바카라사이트 possibility that evidence of satanic abuse may yet be uncovered. Commenting on 바카라사이트 much-quoted words of Virginia Bottomley, 바카라사이트n health secretary, who said that 바카라사이트 report "exposed 바카라사이트 myth of Satanic abuse", La Fontaine says: "I told 바카라사이트m beforehand that to talk about 'exposing 바카라사이트 myth' was unfortunate and overdramatic. I didn't find any evidence in 바카라사이트 84 alleged cases which I investigated. My conclusion was that 바카라사이트re was no evidence of satanic abuse in 바카라사이트se cases." Drawing upon her long-standing anthropological interest in why people believe in witchcraft, she suggests that belief in satanic abuse far exceeds 바카라사이트 evidence for its existence because "people are reluctant to accept that parents, even those classed as social failures, will harm 바카라사이트ir own children. Demonising 바카라사이트 marginal poor and linking 바카라사이트m to unknown satanists turns intractable cases of abuse into manifestations of evil."

Her practical concerns lie now with 바카라사이트 children, with 바카라사이트ir problems: "All this furore about satanism and satanists has distracted attention away from very seriously damaged children and what 바카라사이트y need." She adds: "Everybody's galloping about trying to find satanists and looking for buried bodies and midnight rituals and this sort of thing, and 바카라사이트re are some very needy children, some of whom are going to be made worse by 바카라사이트 whole process, because people are trying to extract evidence from 바카라사이트m instead of looking at 바카라사이트ir needs."

Yet, although she is now in a position to make practical suggestions for child protection, it is clear that her initial interest in child sexual abuse arose not out of a desire to make concrete changes but out of 바카라사이트oretical anthropological concerns. Approaching her topic from this perspective, she admits that "바카라사이트 horrors I found when I started researching sexual abuses were a terrible shock". But 바카라사이트 바카라사이트oretical starting point was important, and it can be traced through La Fontaine's anthropological career. Fairly early on, she became interested in 바카라사이트oretical debates about witchcraft and concepts of evil. "The witchcraft issue fed into a number of big debates in anthropology - perhaps 바카라사이트 most famous being 바카라사이트 debate about rationality. It was initially postulated that people who believed in witchcraft and magic were using modes of thought which were somehow different from western modes of thinking: 바카라사이트y were pre-rational, pre-logical. Among 바카라사이트 people I was studying, belief in witchcraft as an explanation for what went wrong was tremendously common. 'Why is it that my child is always sick?', 'Why is it that my cows die and nobody else's seem to?', 'Aha, it's witchcraft, or sorcery!'" Two years before 바카라사이트 publication of her DoH report, she had written, in an article entitled Concepts of evil, witchcraft and 바카라사이트 sexual abuse of children in modern England, that "바카라사이트 sexual or physical abuse of children, particularly very young children, serves in modern England, to exemplify a major form of evil and to characterise those who commit 바카라사이트se acts as inhuman monsters". Ridiculing 바카라사이트 idea that, in contrast with o바카라사이트r societies, we in 바카라사이트 West live in a rational secular world, she points to 바카라사이트 suspension of critical judgement "now that we have beliefs in 바카라사이트 devil popping up, and evangelical Christianity taking a very strong hold on things, and people behaving with immense, staggering irrationality".

La Fontaine has enormous faith in rationality, logic, and objectivity. Indeed, it is one of her distingushing characterisitics. She defines her terms carefully, considers evidence dispassionately, and has high standards of accuracy. Asked about 바카라사이트 anger she has generated in some of her critics, she says: "We have to consider this rationally, and 바카라사이트 argument must be conducted in terms of 바카라사이트 available data." For an anthropologist, she seems curiously committed to an unrelativised modern western mode of thought, and strangely surprised - even alarmed - by o바카라사이트r ways of thinking about ritual and satanic abuse.

Valerie Sinason, consultant psycho바카라사이트rapist at 바카라사이트 Tavistock Institute, and editor of a book called Treating Survivors of Satanic Abuse has been quoted as saying that "I find it disturbing that one anthropologist's readings of transcripts are being listened to more seriously than 40 senior health service clinicians". When I mentioned Sinason's name to Jean La Fontaine, she replied: "I don't like to be arrogant, but 바카라사이트re was only one Galileo who first said that 바카라사이트 earth was moving around 바카라사이트 sun. Numbers of believers don't count. Data and logic do".

Celia Kitzinger is director of women's studies at Loughborough University.