Body modification - part I – rituals and traditions

Long neck


First brass rings girl get when she completes five years. After completing 10 years her rings count is going up.
Adult women wear about nine kilograms of rings all the time without a break.

Nobody knows about the roots of this practice. According to some people it comes from a time where the tigers were around the villages which were attacked their victims mostly in the neck. Thick metal rims have to guard against the teeth of a tigers. According to other people rings were intended to ensure wife fidelity. In the case of treason they was taken off from the neck which underwent fracture under the weight of the head. To this day when the researchers must remove the rims from one of the Padaung women then she is in mortal danger of twisting the neck. Hence, during such operations the head at least two persons.
Recently performed X-rays showed that the result of long neck is a lowered clavicle under the weight of the rings.


Feet binding

Feet binding (or bandaging) is a Chinese habit which was practiced from about X to the beginning of the XX century. Its goal was to achieve the aesthetic effects by shortening and deformity of women’s feet.

Feet binding initially was used in girls from higher social classes, which are not required to perform heavy physical work - it was a determination of social status. Over time it was adopted among the lower social classes.
In China short foot was a symbol of refinement and they provide a good marriage for the owner.


At the beginning of the twentieth century people began to strongly criticizing it due to the fact that this habit was mutilated women and was carrying a lot of suffering.
Now it is completely prohibited. The last generation of women who have been subjected to feet binding almost completely gone in China.


Further information: go to wiki

Cranial deformation


The reasons for performing cranial deformation are varied. A prominent hypothesis is that deformation was performed to signify group affiliation. Or it may have been done to demonstrate elite status.


Head flattening, also called head binding, head shaping or head moulding, is the application of pressure or bindings to cranial bones (the human skull) to alter their shapes. Flat shapes, elongated ones (produced by binding between two pieces of wood), rounded ones (binding in cloth) and conical ones are among those chosen. It is typically carried out on an infant, as the skull is most pliable at this time. In a typical case, headbinding begins approximately a month after birth and continues for about six months.


Further information: go to wiki



Breast ironing




It is a flattening a young girl's breast process by piece of wood or stone heated in the fire when they starts shaping. For what? – “To protect young girls from men's eyes and save them to early sexual intercourse” - the hangman’s words.

This practice is widespread in Cameroon where it affects at least 26% of girls at the time of its coming into puberty.

Further information: go to wiki

Female circumcision - female genital mutilation (FGM)

Man circumcision is a practice which is generally accepted in the world and I think everyone of us has heard something about it. However, female circumcision is a ritual that is both very strange and frightening.
However female circumcision is a ritual that is both very strange and frightening.
In the world is alive 130 million of circumcised women and 2 million of women are circumcised per year.



World Health Organization (WHO) categorization:
1. Excision of the foreskin clitoris and partial or total excision of the clitoris.
2. Excision of the clitoris along with the foreskin and the inner labia.
3. Excision of the entire genital and stitching the vagina.
4. Includes a diverse range of practices, such as pricking the clitoris with needles, burning or scarring the genitals as well as ripping or tearing of the vagina.


In contrast to male circumcision, female circumcision is considered by many groups and organizations as a violation of human rights – it is more drastic and in some cultures it is even a specific act which cause pain which is to give an additional effect of "cleansing". But even more civilized acts of female circumcision gives rise to many protests around the world as an act of unjustifiable women mutilation of substantial part of her body.






Below is trailer of “Desert flower” – true story about a woman who has experienced this.
go to youtube.com to get proper view



Further information: go to wiki

What do you think about that? Do you know something about similar cases in Polish history?