13 replies to this topic

[the L]

Whas the reason of head deformations? Did they imitate someone ?  Im not holding on Däniken version of them. Maybe the wanted to become higher, like Giants.  History dont offer any explaination for global custom except wierd religous reason and status symbol. We have egghead skulls in Kongo, Sudan, South America(Inca), North america (Chinookan, Choctaw, Chehalis, and Nooksack.), Mayas,Aboriginals , and some suggests that Nefertiti and Akenathen have had elongated skulls .Was cranial deformation  indentpentently invented or it was global phenomenan with same original source? According to wiki:
Early examples of intentional human cranial deformation predate written history and date back to 45,000 BC in Neanderthal skulls, and to the Proto-Neolithic Homo sapiens component (12th millennium BCE) from Shanidar Cave in Iraq.[1][2] It occurred among Neolithic peoples in SW Asia.[3]
So we can see that was custom from the start.
Could it be that deformation of head have some effect on human brain which can give us some new traits,abilliteis or skills?
I heard that Paraces indians(Peru from700 BC to 100 AD)  left us tools for making holes in the heads. Does that means that they done surgieries on heads? Ofcourse I mention them since they also have practice to made egg shape skulls. In 400 BC Hippocrates wrote about long head people called Macrocephali.
Can we conclude from all cases of egg heads that they are artificaly man made?  Can we conclude from any of those case that they are born that way?
Osthorogoths, Alans and Huns also done head binding and we all know that they were brutal warriors so does that made them more warrior like? In some culture people with long heads were consider to be very wise.

[the L]

Peru skull



Mexico statue

[Likely Guy]

My singular answer to your many questions (if that's possible) would be 'Cultural Body Deformation'. Or, some would prefer to use the term, 'modification'.

Which culture first invented piercing, tattooing, scarification, breast binding, foot binding, corsetry, neck elongation, etc., and better yet, why? The reasons are many but the most probable are for either decorative or spiritual purposes.

The many different cultural examples you gave of cranial elongation probably have just as many varied explanations.

[psyche101]

the L, on 25 June 2012 - 08:28 PM, said:

Whas the reason of head deformations? Did they imitate someone ?  Im not holding on Däniken version of them. Maybe the wanted to become higher, like Giants.  History dont offer any explaination for global custom except wierd religous reason and status symbol. We have egghead skulls in Kongo, Sudan, South America(Inca), North america (Chinookan, Choctaw, Chehalis, and Nooksack.), Mayas,Aboriginals , and some suggests that Nefertiti and Akenathen have had elongated skulls .Was cranial deformation  indentpentently invented or it was global phenomenan with same original source? According to wiki:
Early examples of intentional human cranial deformation predate written history and date back to 45,000 BC in Neanderthal skulls, and to the Proto-Neolithic Homo sapiens component (12th millennium BCE) from Shanidar Cave in Iraq.[1][2] It occurred among Neolithic peoples in SW Asia.[3]
So we can see that was custom from the start.
Could it be that deformation of head have some effect on human brain which can give us some new traits,abilliteis or skills?
I heard that Paraces indians(Peru from700 BC to 100 AD)  left us tools for making holes in the heads. Does that means that they done surgieries on heads? Ofcourse I mention them since they also have practice to made egg shape skulls. In 400 BC Hippocrates wrote about long head people called Macrocephali.
Can we conclude from all cases of egg heads that they are artificaly man made?  Can we conclude from any of those case that they are born that way?
Osthorogoths, Alans and Huns also done head binding and we all know that they were brutal warriors so does that made them more warrior like? In some culture people with long heads were consider to be very wise.

The Reason - beauty. This was considered a divine form, and the most beautiful form. Strange as that may seem today.
Affect on the brain? Apparently not, I wondered the same thing and put up a thread in the Cryptozoology section some years ago now. As different parts of the brain have different functions it seem s rather likely, but apparently not. Volume remains the same, things just find a new place to exist in their head.
As far as I know, all examples are artificially made, and no lineage as far as I know has been genetically affected to remain this shape.
Huns were pretty brutal anyways, this seems to have had no effect on them, I think you will find most groups were pretty violent in those times.
Drilling a hole in the skull is known as Trepanning. I find is a nasty sounding business, and it is assumed to have medical benefits. Can't say I am convinced, but it has been practised throughout time and in many cultures. Looks painful evil and nasty. - LINK Trepanning

1525 engraving of trepanation by Peter Treveris

(taken from Hieronymus Braunschweig 's

Buch der Cirurgia. Hantwirckung der Wundartzny 1497)

18th century French illustration of trepanation

Edited by psyche101, 26 June 2012 - 07:03 AM.

[DieChecker]

psyche101, on 26 June 2012 - 07:01 AM, said:

18th century French illustration of trepanation

I really don't like how that fellow is smiling while drilling away on his "patient".

[DieChecker]

Likely Guy, on 26 June 2012 - 06:15 AM, said:

My singular answer to your many questions (if that's possible) would be 'Cultural Body Deformation'. Or, some would prefer to use the term, 'modification'.

I agree. I greatly suspect that if any modern person practiced head deformation on willing subjects that there would be near zero personnality or intellegence difference. Those things are set in the genetics of a person in large part, I think. Certainly if parts of the skull were pressed/deformed enough to prevent the brain from growing normally, which would have to be REALLY significant, then a person might be effectively brain damaged. Otherwise I think the brain would simply fit into the braincase it had and would not grow extra big or really small in one area or another.

[docyabut2]

I think most were from head binding, however some were of heritage of a disease.

[None of the above]

People do strange things in the  name of 'perfection' or 'beauty'.
It's a  widespread and long established form of body modification.
Look at western culture, pictures of women in the media are manipulated to make them appear as though they have expressionless faces with flawless sheer skin and giant eyelashes etc. Women inject poison into their faces, have their skin surgically cut and stretched etc, etc all to emulate 'our' perception of what is 'beautiful'.
How would that appear to an outsider?
Which is more bizzare?

[DemonicCupcake]

It is already speculated, as many already pointed out, that it is seen as a divine beauty trait. But, why?
I have always wondered about the old, old skulls they find, in bunches, as if a whole grouping of people had lived together with such a "deformation".
I cannot help but wonder, was there once another species of human like people with this elongated skull pattern? Who were stronger, or smarter? Or, had supernatural powers?
As for reasoning for why this species is no longer around today, perhaps a disease exclusive to that species killed them off. Or, maybe they were more intelligent or powerful than normal humans, which was threatening, so they were killed off out of fear? If any of you have ever heard the story of the man who went into the caverns and found the civilization of blue skinned people, you will notice that one of the traits was a long skull.
So who knows. I believe they were a sub-species of human.

[Harte]

DemonicCupcake, on 28 June 2012 - 08:16 PM, said:

It is already speculated, as many already pointed out, that it is seen as a divine beauty trait. But, why?
I have always wondered about the old, old skulls they find, in bunches, as if a whole grouping of people had lived together with such a "deformation".
I cannot help but wonder, was there once another species of human like people with this elongated skull pattern? Who were stronger, or smarter? Or, had supernatural powers?
As for reasoning for why this species is no longer around today, perhaps a disease exclusive to that species killed them off. Or, maybe they were more intelligent or powerful than normal humans, which was threatening, so they were killed off out of fear? If any of you have ever heard the story of the man who went into the caverns and found the civilization of blue skinned people, you will notice that one of the traits was a long skull.
So who knows. I believe they were a sub-species of human.

Eleongated heads were thought to add beauty.  This means a different species was involved?

Large-bodied women were once the rage as well:

Quote

The preference among immigrant and upwardly mobile groups for plumpness in women as an indication of prosperity.

Source

So, yet another, somewaht more plump, species?

How about this?



More of a ducklike seperate species?

Harte

[Earl.Of.Trumps]

Pretty much in agreement, voluntary alteration to the body for religious/beauty reasons, with the possible exception of three cases.

King Tut and his father, Akhenaten, had the elongated skull (as did Tut's mother) and the two men had an extra bone in the base of the skull. (Tut's mom's status is not known)

It's a thought provoker, IMO

Edited by Earl.Of.Trumps, 29 June 2012 - 02:39 AM.

[Likely Guy]

Earl.Of.Trumps, on 29 June 2012 - 02:37 AM, said:

Pretty much in agreement, voluntary alteration to the body for religious/beauty reasons, with the possible exception of three cases.

King Tut and his father, Akhenaten, had the elongated skull (as did Tut's mother) and the two men had an extra bone in the base of the skull. (Tut's mom's status is not known)

It's a thought provoker, IMO

What are your thoughts of the Akhenaten's, in that their head binding was not for either religious reasons, or reasons of beauty?

[ShadowSot]

Likely Guy, on 30 June 2012 - 04:26 AM, said:

What are your thoughts of the Akhenaten's, in that their head binding was not for either religious reasons, or reasons of beauty?

The Egyptians didn't practice headbinding. Without hair, and in the instances of the bodies the dessication exaggerates the shape of the heads. Tut's head was slightly elongated, but not so much that it falls outside of normal human variance.
And due to the amount of inbreeding that went on I'm not surprised he looked a bit weird.

  As for why big or rounded heads were attractive...

Look at the venuses we dig up around the world, with the hugely exaggerated hips and bust. Or heck, today hit a fetish site (in the company of your own home, preferably) and look at some of the wild variation people take in what appeals to them.

The simplest answers for attraction is... humans are kinky beasts.

Though there are other things to consider as well. Mummies found on the Andean mountains of children given as sacrifice show head binding, they skulls made into conical points. The idea seems to be that this represented the peaks of the mountains where the deities that were receiving the sacrifice dwelled.

[psyche101]

ShadowSot, on 30 June 2012 - 11:42 PM, said:

The Egyptians didn't practice headbinding. Without hair, and in the instances of the bodies the dessication exaggerates the shape of the heads. Tut's head was slightly elongated, but not so much that it falls outside of normal human variance.
And due to the amount of inbreeding that went on I'm not surprised he looked a bit weird.

  As for why big or rounded heads were attractive...

Look at the venuses we dig up around the world, with the hugely exaggerated hips and bust. Or heck, today hit a fetish site (in the company of your own home, preferably) and look at some of the wild variation people take in what appeals to them.

The simplest answers for attraction is... humans are kinky beasts.

Though there are other things to consider as well. Mummies found on the Andean mountains of children given as sacrifice show head binding, they skulls made into conical points. The idea seems to be that this represented the peaks of the mountains where the deities that were receiving the sacrifice dwelled.

I found that amazing, Tut's skull is a most unusual shape, that it falls within human variation I find astounding, I have never seen anyone like this personally in my life. Not saying the conclusion is wrong, merely that life holds some real surprises all on it's own.