Aug 23, 2025 08:34 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 23, 2025 09:01 PM by C C.)
Was Head-Binding an Ancient Way to Get a Leg Up?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/scien...=url-share
EXCERPTS: Parents have been meddling with their children’s heads, if not their minds, since prehistoric times. To achieve the desired forms — flat, round, conical — the pliable skulls of newborns were typically either wrapped tightly in cloth or bound between boards. The origins of this practice, known as artificial cranial deformation, have been traced to early Homo sapiens in Australia about 13,000 years ago, and, amid some scholarly contention, potentially to Neanderthal populations 45,000 years ago.
The practice has been documented on every continent except Antarctica. In the region that is now Peru, early inhabitants apparently believed that a sloping forehead was an advantageous feature, with the earliest evidence dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. The stretched, sloped skulls found among the remains of the Paracas culture (active from roughly 800 B.C. to A.D. 100) have even fueled the fanciful idea of an unearthly origin.
“Paracas skulls conform to stereotypical images of aliens in 20th-century pulp science fiction,” said Matthew Velasco, an anthropologist at Cornell. “In other words, modern artists made head shape into something extraterrestrial, which seems like a pretty flimsy basis to argue for space alien influence on ancient societies.”
[...] Andean head-shaping has traditionally been viewed as a way to visually distinguish different ethnic groups, similar to the way Han Chinese foot-binding was perceived. Dr. Velasco’s book argues for a shift toward understanding it from the perspective of the people who practiced it. Instead of seeing head-shaping solely as a trait that marked insider and outsider, he suggests that the custom may also have held a deeper meaning for those within the Andean culture.
“Dr. Velasco’s book pushes against the colonial invention that head shape was a mere ethnic marker,” said Andrew Scherer, an anthropologist at Brown. “Instead, he points to more subtle matters of personhood, belief and tradition.”
[...] In his book, Dr. Velasco argues that the practice of head-binding contributed to social disparities. Individuals with bound heads were likely to assume specific roles in the farming and herding economy, roles that later conferred entitlements to land and resources. Consequently, the broad adoption of head-shaping in the 14th century appears to have, perhaps unintentionally, served to maintain wealth within these groups... (MORE - details)
https://youtu.be/d7vU0zPncV4
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/d7vU0zPncV4
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/scien...=url-share
EXCERPTS: Parents have been meddling with their children’s heads, if not their minds, since prehistoric times. To achieve the desired forms — flat, round, conical — the pliable skulls of newborns were typically either wrapped tightly in cloth or bound between boards. The origins of this practice, known as artificial cranial deformation, have been traced to early Homo sapiens in Australia about 13,000 years ago, and, amid some scholarly contention, potentially to Neanderthal populations 45,000 years ago.
The practice has been documented on every continent except Antarctica. In the region that is now Peru, early inhabitants apparently believed that a sloping forehead was an advantageous feature, with the earliest evidence dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. The stretched, sloped skulls found among the remains of the Paracas culture (active from roughly 800 B.C. to A.D. 100) have even fueled the fanciful idea of an unearthly origin.
“Paracas skulls conform to stereotypical images of aliens in 20th-century pulp science fiction,” said Matthew Velasco, an anthropologist at Cornell. “In other words, modern artists made head shape into something extraterrestrial, which seems like a pretty flimsy basis to argue for space alien influence on ancient societies.”
[...] Andean head-shaping has traditionally been viewed as a way to visually distinguish different ethnic groups, similar to the way Han Chinese foot-binding was perceived. Dr. Velasco’s book argues for a shift toward understanding it from the perspective of the people who practiced it. Instead of seeing head-shaping solely as a trait that marked insider and outsider, he suggests that the custom may also have held a deeper meaning for those within the Andean culture.
“Dr. Velasco’s book pushes against the colonial invention that head shape was a mere ethnic marker,” said Andrew Scherer, an anthropologist at Brown. “Instead, he points to more subtle matters of personhood, belief and tradition.”
[...] In his book, Dr. Velasco argues that the practice of head-binding contributed to social disparities. Individuals with bound heads were likely to assume specific roles in the farming and herding economy, roles that later conferred entitlements to land and resources. Consequently, the broad adoption of head-shaping in the 14th century appears to have, perhaps unintentionally, served to maintain wealth within these groups... (MORE - details)
https://youtu.be/d7vU0zPncV4