Tattoos, body piercings, corsetry, foot binding,
scarification, tanning, and cosmetic surgery.
What do all of these have in common?
They are all different types of body modifications. Some are no longer widely practiced, if at
all, while others are practiced today by societies and cultures around the
world. The motivations and meanings
behind the practice of body modifications vary cross-culturally, which are
going to be explored further in this blog post.
Body modifications are acts of deliberate manipulation of
the natural form of the body for non-medical enhancement. There are a wide variety of body
modifications that have been practiced for many centuries in cultures around
the world. Tattooing, piercing, and
scarification are some of the oldest body modifications due to their ease in
creation. They are also still practiced
today in part because of that easiness.
More recent body modifications, such as cosmetic surgery, have come
about only because of advances in technology that allow individuals to alter
the body in intended ways and with minimal consequences.
Body modifications embody a variety of meanings. The most common identities that are represented
by body modifications include the following:
- Religious: A shared set of beliefs, rituals, actions, etc. to appeal to a mystical god-like being or beings.
- Gender: The social character on an individual based on their biological sex, defining interactions and social values between “genders”.
- Social Status/Rank: A socially constructed form of identity based on the consumption and control of essential and nonessential resources within a group. Social status/rank can be earned (known as achieved status) or given to someone by birth right (known as ascribed status). Another way to understand the difference between achieved and ascribed status is to think of it as follows: Paris Hilton was born into America’s upper class, which is her ascribed status, but she earned fame and notoriety through her reality TV career and other exploits, which is her achieved status.
- Ethnicity: generally defined as groups sharing common characteristics, including common biological, cultural, linguistic, ideological, historical, and national traits.
Often times, one type of body modification (e.g. tattooing)
will hold one meaning in one culture (rank/status among pre-contact Samoans)
but a completely different meaning in another (aesthetics among modern Western
cultures). Because of this, body
modifications are known to be permanent to semi-permanent markers of identity,
and one means of understanding groups and cultures, both past and present.
Kat Wakefield, alternative model, showing off her ink that she wears proudly as a signature of beauty. (Photo Credit: Tim Maxfield)
Individual from the Azapa Valley in northern Chile. Artificial cranial modification was practiced among ancient Andean groups either as a marker of ethnicity or ascribed status. Photo taken by author in 2009. MASMA Collection. Proper permissions granted.
Lotus Foot, aka foot binding, was practiced among the Chinese as a means of demonstrating ascribed status, femininity, and beauty. High status women were the primary practitioners but some men who identified as women did practice the Lotus Foot, as well. (Reference: library.thinkquest.org)
Ashley Winterbourne shows off her facial piercings, which she finds beautifully awesome.
Valerie Heigert Simpson getting tattooed. Note the device used to tattoo people today is being held in the "artist's" hands. In the past, tattoos were administered a variety of ways, and what we call artists today went by just as many names. :)
More pics to come.
Lotus Foot, aka foot binding, was practiced among the Chinese as a means of demonstrating ascribed status, femininity, and beauty. High status women were the primary practitioners but some men who identified as women did practice the Lotus Foot, as well. (Reference: library.thinkquest.org)
Ashley Winterbourne shows off her facial piercings, which she finds beautifully awesome.
Valerie Heigert Simpson getting tattooed. Note the device used to tattoo people today is being held in the "artist's" hands. In the past, tattoos were administered a variety of ways, and what we call artists today went by just as many names. :)
More pics to come.
31 comments:
I have never wanted to get a tattoo or body modification. I see people get tattoos all the time for meaningless things. I once talked a girl out of getting a matching tattoo with her "best friend" and three months later her "best friend" one day just decided I don't want to be friends with you. I don't want a permanent modification especially not for a temporary idea. The foot binding just completely baffles me to why that is even thought as a good idea. Your foot is messed up now. You use that to walk. Its fine though, I have a higher status now that I can hardly use my foot.
Logan
Logan,
As difficult as it is to understand some of these body modifications, you have to remember to view it from a cultural relativistic perspective. What makes sense to you may not make sense to someone else. Does it devalues your idea, desire, product, etc? No, it should not. People like what they like and do what they like for a variety of reasons.
I have seen a couple of documentaries in my teenage years about foot binding. It is an excruciatingly painful thing for the girls to go through. Their foot is bound so tightly that they hurt, and it is mostly the parents that want the daughters to have this high status marker. I have four tattoos. I enjoy looking at them on other people to an extent. There are some people that I feel have gone too far in their tattooing. What is a woman who has tattooed her entire body going to do when she gets very old and every part of her body starts to sag? It is going to be difficult to see what the tattoos are. Just thinking about that though does make me laugh. The scarification body modification scares me though. In some tribes they start the scaring (for decoration) sometimes hen the people are children. Sometimes the children do not survive the scarification rituals. It is scary to think that a child is sitting there getting these cuts put into their skin, but may not live to see the final result. It is scary. The ending result can be beautiful and lasts forever, but just the thought of how much that hurts to have little slices put into your skin with a razor blade.
Amanda, as you see in the picture of Kat, she has multiple tattoos, and she's gotten several more since that photo was taken. When asked the very question you pose about old age, she says that she doesn't care because she loves the tattoos and when she's old worrying about aesthetics is not going to be a top priority.
But I also want to address what you said about scarification and some people not surviving: Where are you getting this information? I did extensive study on all sorts of body modifications for my doctoral research, which looked at that very topic (body modifications and their relationship to increased morbidity and mortality), and I found no distinctive correlation between high morbidity and mortality among any of the aforementioned modifications. Yes, some people may have died from them, but these were individuals who were often times already immuno-compromised from other situations (e.g. inadequate nutrition, poor health, disease, etc.).
I'm all for voluntary modifications. Personally, I'm not okay with them done on children but different cultures have different ideas of what is acceptable. While some modifications are done to please other people in a community e.g. foot binding, many are done purely for the individual. I personally have a few tattoos and piercings that people don't understand (or even see) because they are for me, and me only. My getting tattoos or pierced. When I get old, I don't care if they're not as nice looking as when I was young, what matters is that I wanted them and they mean something to me.
I believe in body modification due to an extent tattoos, body piercing I don't have problems with but certain thing like plastic surgery just to have a better image is not ok with me it sad to know that other countries don't have a choice in body modification because it is tradition but it's the person own body and they can choose to do what they want.
Many of the body modifications noted herein are no longer practiced (e.g. lotus foot) or practiced to the same degree (e.g. ACM). Also, years of study have demonstrated that many of these modifications do not have lethal or extremely hazardous health outcomes unless they are poorly completed.
They all have their own reasons for doing it, so If it makes them happy, than why not?
I have entertained the idea of tattoos but have been reluctant to go through with it. Any body modification that causes pain is in my book a form of torture. Then again I can almost effectively say that all body modifications are torture because all of them involve some pain. But keeping culture in mind and understanding what may or may not be normal, these types of body modifications might not be considered torture to the ones receiving it.
We all have a way to define ourselves and the way we do it is either by tatoos or by piercing. This is whi we are and we decide what we want to do with our body. Some peole influence this on us but it is not a gene inherited.
Briana banuelos 102 1001
I personally love tattoos and have 6, but they are all concealed when wearing a long sleeve shirt. Tattoos will often prevent someone from employment which is unfair because of the way society sees them as rebellious and criminal. Tattoos are a way of life. As stated by my favorite actor,
"My body is my journal and my tattoos are my story" - Johnny Depp
Zachary Forrester
anthro 101 3001 summer
Why do people modify what they were born with? I do not see the point, however you could argue that weight lifting or body building is a form of modification. To make one look or feel better for themselves is an important physiological as well as physical need i one's life. What is the earliest recorded instance of body modification? Have they theorized as to why?
People modify their bodies for a variety of reasons-be they personal or cultural. I am not sure which specific modification is the earliest, although I do know some evidence exists that suggests Neanderthals practiced artificial cranial modification. We are not sure why, though.
I recently watched a show called "taboo" and tattooing was one of the episodes that was featured. It had everything from gang tattoos to beautiful pieces put on by the individual based purely on the fact that they loved the art. Also, I am not sure if this is considered to be part of body modification, but the more and more people who are changing their bodies based on their sexual identity were also featured in a taboo show. I think its very empowering to people when they can voluntarily change their bodies. Empowering as an individual, culture ,and country. Within a free country, as stated above in the many examples, it sets a great example to other countries in which people do not have the right to do so.
I love tattoos and piercings! I have many body piercings, including ones on my ear, nose and belly. I also have 5 tattoos, all which can be covered by clothing though. I feel that tattoos and piercings are an expression of oneself and art. Some people get or have tattoos without any reasoning behind them and some people get them because there is some type of sentimental value behind it. I love looking at tattoos people have on their body because the artwork can be so beautiful and detailed if they had a good artist.
Even though my brother was a tattoo artist and is covered and both my parents have tattoos I still find myself debating on whether or not to get any. I did promise myself after piercing my nose that I wouldn't put any more holes in my body but I love the idea of tattoos, when done correctly of course. Other body modifications like foot binding, for the sake of beauty, might be one I leave out.
I think tattoos and piercings are neat however I am not a huge fan of needles so I wont have to worry about the process of getting one but art on the body can tell a lot about someone but I came onto this earth without piercings or tattoos and I believe its best to keep it that way for my body.
I never considered tanning a body modification, but after reading this post it makes sense. Also, I don't understand how Lotus Foot is demonstrating ascribed status, femininity, and beauty by Chinese women, but I guess it's just part of their culture. I personally don't think I would ever participate in it.
when i was younger i always wanted tattoos and for the life of me i couldn't understand why my mom was against it!she always said wait until your old enough to know what you want and why you want it. and me being the child that i was i thought my mom was over exaggerating i thought like its just a tattoo. well when i finally got older and i noticed all of my classmates had tattoos but they meant nothing! for example my best friend got a tattoo with her friend to make me jealous. and now shes not even friends with the girl and she wants to get it covered. i don't want to have to go through that.
Jovie Black
I remember talking about foot binding in class, which is weird why would you mess with your feet? Beauty is not that important. Personal opinion also I didn't know tattooing was a form of a body modification.
My culture has made tattoos and piercings part of culture. I personally have both but my tattoos I have tried to make all of them have meanings. I have 5 tattoos but only 3 of them have a meaning I was going for. I do not knock people who use cosmetic surgery but it is something I would not do.
-Tiffany Heavens
I love reading about other countries tattoos and their meanings. Especially the history of the Samoans and their tattoos. How they do it is also a very interesting process.
Is it true, like they do in most older movies, that in the past they use to use a stick with like a thorn on the end of it to do tattoos?
If so, I want to see that being done in person..to someone else haha!
--Kimberly Wilbers
I actually have a high tolerance for pain. Tattoos and piercing ease my mind. I never even knew about majority of the body modifications listed above. My generation made tattoos and piercings actually a thing. Most people, like myself have meanings behind each tattoo that I have.
-Brittany Duckett
I have high tolerance for pain and don't see no problem with people getting what they want on their bodies. I have 6 piercings and want more. I love getting piercings because sometimes if you're in pain that piercing helps release some of it. It's weird but when I get a new piercing and if it hurts I would say that out loud and someone would say "well why would you get it?". I know it was going to hurt but it was something that I wanted and maybe It hurts but a second but I can deal with it. It's my body and I can do as I please. We only live once so why not live it up! - Alexis Buford
I feel like as I’m young I have tried to focus on what my mother embedded in my head and that’s not destroying your body. Although I love piercings , I don’t intend to get ink & when starting the beginning of this article and speaking of body modifications I instantly thought of lotus foot. That stuck with me first simply because of the fact that girls really didn’t have the choice back when this was happening heavily & now a days they do but some will modify their body to enhance what they feel is right . So do I feel we should judge one for doing so , NO but take into consideration why they are doing it . Although I look today and think about all the lip injections and hip injections that go on today and think about how one truly will change their whole appearance to be something else imagined by them. Fascinating to say the least.
-Jazlyn Logan
I understand everything. but i just feel like if these are the things people want to do with their body then let them. i was at work one day two summers ago and a lady was preaching to me about my tattoo and it made me so uncomfortable and upset.
-Kyla Thomas
I have multiple piercings and tattoos that i can get judge at times but it doesn't upset me that much it just gets annoying of how conservative people can be and how they make a quick judgement based off a personal expression. One of my favorite things about tattoos is that the status they hold within the yakuza in japan.
Body modification can be used to represent many different things as said in the blog post. Many modifications in American society are beauty modifications. Like cosmetic surgery to alter someone's face, arms, butt, and many other parts. Like it has evolved over time. You can get your gender changed with surgery modifications. You can also change your height. It might take a while to learn how to walk again but you can still do it.
When reading this blog post it was very interesting to me, because I myself have piercings and tattoos. I am shocked at how many people do not like what other cultures are doing for themselves or hating on them because they do not understand why they do these things. They are looking at it from an ethnocentrism standpoint, but if it doesn't affect them should it matter what they do to their body? I could see how the foot binding can be painful, but they have reasons for doing what they do. As well as piercings and tattoos I see people getting meaningful ones, but if it does not it is on their body. As to old age when you get older you start to care less in my opinion and just remember the experience and why you got it significance or not.
Bodily changes, connecting them to social status/rank, gender, religion, and other characteristics of identity. It highlights how alterations to a person's body can act as semi-permanent or permanent markers of identity and cultural traditions.-Brooklyn Blair
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