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Mayan Tooth and Skull Modification - Culture meets Biology and Evolution
anthropology.net — If you end up seeing Apocalypto and are wondering what's up with the inserts the Maya had in their teeth and their different skull shape, then I hope to answer that in this post. The Maya had a very unique set of aesthetical standards in their culture, but it is not specific to only the Maya. Two predeominant ones, as seen in the movie were...
kambiz- 23 diggs
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- GnuTzu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1And, will some of this start to show up in our modern alternative cultures?
- kambiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I highly doubt we will be drilling jewels into our teeth and reforming our skulls but people do modify their bodies in non-traditional manners like genital modification, puffing up their lips with botox, etc. But it is hard to say. It all depends on how strong of a meme Maya like body modifications will be, i.e. how acceptable it is to others.
They Maya had a very permanent form of body modification, something above the normal tattooing and piercings we see in other cultures. - rootneg2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I know of dentists who do gemstone inlays.
As for the skull modification; it has to happen at a very early age, so I think you would run into child abuse laws in the country.
However: in in today's mainstream society we regularly perform painful, long-term, cranial modification for the sake of aesthetics, on children as young as 10 or 12; there's an entire industry built upon it, called orthidontistry. Now granted we say that it's harmless, and for the good of the child, but much of the time is truly unnecessary and causes great pain and suffering; and the child would live a perfectly normal, healthy, comfortable life otherwise (albeit with a culturally percieved "deformity"). This form of body modification is perfectly acceptable, and I ask what truly makes it any different? I cast no moral judgement on either culture, I merely find it an intriguing hypocrisy
- kambiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I highly doubt we will be drilling jewels into our teeth and reforming our skulls but people do modify their bodies in non-traditional manners like genital modification, puffing up their lips with botox, etc. But it is hard to say. It all depends on how strong of a meme Maya like body modifications will be, i.e. how acceptable it is to others.
- rootneg2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://www.bmezine.com/ritual/990201/maya/
Another fantastic article about Mayan body modification. If you can get a hold of it, the book "Modern Primitives" from Re/Search has an excellent article by Wes Christensen. I personally find the subject absolutely fascinating and one of the primary reasons I saw Apocolypto was to see how it was protrayed in the movie.
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