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ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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29 Sep 2014, 3:13 am

Skull binding was practiced by people thousands of years ago in different parts of the world. Shortly after birth, they would take their babies and put their heads in between boards to elongate the skull. To me it is one of the most bizarre practices I have ever heard about and it sounds very traumatic and painful. What I wonder is, what possessed people to do these strange things? Where do people get these notions and why is it only humans that get them, not other species. Do you ever wonder why that is?



WildTaltos
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29 Sep 2014, 1:06 pm

forcing your kid to wear shoes that deformm and weaken the feet and spend much of day seated which can deform spine and lead to life-time tendency of sedentarism to me seems traumatic and painful but most of the peoplle of that culture who experienced/experiennce it dont seem to think so. i wonder what makes them do that but they have theiir own nonsensical explanatons, like somehow theiir feet need protection (even thogh if they truly did they woulld be born with shoes on) and that sitting down in a schooll and folowing rigid schedules is absolutly necessary to survive in the insane world they created. i imagine the people who skull binded would similiarly not think its painful/traumatic and they had their own justification, more or less logical, than what othre cultures have for such things. I tend to chalk it up to the explanation shared by Joseph Campbell thats its a result of the inexhaustible human tendency for "play," play being defined as an imaginative scenario/act whose rules others take part to be part of the play. whereas other animals tend to lose most of their capacity for play when they become adults, humans keep it, though tend to forget that what they doing is "play" and start calling it "traditions," "customs," "art" - basicallly most parts of culture.


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ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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29 Sep 2014, 2:34 pm

WildTaltos wrote:
forcing your kid to wear shoes that deformm and weaken the feet and spend much of day seated which can deform spine and lead to life-time tendency of sedentarism to me seems traumatic and painful but most of the peoplle of that culture who experienced/experiennce it dont seem to think so. i wonder what makes them do that but they have theiir own nonsensical explanatons, like somehow theiir feet need protection (even thogh if they truly did they woulld be born with shoes on) and that sitting down in a schooll and folowing rigid schedules is absolutly necessary to survive in the insane world they created. i imagine the people who skull binded would similiarly not think its painful/traumatic and they had their own justification, more or less logical, than what othre cultures have for such things. I tend to chalk it up to the explanation shared by Joseph Campbell thats its a result of the inexhaustible human tendency for "play," play being defined as an imaginative scenario/act whose rules others take part to be part of the play. whereas other animals tend to lose most of their capacity for play when they become adults, humans keep it, though tend to forget that what they doing is "play" and start calling it "traditions," "customs," "art" - basicallly most parts of culture.


That's a good explanation. However I do admit it is odd people would think of that as play. Shoes I can understand because they don't really hurt that much and if the shoe fits right, it doesn't cause the foot to grow differently. Skull binding just looks painful.



WildTaltos
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29 Sep 2014, 2:54 pm

i dont know how it was done but yuo mentioned that it was at least startted when they were babies and if was onlly done in thos formative years, not likely to remember much of it, least probablly the most extreme part happenedd when youngest. shoes on othr hand teach body to walk an unnaturall way whole life and so helps compile back, knee, and hip problemms over a lifetime besides causing flat foot and hammertoes, denying the body grounding which in recentt studies is shown to hellp remove free radicals from the body which aer connected to othre health conditions, and culturing bacteria on the foot (hence why feet often smell). so overalll seems like shoe wearng is more barbaric/painfull over a lifetime than probably skull binding ever was. the fact that you dont see the problems with shoes just shows how somthing in one culture that seems like nonsense and painful to someone from anotherr is often seen as perfectlly acceptable or tolerable to those in the culture in question, and i can imagine people of skull binding culture when confronted with the accusation that its painfull and cruel would do basicaly same thing, say its not traumatic and probablly give an explanation that seems rationall to them.


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ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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29 Sep 2014, 2:58 pm

^^ That's why you must wear a shoe that fits properly. The point of wearing them is to protect your feet, not bind them.
This skull binding was done with boards. The infant's head was placed between them and he had to live restrained with his head between two boards for a while before he could walk. I imagine it changed who they were even though they were infants, still, it affected who they became later. It must have.



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29 Sep 2014, 3:14 pm

most peoplle must not be wearing shoes that "fit properrly" because these sems to be things that happenn to most peoplle at some point in their life, whethre stinky feet, hammertoes, pointed feet, colapsed arch, back or hip problem, etc.. a natural foot is supposed to have very splayed/wide-looking toes - rarely see that on peoplle who wear shoes so that shows obvious deformity there even if doesnt hurt - the deformity is even more obvious when i see peoplle who have worn shoes all their life start to try going barefoot everywhere and at first it hurts them a lot because thheir foot has been mutilated with shoe-wearing. the only place shoes in modern sense are at all necessary (so completlly enclosed shoe) is in cold areas or in hazardous environmennt like near chemicalls or power equipment- anywhere else, its nothing but culturall thing, a play with rules no one within it rarely stops to criticallly evaluate

thats what culture is meant to do, shape and change a person, whethre physicaly, mentally, or both. skull binding was just one cultures way of doing that, and it obviouslly wasnt too detrimental or i imagine they wouldnt have been ablle to continue as a society. jews, muslims, some othre peoples mutliate male children by circumcision, but thats just part of their play. people in the cullture im from scarify the penis and others may think thats barbaric or traumatic but i could give it justification that anyone from my culture would , its just normal part of our play


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29 Sep 2014, 3:42 pm

I used to go bare foot whenever possible when I was a child and I was constantly having stuff pulled out of my feet at the ER from stepping on objects that injured my foot or got buried inside. We need to go back to shoe making that way everyone gets a custom fit.



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29 Sep 2014, 4:10 pm

key word there is as a chilld. i steped on lot of crap and hurt myself too when i was kid but because i was young, dumb, not very cautious, and thats what learning is all about. i still go barefoot most of the time as adult, pretty much onlly time i dont is its too cold or the job i had at the time wantd me to wear them, and i almost nevre get injured because i look where i am going and it takes som extremely sharp and me stomping around like a dumbarse rather than walking lightly like i usually do to get thruogh my soles, theyve gotten that hard. but thats besides point anyways. point is shoes are largly just one of thos culturall customs that get all sort of justificaton for those who take part in that game but which others lookin in from the outside might find absurd and cruel


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29 Sep 2014, 4:25 pm

I never ever ever go barefoot now and my feet are happy. I wish I would have wore shoes more as a kid. Heh. I am opposite you.



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29 Sep 2014, 4:57 pm

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo wrote:
Skull binding was practiced by people thousands of years ago in different parts of the world. Shortly after birth, they would take their babies and put their heads in between boards to elongate the skull. To me it is one of the most bizarre practices I have ever heard about and it sounds very traumatic and painful. What I wonder is, what possessed people to do these strange things?

From what I've read, it was supposed to make people look more noble and intelligent. It looks like it would cause brain damage- the very opposite of the intended effect- but who knows. It also gave group identity. Body modification as group identity is pretty common.

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Where do people get these notions and why is it only humans that get them, not other species. Do you ever wonder why that is?


Why only humans and not other species? I think it's our ability to project thoughts into the future and imagine outcomes. We change our bodies because we are a species that can imagine the changed body, rather than just reacting to the here and now. Other species that form groups will also police group identity and only accept those in their own pack. But we're the only ones who change ourselves to create a "new" body. I think it's the ability to imagine.



ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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29 Sep 2014, 5:07 pm

I have nothing against somewhat changing a body it's just extremes that look cruel and inflicting them on the helpless and powerless that I have problems dealing with.

Like if someone want's to pierce a baby's ears I can live with it.



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29 Sep 2014, 5:17 pm

Shoes that don't deform the feet are widely derided as ugly in the west - think uggs, crocks, and birkenstocks.



ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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29 Sep 2014, 5:19 pm

I personally would never wear high heels or any of that bs. I don't fall for that game.



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29 Sep 2014, 5:31 pm

Yeah. My grandma's feet look like Barbie-feet from wearing heels so often.



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29 Sep 2014, 6:14 pm

I hated shoes as a child,if they didn't feel right I'd kick them off and have a fit.They did let me go barefoot a lot :D .I've stepped on a nail and stuff like that.I still go around barefoot here at the house.Not when I'm mowing or something where I could loose a toe.I like comfy athletic shoes ,river sandals and sneakers.I'm not shoving my foot into anything that's painful to walk in.I really like the feel of cool,dew wet grass on the feet.


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29 Sep 2014, 6:15 pm

It is not very nice.

However the brain is very plastic, especially during development, so they would mostly likely have most of their brain function.

The geometry may cause issues with the neuro-physical regulation. depending on the specific geometry it might put pressure on certain regions causing impairment.