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Binding, Wrapping, Constricting, and Constraining the Head: A Consideration of Cranial Vault Modification and the Pain of Infants

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Purposeful Pain

Part of the book series: Bioarchaeology and Social Theory ((BST))

Abstract

The intentional and permanent modification of head shape was common throughout antiquity. This intimate practice involved binding the head of infants with long cloths and occasionally with pillows or boards for what seems to have been a period of even years. Through this constant pressure and constriction, individuals were able to obtain a variety of alterations to natural head shape. In this chapter, I consider ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources that speak to the practice of intentionally binding the heads of children in the pre-Columbian and colonial Americas. I integrate this information with a large-scale study of the skeletal evidence for this custom in northern Chile and concomitant evidence for related injury or chronic conditions. Landa, among other chroniclers of the Spanish conquest, speaks to strong pain and even death affecting infants in the Aztec world as a result of modifying the head; others only address the myriad forms and the strangeness of this custom. My analyses of the crania of well over 1,000 individuals show no clear ties to chronic conditions such as arthritis or TMJ nor evidence that the pressure of this practice caused skull fractures. While the physical ramifications of this choice are prominent and permanent, overall, textual, and material evidence suggests that what pain there was, was tolerable and normalized, by the infants and children, but more notably by the adults imposing this practice. Ultimately, the overall goal of modifying head shape superseded the discomfort of the act.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is interesting to note that Blackwood also commented on intelligence, another common query with regard to cranial modification. “Such infants as I had the opportunity of observing at all closely seemed to develop at the usual rates as regards walking and talking, and the adults show no signs of subnormal mentality… I suggest that the head-binding and consequent deformation has no effect on mentality among the Arawe” (Blackwood and Danby 1955:175). I see similar commentary in the earlier The Detroit Lancet, where Wyman (1881–1882:428), following a discussion inspired by a modified and trephined skull brought to the Wayne County Medical Society meeting, wrote “in view of the facts which show that at some periods of this world’s history, mankind generally have been addicted to the fashion of deforming the cranium out of all semblance to the normal type, it is scarcely to be presumed that such a fashion could have persisted through so many generations, if it had alienated and rendered insane the minds of the people who practiced it.”

  2. 2.

    Translation mine. Spanish original quoted in Zabala (2014:112) as follows: “…en lugar de hacer las caperuzas conforme a las cabezas hacen las cabezas al talle de las caperuzas en lo cual ha habido y hay tan gran exceso que ordinariamente vienen a morir de ello muchos niños y los que quedan por la mayor parte se crían enfermos y traen los ojos malos y quedan sordos como lo he visto y entendido en la dicha visita y aún ha acaecido salírsele a alguno los sesos por las orejas y para evitar los dichos daños proveí un auto que Vuestra Señoría verá conviene se ejecute.”

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Acknowledgments

This chapter derives from over a decade of work at the Instituto de Arqueología y Antropología and Museo Le Paige of the Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile, and their ongoing support is always appreciated, particularly that of former Curators of Physical Anthropology María Antonietta Costa Junqueira and Mark Hubbe. I would also like to express my thanks to the editors for the initial invitation to present my work at the American Anthropological Association meetings and to develop it further for this.

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  1. Department of Anthropology and Heritage Studies, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA

    Christina Torres-Rouff

  2. Instituto de Arqueología y Antropología, Universidad Católica del Norte, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

    Christina Torres-Rouff

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Correspondence to Christina Torres-Rouff .

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Susan Guise Sheridan

  2. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA

    Lesley A. Gregoricka

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Torres-Rouff, C. (2020). Binding, Wrapping, Constricting, and Constraining the Head: A Consideration of Cranial Vault Modification and the Pain of Infants. In: Sheridan, S.G., Gregoricka, L.A. (eds) Purposeful Pain. Bioarchaeology and Social Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32181-9_12

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