08/16/2023
Japan’s Hirota people intentionally reshaped their skulls more than 1,000 years ago.
Evidence of cranial modification has been found in societies from Mexico to France and may even date back to the Neanderthals.
Modifying our bodies, from external expressions like piercings and tattoos to more internal changes like drilling holes into skulls or foot binding, is quintessentially human. Now, a team of biological anthropologists and archaeologists from Kyushu University in Japan and the University of Montana are learning more about how Japan’s Hirota people partook in a millennia old practice of intentional cranial modification. Their findings,published August 16 in the journal PLOS ONE, also found that there were no significant differences in cranial modification between males and females, indicating that both sexes partook in the process.
Humans are born with fairly soft and pliable skulls to help push our large braincases through the birth canal. During cranial modification, a person’s head is pressed or bound to permanently deform the skull. This is primarily done at an early age, and the practice even predates written history.
There is evidence that Neanderthals living 45,000 years ago were shaping their infants’ skulls, possibly because it was believed to be better for survival. In Mexico, the Maya may have intended it as a way to protect the souls of its young people. A form of artificial cranial deformation in which a baby’s head was tightly bound and padded to protect the skull from impact was still common among peasantry in Western France as recently as the early 1900s. Scientists theorize the practice was generally performed to signify group affiliation or demonstrate social status.
