Abstract
ONE of the strangest eccentricities in human behaviour is revealed in the widespread practice among even civilised men and women of bodily mutilations, such as scarring and tattooing, piercing ears, noses, lips, or tongue, circumcising, knocking out teeth, compressing the feet, amputating fingers, compressing the waist, and distorting the head. These procedures are so devoid of rational justification and so destructive of the natural beauty of the human form that it is difficult to discover any plausible excuse for their invention. Hence the geographical distribution of such deformities affords valuable evidence in support of claims for the diffusion of culture in early times.
Artificial Cranial Deformation: a Contribution to the Study of Ethnic Mutilations.
By Dr. E. J. Ding-wall. Pp. xvi + 313 + 54 plates. (London: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd., 1931.) 70s. net.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
SMITH, G. Artificial Cranial Deformation: a Contribution to the Study of Ethnic Mutilations . Nature 130, 185–186 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130185a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130185a0
This article is cited by
-
Space anthropology: physical and cultural adaptation in outer space
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (2011)
