Body Modification: Examples and Explanations

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Body Modification: Examples and Explanations" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Permanent body modification (PBM) is among the most striking of contemporary human behaviors, and there is evidence that it has been practiced for thousands of years. However, to date, PBM has been the subject of comparatively little anthropological and archaeological research. Consequently, it is poorly understood. The present session will feature talks based on papers from a forthcoming edited volume that seeks to change this state of affairs. The talks will discuss examples of PBM practices that have been carried out in different places and at different times, including tattooing, scarification, piercing, dental modification, and finger amputation. Proximate and ultimate reasons why individuals are motivated to engage in PBM practices will also be considered in the course of the session.

Other Keywords
Cultural Transmission • Historic • Body Modification • Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology • Jewelry • Experimental Archaeology • Labret • Sexuality • Craft Production • Adornment

Geographic Keywords
Worldwide • Republic of Botswana (Country) • Republic of Namibia (Country) • Republic of South Africa (Country) • Republic of Kenya (Country) • United Republic of Tanzania (Country) • Republic of Uganda (Country) • Gabonese Republic (Country) • Republic of the Congo (Country) • Democratic Republic of the Congo (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)

  • Documents (6)
Documents
  • Body Modifications among San Hunter-Gatherers: A Relational Practice and Subsistence Strategy (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Vibeke Viestad.

    This is an abstract from the "Body Modification: Examples and Explanations" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Body modifications are a well-known aspect of various cultural practices among the historically and ethnographically known San hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa, but not until recently have such practices been analyzed within an interpretative framework that gives reason to suggest that they were mostly performed to ensure harmonious...

  • Body Modifications in the Collections of the Musée de l’Homme (Paris) (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Franz Manni. Laurence Glémarec. Liliana Huet. Martin Friess.

    This is an abstract from the "Body Modification: Examples and Explanations" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Musée de l’Homme hosts several collections corresponding to body modification practices. The collections correspond to body piercing (prehistoric artifacts, casts of living individuals from the nineteenth century, and early photographic images) and to other types of body modification: intentional cranial modifications of various types and...

  • Finger Amputation in the Ethnohistoric, Archaeological, and Folktale Records (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Brea McCauley. Mark Collard.

    This is an abstract from the "Body Modification: Examples and Explanations" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. To many people in the West, the idea that finger amputation would be carried out for nonmedical reasons is unheard of. However, recent studies suggest that it may have been quite common in the past. The aim of the study presented here was to shed some light on the prevalence of finger amputation customs. To accomplish this, we examined...

  • Medical Anthropology and Tattooing (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Smetana. Christopher Lynn. Marco Samadelli.

    This is an abstract from the "Body Modification: Examples and Explanations" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As the popularity of tattooing has surged worldwide, so too have studies of tattooing as a cultural and psychological practice, though research on the biological impacts of tattooing have lagged. In its basic form, tattooing is a purposeful wound on the body that leaves behind pigment and permanent meaning. Part of that meaning is the health...

  • Resurrecting Piercing: Experimental Archaeology at a Global Scale (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul King. Franz Manni.

    This is an abstract from the "Body Modification: Examples and Explanations" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Across continents, material evidence of body piercing jewelry abounds in the archaeological record. However, the varying procedures and processes of piercing, healing, and stretching these wounds for adornment remains unfamiliar to most archaeologists. This PowerPoint presentation discusses the early self-experimentations that led to the...

  • To Wear, or Not to Wear: Symbolism and Technology of Lip-Plates in Mursi (Ethiopia) and Mebêngôkre (Brazil) (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Shauna Latosky. Pascale de Robert.

    This is an abstract from the "Body Modification: Examples and Explanations" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This chapter offers a comparative look at the labrets of the Mebêngôkre (Brazil) and Mursi (Ethiopia) with a special emphasis on how lip-plates are made, worn, valued, and evaluated at a normative level. By normative, we mean the historical, technical, symbolic, and discursive ways in which such practices are understood by the Mursi and...