Body Modification

The assigned reading for my archaeology class tomorrow is by Pamela L. Geller, titled Altering Identities: Body Modifications and the Pre-Columbian Maya.  Since I am a fan of body modification (and have a few types of it, myself) and enjoy making parallels between ancient societies and present day, the essay proved to be quite interesting.


Prior to going into her personal archaeological-based findings on dental modification in the Pre-Columbian Maya, she discussed at length the present state of body modification in our own society.  While there was of course the short paragraph or two on "modern primitives" who modify their body in much the same way as ancient peoples have, the interesting point she makes is regarding plastic surgery.  Many today have an ethnocentric (Eurocentric, to be more specific) view of these symbolic/ritual modifications that generally involve some degree of pain.  After studying the modification processes of many different communities, ancient and contemporary, one can find that many do it not only to prove themselves through a rite of passage, but also to recreate themselves in an ideal image constructed by their particular society.  It makes them more appealing all around.  Those who seek out plastic surgery generally seem to want it for the same reasons, and a great deal of pain and danger are even involved (and no, I am not saying that every single person ever adheres to this; no one can really say that about anything).  The only difference is that our society seems to have mixed feelings towards the practice of plastic surgery, and everyone does not uphold it.  Of course, we have no idea whether or not everyone in the ancient world of the Maya upheld dental modifications (about half of them seem to be unmodified), so perhaps the parallel is still strong.


Another thing the article made me think about is the idea of a "trend," particularly a trend starting in the counterculture.  I pose the question, is it possible that once something like body modification becomes a trend it loses at least some of its symbolic value to the counterculture that was identifying with it?

I give my own (slightly embarrassing in the retelling) story as an example.  My lobes are stretched to double-zero gauge (10 mm, or 1 cm for those who aren't used to the metric system), and were not done out of a necessity to want to fit in with a larger societal trend.  I can't disagree that I admired a certain type of counterculture that bore stretched lobes as one of their many "symbols," but the main distinction for me here is counterculture.  I had a desire to modify, to change my ear structure for aesthetics and to symbolically separate myself.  After wanting to have large lobes for years and researching a bit on those who have/have had them, I went through the long, hard, painful process of stretching them from a regular piercing size (about 1 mm - piercings I have had since I was 2 months old!).  Here is a chart I found on a random Google Images search that isn't perfect for actual size references (the higher numbers seem kind of large, and my 00 plug is a little bigger than the 00 gauge), but it's close.

(clickable image; this is a smaller version)

I happily achieved my desired goal (although the desire to go larger is very strong and extremely hard to combat).  But over time, I suddenly started to notice the appearance of more and more stretchings in the crowds around me.  I realized that I was looking at many of these people with elitist disdain (I know, I hate saying that) rather than with a sense of communal bonding which would be expected.  I suppose I felt - still feel! - that these people did not "deserve" to have them.  It has made me understand that I did this not only for reasons stated above, but also because it was very personal (my own rite of passage).

I apologize for the rambling, but to me it is a way to see how permanent body modifications can give insight into the way they are shaping the identities of those taking part in the process.  This is also Geller's argument both with contemporaneous examples and with her own work in prehistoric Maya society.

And the last question that came to mind after reading: Do you think humans have an innate impulse to modify themselves in response to the society around them?

Anyway, I highly recommend this essay by Geller.  I loved reading it and got something out of it other than the (hopeful) required class understanding of the material.  Besides, body modification is awesome!