Nai Thailand Essay
Body modification is the deliberate alerting of the human anatomy or the human physical appearance. What drives people to radically reshape their bodies or go under the knife to seek physical perfection? Or to stretch human bones like the Kayan women in Nai Soi Thailand. Tattoos, piercings, implants, hair color: As a species were either trying to stand out or fit in. The changes we make to our bodies do not just define us; they define the very culture we live in. On the remote border of the Thailand in Nai Soi sit a tribe. These tribes hold Kayan women, or to outsiders, the long necks. The Kayan women were heavy brass rings around their neck. The brass rings are famous for disfiguring the bodies of those who carry them. The cause pain and
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discomfort. The heavy brass coils are fashioned from solid brass rods. The neck pieces can way up to twenty-two pounds. This is as much as a standard car tire The Kayan believe the longer the neck, the more graceful the look. Monang, a Kayan woman, has one of the longest necks in the tribe. Her coil is long enough to hole twenty-five rings. It stretches over 12 inches high. She has worn the neck piece for over forty-six years. Although the Kayan women are known as the long necks, their coils do not extend the spine. An initial coil of about five rings, weighing nearly four and half pounds, presses down on the shoulders. As each new coil is added, the extra weight compresses the body, pushing the clavicle down, and squeezing and flattening the ribs. This occurs until the shoulders fall away from the head, giving the appearance of an elongated neck. According to local folklore, a woman’s neck that has been supported for a long time will break if the neck piece is removed. This body modification is not forced in this culture. Girls get to choose to wear the rings or not, but the choice is made at a very early age. It must be made while their bodies and bones are still small malleable. This age is usually around three years old. Most girls get the rings or they will get teased by the other girls and get called a “short neck”. Every three to four years more brass spirals are added. While they look like rings. The collar is often a single brass coil wound around the neck. This extra weight causes pain at the shoulders. The coils rub against the skin, and children can get infections from the scratches or become allergic to the brass itself. This may seem cruel, but other cultures also inflict pain in the name of beauty. In the west, we twist children’s teeth with metal bands (braces).
Women and girls do not see their necks for years. When somebody has a bare neck, it is a rare occasion. It’s a curiosity the whole village is keen to see. Traditionally they only come off if the woman is giving birth, going to a doctor’s visit, or if the woman is caught committing adultery. In that case she pays for her infidelity by having her neck exposed. When next pieces are removed most women become light head, dizzy, and faint because of the weight taken off.
Victoria Pitts-Taylor, an associates professor at Queen’s College City University of New York, says that body modification is ancient, so there’s nothing new about modifying the body in ways that are permanent or painful. She says that the practices of the brass rings aren’t different from the practices that we engage in every day except that they violate our body ideals.
Kayan women have worn their brass rings for nearly a thousand years. Its unclear how this extreme tradition started, but there are many theories. One theory is that it was done to keep children in the village and women from running away. Other people would come and try to steal the children, the parents had an idea to put the rings on the necks to block them from getting stolen. It was an identifier of the Kayan people. Another folktale is that the rings are meant to protect the neck from attacks by tigers. According to legend, the neck pieces are as old as the Kayan people themselves. Originally the mother and the creator of all Kayan people was a naga (dragon) figure. Kayan women wanted to emulate this Kayan mother, so they wore the coils as appreciation for the creator. The rings imitate a dragon’s long neck.
. The neck pieces are a precious possession. They can cost up to 500 dollars. Since these collars are worth so much, women cannot leave the village without a man by her side to protect her. Women who do not, usually get their neck pieces stolen and are forced to go bare neck for the rest of their lives. Women cannot afford to buy two of these in their lifetime. These coils are usually the only valuable possession these women have. Most woman get buried wearing the brass they wore and treasured throughout their life.
In Benin, West Africa the Bessoribe Tribe has lived the same way for hundreds of years.
One key to the tribe’s identity is ritual scarification. In this bloody process, the scars left by cuts form intricate designs. The Bessoribe scar the face to mark the start of childhood and the abdomen to mark the start of adulthood. By tradition, the ceremony must take place on flat ground beneath a tree with the child resting on a bed of fresh leaves. To prevent infections the Bessoribe tribe covers the fresh wounds in sav of the Shay tree.
They initiate young men into adulthood every four years. If a child misses the ceremony, they must wait another four years to be called an adult. This is bad because when a scared adult sees an unscarred body they ae not accepted into their society. They are ostracized by the others. This is true, even if one friend gets scarred and one does not.
The village black smith preforms the scarification ritual. Using scrap medal and an ancient bellow the black smith makes a knife to use on a child. A different knife is used for each child. On initiation day for teenagers, young men or women fortify themselves with millet porridge and a sip of homemade alcohol. The teenager get to choose the design for the scars. Family gathers around and watches the ritual take place. The process of scaring the abdomen takes over an hour. When the abdomen scarring is finished, the scarified peers arrive and hail the courage of the new scarred man/woman. The honor their ancestors by singing and
dancing.
With scaring of the face with children, a child must have his face scared once he has been weaned from his mother. The tribe believes this ritual is a vital step. They believe the ritual will please their ancestor’s spirits and protect the child from harm. The child’s head is partially shaved so the scarification can reach the very top of his forehead. The village elders look on to the child, and the parents hold the child down as the black smith cuts into the child’s face. The black smith take thirty minutes to etch the designs into the child’s face.
discomfort. The heavy brass coils are fashioned from solid brass rods. The neck pieces can way up to twenty-two pounds. This is as much as a standard car tire The Kayan believe the longer the neck, the more graceful the look. Monang, a Kayan woman, has one of the longest necks in the tribe. Her coil is long enough to hole twenty-five rings. It stretches over 12 inches high. She has worn the neck piece for over forty-six years. Although the Kayan women are known as the long necks, their coils do not extend the spine. An initial coil of about five rings, weighing nearly four and half pounds, presses down on the shoulders. As each new coil is added, the extra weight compresses the body, pushing the clavicle down, and squeezing and flattening the ribs. This occurs until the shoulders fall away from the head, giving the appearance of an elongated neck. According to local folklore, a woman’s neck that has been supported for a long time will break if the neck piece is removed. This body modification is not forced in this culture. Girls get to choose to wear the rings or not, but the choice is made at a very early age. It must be made while their bodies and bones are still small malleable. This age is usually around three years old. Most girls get the rings or they will get teased by the other girls and get called a “short neck”. Every three to four years more brass spirals are added. While they look like rings. The collar is often a single brass coil wound around the neck. This extra weight causes pain at the shoulders. The coils rub against the skin, and children can get infections from the scratches or become allergic to the brass itself. This may seem cruel, but other cultures also inflict pain in the name of beauty. In the west, we twist children’s teeth with metal bands (braces).
Women and girls do not see their necks for years. When somebody has a bare neck, it is a rare occasion. It’s a curiosity the whole village is keen to see. Traditionally they only come off if the woman is giving birth, going to a doctor’s visit, or if the woman is caught committing adultery. In that case she pays for her infidelity by having her neck exposed. When next pieces are removed most women become light head, dizzy, and faint because of the weight taken off.
Victoria Pitts-Taylor, an associates professor at Queen’s College City University of New York, says that body modification is ancient, so there’s nothing new about modifying the body in ways that are permanent or painful. She says that the practices of the brass rings aren’t different from the practices that we engage in every day except that they violate our body ideals.
Kayan women have worn their brass rings for nearly a thousand years. Its unclear how this extreme tradition started, but there are many theories. One theory is that it was done to keep children in the village and women from running away. Other people would come and try to steal the children, the parents had an idea to put the rings on the necks to block them from getting stolen. It was an identifier of the Kayan people. Another folktale is that the rings are meant to protect the neck from attacks by tigers. According to legend, the neck pieces are as old as the Kayan people themselves. Originally the mother and the creator of all Kayan people was a naga (dragon) figure. Kayan women wanted to emulate this Kayan mother, so they wore the coils as appreciation for the creator. The rings imitate a dragon’s long neck.
. The neck pieces are a precious possession. They can cost up to 500 dollars. Since these collars are worth so much, women cannot leave the village without a man by her side to protect her. Women who do not, usually get their neck pieces stolen and are forced to go bare neck for the rest of their lives. Women cannot afford to buy two of these in their lifetime. These coils are usually the only valuable possession these women have. Most woman get buried wearing the brass they wore and treasured throughout their life.
In Benin, West Africa the Bessoribe Tribe has lived the same way for hundreds of years.
One key to the tribe’s identity is ritual scarification. In this bloody process, the scars left by cuts form intricate designs. The Bessoribe scar the face to mark the start of childhood and the abdomen to mark the start of adulthood. By tradition, the ceremony must take place on flat ground beneath a tree with the child resting on a bed of fresh leaves. To prevent infections the Bessoribe tribe covers the fresh wounds in sav of the Shay tree.
They initiate young men into adulthood every four years. If a child misses the ceremony, they must wait another four years to be called an adult. This is bad because when a scared adult sees an unscarred body they ae not accepted into their society. They are ostracized by the others. This is true, even if one friend gets scarred and one does not.
The village black smith preforms the scarification ritual. Using scrap medal and an ancient bellow the black smith makes a knife to use on a child. A different knife is used for each child. On initiation day for teenagers, young men or women fortify themselves with millet porridge and a sip of homemade alcohol. The teenager get to choose the design for the scars. Family gathers around and watches the ritual take place. The process of scaring the abdomen takes over an hour. When the abdomen scarring is finished, the scarified peers arrive and hail the courage of the new scarred man/woman. The honor their ancestors by singing and
dancing.
With scaring of the face with children, a child must have his face scared once he has been weaned from his mother. The tribe believes this ritual is a vital step. They believe the ritual will please their ancestor’s spirits and protect the child from harm. The child’s head is partially shaved so the scarification can reach the very top of his forehead. The village elders look on to the child, and the parents hold the child down as the black smith cuts into the child’s face. The black smith take thirty minutes to etch the designs into the child’s face.