Mursi Women and Lip plates

The only type of modification that I had seen done to the lip was piercings so when I came across pictures of the Mursi women with their lip plates I was in awe. It seemed a rather strange place to put a plate. The lip plate is a rite of passage into social adulthood and biological maturity. The lower lip is cut by the girl’s mother or another woman in her village around the age of 15 or 16. According to Turton, it is up to the girls to decide how much they want to stretch their lower lip; some will even get to 12 centimeters or more in diameter (Turton 1). Two myths exist as to why the Mursi women wear the lip plates and they are 1) it has to do with a bride’s wealth; the larger the lip plate, the more wealth, but this can not be true because in Turton’s article he says that girls marriages are predetermined before they even get the lip plate (1). And 2) this myth is that it was to keep the women from being traded as slaves. When the women were asked why they do it, they replied, “it is our custom” (Turton 3) and that it signifies adulthood. For whatever reason, it is a tribal identity that separates them from neighboring tribes who have similar forms of body modification. Mursi women are proud to wear their lip plates because it gives them a sense of cultural belonging. But now, unfortunately, it has also taken on the meaning of backwardness. Because of the uniqueness of the lip plates, people from all over the globe go to Africa to see the Mursi women. Tourists take pictures of the women and treat them like a zoo exhibit… most tourists pick the ones they want to take a picture of and do not even pay them fairly for the picture. This has caused the lip plates to become an economic asset because the women can make money for their families. Girls originally had the choice to make the lip plate however big they wanted but now that tourists have invaded, it is seen as better to have a bigger lip plate because it will give you more attention and help you earn money for your family. What upsets me is that “the Mursi know that the lip plate is seen as a sign of their backwardness by powerful outsiders, whether government officials or tourists” (Turton 5). I do not think what they are doing is backwards and what gives anyone the right to make others feel inferior and how they identify themselves as a people is wrong. I understand the lure of seeing something different from your own cultural practices but at least treat them as equals and not as an exhibit and cheat them of monetary gain. The Mursi women wear the plates for cultural identity, beauty, and to show rites of passage; there is no need to add the connotation of backwardness to its original meanings.

Work Cited
Turton, David. “Lip-plates and ‘the people who take photographs’ uneasy encounters between Mursi and tourists in Southern Ethiopia” Anthropology Today, vol. 20,issue 3 pg (1-6)<http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/118773837/PDFSTART?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0>

The Secret Lives of Yakuza Women

I first came across the Yakuza while looking on National Geographic’s website pictures about different forms on body modification. There was a beautiful picture of a Japanese mistress with her whole back tattooed. The designs were intricate and I wanted to find out more. I have not been able to find out too much, but here is what I have. In researching the Yakuza, I have found that they have been around since 1612 and are the Japanese Mafia. Originally, the tattoo was a black circle around their arm as to signify criminal to outsiders and to punish them socially, but they ended up sticking together and formed a mafia, and with that, their tattoos became more elaborate. Women are not considered members of the Yakuza because they are considered weak and are not born to fight but rather born as mothers who take care of the offspring and their husbands (Sundara 1). According to the Museum of Tattoos “many Yakuza gang factions are patriarchal in nature but women are integral parts of Japan’s gangland society. Wives, mistresses, and girlfriends of top Yakuza figures often undergo extensive tattooing. These women sometimes use tattoos to demonstrate their affiliations with the gang lifestyle. In some cases, it’s done to show loyalty and obedience to the Yakuza member they are involved with” (1). In addition, “the only visible woman in the group is the boss’ wife, called ane-san. Ane-san means “older sister”. All members give her the same respect as the boss because she is his wife. However, she does not yet get involved in the business. Her position in the group is the boss’ wife, and not a member of a group.”(Sundara 1). When researching for this blog, I came across this article titled “Blood Ties: Yakuza daughter lifts lid on hidden hell of gangsters’ families” and it talks about Shoko Tendo, a daughter of a Yakuza boss and she briefly talks about how she did not like what her dad was doing but how she became like him and fell into a terrible lifestyle. What I thought was fascinating was that after she cleaned up and got her life back together, that’s when she got her tattoo, to show past affiliation with the gang. At the end of the article, Shoko says, “I had a hard time as the daughter of a gangster, but looking back I wouldn't have lived my life any other way. I am proud that my father was a yakuza. I know his is a world that has no proper place for women. But I have his DNA.” Having her body tattooed is a constant reminder of her past and being apart of her family’s life style. If you are interested in her story, she has written a book called Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter. The women of the Yakuza are proud of who they are and their tattooing is an interesting part of their world.

Works Cited
Powles, Gordon. “Yakuza Tattoos”. The museum of tattoos: 22 July 2008
<http://museumoftattoos.com/tattoonews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187>

McCurry, Justin. “Blood Ties: Yakuza daughter lifts lid on hidden hell of gangsters’ families”. The Guardian 27 June 2007.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/27/books.japan>

Sundara, Miyuki. “ Yakuza, Japanese Mafia”. Organized crime registry
<http://members.tripod.com/orgcrime/japgangint.htm>

Who Knew?

I have seen scarification on people before and wondered why would anyone want to hurt themselves; I mainly thought this because it seemed painful and, to me, did not look that attractive. Then I came across some pictures of women of Nuba and Tiv tribes from Africa that had scarification all over their bodies but it look rather different… I thought it looked quite pretty. Their complexion combined with the scarification was more of a pattern rather than one design. In both tribes, scarification is a representation of womanhood and power but is understood differently among both. For the Nuba, the process of scarification is done in stages of rites of passage. According to Faris, “...a young girl also receives an initial set of body scars on the first sign of approaching maturity when her breasts first start to appear (scars from the navel to the breasts...). Other more extensive scars are cut (now covering the entire torso) on initial menses, and a final set covering the back, the back of the legs, arms and neck, are cut after a woman weans her first child. This last set of scars signals sexual availability again after a long postpartum sexual restriction while the infant is nursed. The final set is regarded as a beauty necessity, and if a husband refuses to pay for the scarring specialist, a woman may seek a lover who will do so, and her first marriage will end. The scars on the woman's back are regarded as sexually pleasurable to her lovers” (Rowanchilde 1). I think it is fascinating that a woman is allowed to leave her husband and seek a lover to pay for the scars. This is true woman power. As for the Tiv women scars, “[Tiv men] value women with raised scars as mates because they consider scarified women more sexually demanding and therefore, more likely to bear more children. [in addition] the Tiv claim that raised scars stay sensitive for many years and they produce erotic sensations in both men and women when touched or stroked” (Rowanchilde 1). Viewing these two tribes and understanding the process has changed my mind about scarification. I still think it must be painful, and I do not think I would ever go through the process unnecessarily, but I see where it serves its purpose. For people who scar themselves without tribal reasons, they must have their own reasons and I will look at them with a new understanding now. If you would like to see pictures of what the scars look like this website has amazing pictures of the women.
http://www.randafricanart.com/Scarification_and_Cicatrisation_among_African_cultures.html


Work Cited
Rowanchilde, Raven. “Cross Cultural Body Modification: A literature Review”. Toronto 1993.

Foot Binding

Foot binding became a desired form of beauty among women in China a thousand years ago. The exact origin of what started the desire for small delicate feet is unknown but two explanations exist. According to “Painful Memories for China’s Foot binding Survivors”, the two explanations are, “legend has it that the origins of foot binding go back as far as the Shang Dynasty (1700-1027 B.C.). The Shang Empress had a clubfoot, so she demanded that foot binding be made compulsory in the court. But historical records from the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) date foot binding as beginning during the reign of Li Yu, who ruled over one region of China between 916-975. It is said his heart was captured by a concubine, Yao Niang, a talented dancer who bound her feet to suggest the shape of a new moon and performed a ‘lotus dance’” (Lim 1). Both explanations give an insightful view to how it became a desirable form of beauty and status. If the first reason is true, and the court were the ones to bind their feet to look like the empress, it became a symbol of upper class and slowly spread throughout China and became a form of social mobility for girls in that it showed that they could move to higher class and be acceptable even if they were not originally from that class. The second explanation also makes sense because a ruler found it desirable, why wouldn’t other men then also find it desirable. Also, it gives reason to the name of the desirable foot size to be the “three-inch golden lotuses’ (Lim1). However, “a 4 inch (10cm) foot, called a silver lotus, was considered acceptable” (Foot Binding: the-inch Golden Lotus 1). Foot binding was not only for beauty, but signified which class girls were because it could only be done in families with girls who did not need them to work in the field because it limited the amount of physical labor they could perform. This shows that the family had to be economically stable. The binding of feet was desirable not only for its looks but what it implied about a girl. Besides status, women with bound feet had to rely on their families for assistance because it was hard to walk long distances and do hard physical labor. This “restricted their movement and enforcing chastity” (Lim1) which is important for women to be acceptable for marriage. Before researching this, I never was aware how the foot binding was done, and when reading about the process, I seemed to be painful very painful and realized to what extent women will go to in order to fit cultural beauty. According to the San Francisco Museum, “by the time a girl turned three years old, all her toes but the first were broken, and her feet were bound tightly with cloth strips to keep her feet from growing larger than 10cm”(1). Foot binding was started at such a young age because bones are still developing and are softer and easier to break. In John Mao’s article he states, “Traditionally, the foot binding begins with the clipping of the toenails and the soaking of the feet either in hot water or in a concoction of ingredients ranging from various herbs and nuts. This is to soften the tissue and bones of the foot in order to facilitate manipulation, and the feet are massaged and doused with alum. All the toes on the foot, except the big one, are broken and folded under the sole. The toes are then bound in place with a silk or cotton bandage of size 10'x12”. Every two days these wrappings are removed for washing and meticulous manicuring of the toenails to avoid infection. The arch of the foot is also broken and the foot is pulled straight with the leg. Gradually the sizes of the shoe are also reduced in order to accommodate the shrinking feet. To encourage the feet to achieve the desired conformation, the girls are made to walk long distances so that their own weight crushes their feet into shape. The flesh of the foot would also be lacerated, or sharp objects may be inserted in the bandage to encourage 'excess' flesh to rot away so that smaller feet may be achieved. In earlier years, the washing and binding is carried out by the mother. As time passes, the girls themselves tighten their bandages on their own. At the end of two years of excruciating pain a pair of tiny folded feet is seen. To make sure that the toes stay in place this foot binding process is carried out for an additional ten years”(1). Another interesting fact about footbinding was that mothers and grandmothers who were wrapping the daughter or granddaughter’s feet started binding in the winter months to keep the feet numb to lessen the extremeness of the pain (John Mao 1). Foot binding no longer exists in China but there are still a few women of the generations that still have bound feet and identify it with beauty and status.

Citations
"Chinese Foot Binding- Lotus Shoes." Museum of the City of San Francisco. Internet. 06 November 2000
<http://www.sfmuseum.org/chin/foot.html>

John Mao: Foot Binding: Beauty And Torture. The Internet Journal of Biological Anthropology . 2008. Volume 1 Number 2.
<http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijba/vol1n2/foot.xml>

Lim, Louisa. “Painful Memories for China’s Footbinding Survivors”. NPR. March 19,2007
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942>

Introduction

For my Introduction to Anthropology course, we were asked to pick a cultural encounter. For mine, I have chosen to become more knowledgeable of body modifications of women in different cultures. I want to find out what it means to modify one’s body. All women participate in some form of body modification, whether they are aware of it or not. To make the decision to modify one’s body can say a lot about you and the relationship you have with your body; I do not mean that if you modify your body you do not respect it, in fact, you might really appreciate your body and that is why you want to enhance it. Even though it may seem that women make the choice themselves to modify their bodies, in different cultures I have begun to wonder if it is sometimes a form of symbolic violence. Symbolic violence is where the dominant culture imposes its views upon the minority culture. In some cases, women seem to modify their bodies because it is seen as a form of beauty and this form of beauty will help to attract a partner. Additionally, certain body modifications can also give status. Throughout this blog, I want to gain a better understanding of what it means to modify one’s body and what significance is implied when the modification either happens or not.