Foot binding was a cultural practice existing in China from the 10th century until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It involved tightly bandaging the feet of women to alter their shape for aesthetic purposes.
Lotus feet shoes
The Process of Foot Binding
Foot binding usually began when girls were between 4 and 6 years old; some were as young as 3, and some as old as 12. Mothers, grandmothers, or older female relatives first bound the girl’s feet. The four smaller toes were tucked underneath, pulled toward the heel, and wrapped with bandages. Each time the feet were unbound, the bandages and feet were cleaned. Any dead skin, blisters, dried blood, and pus were removed.
The ultimate goal was to make them 3 inches long, the ideal “golden lotus” foot, though few individuals actually achieved that goal. Binding the feet continued for the rest of the girl’s life. Decorative shoes and leggings were worn over the bandages and could differ with the time of day and occasion.
Health Consequences
The process could cause paralysis, gangrene, ulceration, or death, though death was rare.
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Origins and Social Implications
The exact origin of the practice is unknown. Most agree that it began because of male erotic fascination with the shape and point of court dancers’ feet while dancing. Although foot binding started in the upper classes, it spread rapidly. In poorer families who could not afford the bandages or lack of labor associated with a hobbled woman, foot binding was not done until the girls were older. Once a girl married, the bandages were taken off, and she reentered the workforce.
Foot binding was viewed as a rite of passage for young girls and was believed to be preparation for puberty, menstruation, and childbirth. It symbolized a girl’s willingness to obey, just as it limited the mobility and power of females, kept women subordinate to men, and increased the differences between the sexes. It ensured a girl’s marriagability in patrilineal Chinese culture and was a shared bond between daughters, mothers, and grandmothers. Foot binding was also a prestige symbol, and the popular belief was that it increased fertility because the blood would flow up to the legs, hips, and vaginal areas.
The Horrors Behind Foot Binding
Opposition and Outlawing
During the Qing Dynasty, the emperor Kangxi (reigned 1661-1722) banned foot binding in 1662 but withdrew the ban in 1668 because so many Chinese were still practicing it. Opposition to the practice became more widespread when missionaries to China argued that it was cruel; missionaries also pointed out that the rest of the world looked down on it. After the Nationalist Revolution in 1911, foot binding was outlawed in 1912.
Cranial Modification in Ancient Peru: A Parallel Practice
Just like Chinese foot binding, the practice of cranial modification may have been a marker of group identity. Its period of popularity in the area that is now Peru, before the expansion of the Inka empire, was marked by political upheaval, ecological stress and the emergence of new cultural practices. Velasco analyzed hundreds of human skeletal remains from multiple tombs in the Colca Valley of highland Peru and discovered that before 1300 most people did not have modified heads.
Cranial deformation Paracas
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Skeletal samples of two major ethnic groups showed that the Collaguas employed methods to make their heads assume a longer, narrower shape, while the Cavanas sought to make their heads wide and squat. Eventually, the elongated head shape of the Collaguas became the predominant style of modification in the upper Colca Valley.
“The increased homogeny of head shapes suggests that modification practices contributed to the creation of a new collective identity and may have exacerbated emerging social differences,” says Velasco. Velasco found diversity at the local level: both modified and unmodified heads buried in the same tomb, despite having apparently different life experiences.
Whether head modification conferred distinct privileges and higher status is unclear, but Velasco found bioarchaeological evidence that modified females possessed greater access to diverse food options and were less likely to encounter violence. Examining bones for signs of disease gives researchers significant information about childhood health.
For example, the marrow in cranial cavities expands with poor nutrition or anemia, leaving identifiable marks - porous lesions -- on the adult skull. “But there’s no clear indication that infants who had cranial modification were at higher risk of infant mortality,” says Velasco.
One explanation for the cranial modifications is offered by a 16th century Spanish colonial document that Velasco examined, which described groups molding skulls into the shape of the volcano from whence their origin myth says they came.
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A grant from Cornell’s Institute for the Social Sciences will allow Velasco to explore whether cranial modification marked select children with a privileged life experience, as he suspects, such that individuals with modified heads were buffered from environmental and social stressors during childhood, such as malnutrition or exposure to pathogens.
| Feature | Foot Binding (China) | Cranial Modification (Peru) |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Aesthetic; social status; control of women | Group identity; social differentiation |
| Target Group | Young girls | Infants and children |
| Methods | Tightly bandaging feet | Molding skull shape |
| Social Impact | Limited mobility; ensured marriagability; symbol of obedience | Created collective identity; may have conferred privileges |
| Health Consequences | Paralysis, gangrene, ulceration, death | No clear indication of higher infant mortality |
