Examining and Contextualizing the Neck Coils of the Padaung Women
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The practice of neck coiling by Padaung women is demystified and examined in relation to North American body modification. This presentation began as a graduate school project and presented at the 2011 MAPACA Conference in Philadelphia, PA.
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Examining and Contextualizing the Neck Coils of the Padaung Women
- 1. Examining and Contextualizing the Neck Coils of the Padaung Women Presented by: Christian Hernandez At the Mid-Atlantic Pop/American Culture Conference November 3rd , 2011
- 2. WHO? Padaung Karen, Karen Tribe Karenni, Karen-ni Kayin, Kayan, Kayah Hill Tribe + above terms Myanmar/Burma or Thailand + above terms “Long Neck” or “Giraffe” + above terms WHERE? *
- 3. HOW? X-Ray of Padaung Woman Diagram of coiled (left) vs uncoiled (right) bone structure Exaggerated bust of Padaung woman
- 4. WHAT? Top : AMNH acc. 70.08677AB Bottom : Coiling process Top : Upper and Lower Coil Bottom : Pillow/Cloth Addition.
- 6. WHEN? WHY? ?
- 7. ORNAMENTATION Top : Samburu girl Bottom : Unisex copper arm coil from Africa Far left: Ndebele woman
- 8. ORNAMENTATION Rachel Clark in Russian Vogue, November 2008Alexander McQueen, F/W 2009
- 9. “In Thailand, in one refugee community, women believe they are enhancing their beauty by stretching their necks with brass rings.” “Members of a refugee Burmese tribe in Thailand, a Padaung family bathes in a stream. Padaung women are often fitted with brass neck rings. These rings help elongate their necks—a look prized among this group—albeit at the expense of crushed collarbones and rib cages.” “Some women of the Padaung people are fitted with brass neck rings at a young age to ward off evil spirits. The weight and pressure of the added rings crush the collar bones [sic] and sometimes the ribs of these women.” “A dying custom of the Padaung people, some of whom found refuge in northern Thailand from war in Burma (now Myanmar), dictates that young girls are fitted with brass neck rings to ward off evil spirits. Over the years the weight of added rings crushes collarbones and ribs. Now tourist dollars impel long- necked women in Thailand to again collar their daughters.” (all quotes are from National Geographic captions) Blog photo caption.
- 14. Photographs from the Miss Thailand Beauty Pagent.
- 17. Works Cited Anawalt, Patricia Rieff. The Worldwide History of Dress. London, Thames and Hudson, 2007. Karenni Homeland website. “Highlights in Karenni History to 1948” Karenni Homeland, http://www.karennihomeland.com/ArticleArticle.php?ContentID=44, (accessed April 11, 2011) Kennett, Frances. World Dress. London, Mitchell Beazley, 1994. Lutz, Catherine and Jane Collins. Reading National Geographic. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1993. National Geographic, “Brass Shackles,” National Geographic Youtube.com channel, http://youtu.be/BL8ARB5FmsA (accessed April 11, 2011) Scott K. C. I. E., Sir George, “Among the Hill Tribes of Burma—An Ethnological Thicket,” National Geographic, March 1922. Storm, Penny. Functions of Dress: Tool of Culture and the Individual. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1987. Street, Linda. Veils and Daggers: A Century of National Geographic’s Representation of the Arab World. Philadelphia, Temple University, 2000. Vale, V. ed. and Andrea Juno, ed. Modern Primitives: An Investigation into Contemporary Adornment and Ritual. San Francisco, Re/Search Publications, 1989. Additional References Bernard, Rudofsky. The Unfashionable Human Body. Garden City, Anchor Press, 1974. Steele, Valerie. The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. Detroit, Thomson/Gale, 2005.
Editor's Notes
- HEY! Or as I like to say …
- Who? Padaung is the term I am going to use b/c … Karen refers to a group of nine sub-groups, of which only one have neck coils. I am no cultural anthropologist or what not, these are just what I can define to the best of my research. Female not male Padaung.
- National Geographic Youtube. WANG. Can not corroborate. Not neck stretching, or elongation. More correctly called neck coiling. Actually slopes the shoulders down with age. Added at 5 years old (Encyclopedia of word Dress says 12 but photos clearly prove otherwise.) People will often say neck stretching and then correct themselves but continue to use the term. Including National Geographic, the Encyclopedia of World Dress published by Oxford University Press & Worldwide History of Dress by Patricia Anawalt. As well as throughout the internet’s unreliable sources. There are actually two or more components to the neck coil. Visually elongate in addition to physically sloping the shoulders. Mention “giraffe woman”
- Coil. Not Ring. Not hollow, made from a soft brass alloy, perhaps with copper or zinc. Can be brassy brown or gold in color (old vs newer) Felt really really heavy. Around 7-8 pounds. Made into a preliminary coil larger than the head and tightened around the neck. Do not know who makes the rings. In the AMNH coil the inside had a “flat” edge as if it was hit over a flat surface.
- Their ability to live isn’t greatly hindered. There neck don’t atrophy to the point where they will die if the rings are taken off. They are not added a ring a year, nor does the height necessarily dictate status. See small photo. Also the “height” is partially an illusion from the lower coil. It is pretty easy to blindly make statements about things you don’t know about. For us as academics, be it fashion historians, material culture anthropologists, it is easy to assume that just likely corsetry myths, this one is grossly exaggerated by a population eager to label foreign practices as being less modern and irrational.
- As far back as the Padaung were documented they had the rings. Wearing your wealth, to become unattractive to other tribes (seems unusual). Can be used as a source of income, but it is so low that it can hardly be considered an income at all. How it started? Who knows?
- http://izismile.com/2009/06/25/padaung_long-neck_women_35_pics.html
- This idea that the Padaung “believe they are enhancing their beauty” at the expense of crushed collarbones and rib cages and that they are dictated to shackle themselves is a highly romanticized view of the Padaung. Still better than a 1922 national geogrpahic mention of “The Hill Karens are obtrusively dirty, so dirty that they cannot get any worse, because no more matter can find a place to settle.” VEILS AND DAGGERS: A CENTURY OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S REPRESENTATION OF THE ARAB WORLD BY LINDA STREET READING NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BY CATHERINE LUTZ AND JANE COLLINS. INTRODUCE US VS THEM.
- Mention the reversibility of ear-stretcing.
- Googling “breast implant scar” gives some really really bad photos. A lot of breast implant scars on celebrities and procedures that have gone bad. The price we pay for beauty. She has ornamented with her body with breast implants and a wedding ring. The interplay is fantastic. Perhaps one of the biggest prices of beauty is … (slide of fashion magazine covers)
- Look at how similar these covers are! I know a HUGE conversation can be had on beauty ideals. And I have gotten into heated debates about capitalist ideals, “white” beauty, fat, cellulite not being beautiful, the idea of male versus female views of beautiful women (notice the two coverstories “we found your future boyfriend” and “hello boys” and the photographed, or rather photoshopped ideal. (notice the arms on Michelle Trachenberg. She is thin but come on! I am actually least offended by the Playboy cover because of it’s honesty. And it is this North Amercian/European ideal of beauty that has resulted in …
- Clear distinction of Padaung needed? North American and European ideas of beauty have infiltrated other cultures so much. Source of pride? If worn for money can it still be used as an example of local dress? If young Padaung women are no longer adding neck coils do they all of a sudden no longer become part of the ethnic minority and become part of the assimilated majority? Youtube via translator quote “She wants to dress up in regular clothes and let her hair down and see if she will look pretty.”
- If you take away one thing away from this presentation I hope it is this. Body modification, and more widely all forms of dress and adornment, have a strong place throughout history and in all present day cultures. Dress is formed through group dynamics. By interacting with your peer group, as well as those outside your peer group, you make decisions about how you dress, and present yourself. But more importantly you form the framework for your particular reality, something which cannot really be explained in words and pictures. It is with this reality that creates unity and acceptance of each other, as well as stereotypes of others and pre-juding others. Body modification plays a key role in this constructed reality, and in the uneasy perception of foreign cultures. It is a collective taste within a group and the differences from group to group that form varying cultures with different ideas of beauty and different ideal bodies.