[sotd] Body Modification Ancient and Modern [April 28, 2011]
- From: "Site of the Day" <amholm@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: sotd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:28:47 -0300
Site of the Day for Thursday, April 28, 2011
Body Modification Ancient and Modern
Today's site, from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology, presents a revealing exhibit on body tattooing and piercing.
Gentle
Subscribers will discover that there's nothing new under the sun as they explore
examples of how ancient peoples expressed themselves through body art.
"People around the world have been piercing, tattooing, and painting their
bodies
for ages. There's excellent evidence of this in the galleries of the Penn
Museum,
some of it dating as far back as the 9th century B.C. Body modification and
what it
means is personal and cultural. ... This exhibit asks the questions: What's the
big
stink over a little ink? ... Pierced ears? Before there were malls?" - from the
website
The exhibition features material on the tattoo customs of diverse ethnic groups,
from 19th century Samoans -- the origin of the term tattoo -- to the painfully
incised facial patterns and ink rituals of New Zealand's Maori, while links to
items in the museum's collection illustrate these historical tattoos.
Highlighting
the body piercing section are notes on today's unblinking acceptance of pierced
ears, the less familiar fashion of ear spools, traceable to Maya and historical
Chinese practices and the trend of lip and nose piercings, with traditional
examples found among the Inuit of Alaska. Rounded out by a final section on the
art
of body painting, the exhibit looks at customs as varied as body paints for
sports
fans to their use by the men and women of ancient Egypt.
Sweep over to the exhibit to explore the historical underpinnings of body
modification at:
http://penn.museum/sites/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml
A.M. Holm
<amholm@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Manage your subscription and view the List archives on the web at:
<//www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/webpage?webpage_id=sotd> and
<//www.freelists.org/archives/sotd>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UNSUBSCRIBE by sending a blank email to sotd-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
unsubscribe in the Subject field.
Other related posts:
- » [sotd] Body Modification Ancient and Modern [April 28, 2011] - Site of the Day
