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2016-12-29 04:39:40 • ID: 1556
Body Modifications- Neolithic Style
Nose-, lip-, and ear-plugs are made out of Quartzite and more often of semi-precious stones. They first appeared during the early Neolithic in the Near East, Greece and the Balkans, and over large areas of N-Africa including the Maghreb and the Sahara.
Man is the “symbol-using animal …..rotten with perfection" (K. Burke 2006). Indeed the symbolic Neolithic artifacts, shown in this blog, are perfectly smoothed and dimensioned for their putative use in the modification of the body.
Body modification is deliberate altering of the human anatomy and embraces procedures such as tattooing and body piercing. Those practices have a long history and are well known from various cultures in Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania.
There is also evidence for the prevalence of tattoos in Europe, dating back over 5000 years (the Tyrolean Iceman). During prehistoric times, nose-, lip-, and ear-plugs may be have been used:
- For aesthetics
- In rites of passage
- For betrothal rites
- For displaying religious beliefs
- For displaying group membership or affiliation, whether ethnic, religious or social
- As self-expression
- As an inevitable part of a “dress”
- To display power and /or religious dominance
- To display social stratification / regional inequities
- As a marker of social and personal status
- For protection (in the form of amulets)
- For Artistic display
- For Sexual enhancement
Anyhow we lack of any systematic review about this theme. An important Ethnography about the "social skin" can be found here: Social Skin