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

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?

*

HOW?

X-Ray of Padaung Woman Diagram of coiled (left) vs uncoiled (right) bone structure

Exaggerated bust of Padaung woman

WHAT?

Top : AMNH acc. 70.08677ABBottom : Coiling process

Top : Upper and Lower CoilBottom : Pillow/Cloth Addition.

MISCONCEPTIONS

WHEN? WHY?

?

ORNAMENTATION

Top : Samburu girl

Bottom : Unisex copper arm coil from Africa

Far left: Ndebele woman

ORNAMENTATION

Rachel Clark in Russian Vogue, November 2008Alexander McQueen, F/W 2009

“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.

Photographs from the Miss Thailand Beauty Pagent.

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.