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THE CUSTOMIZED BODY |
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INTRODUCTION
Back tattoo of Scythian chief, 5th Century B.C., Eastern Altai, Siberia We are the only creature on this planet which chooses and manipulates its own appearance. This isn't something new. Human beings have been altering their appearance for as long as there have been human beings. Nor is customizing the body freakish or even exceptional. No society has ever been found where appearance is dictated only by genetic inheritance. Everywhere, to be normal, acceptable and attractive is to do certain things to your body -- rubbing bright red mud into the hair, cutting intricate patterns of scars in your skin, wearing a suit and tie, etc. -- which defy and subvert what nature intended. Or, to put it the other way around, it is human nature -- indeed, at the very heart of human nature -- to customize the body. From the most technically 'primitive' societies to the most (so-called) 'advanced,' from half a million or so years ago to the present day, human appearance has always been a cultural as well as a biological creation. An individual born in another era or in a different society will acquire an entirely different standard of what a 'normal' human being should look like. And there have always been and will always be those -- like so many of the people who kindly agreed to be photographed for this book -- who bravely stretch and push forward the definition of acceptable appearance.
Padaung woman of Burma with neck stretching produced by the gradual insertion of more brass rings It has often been argued that it is language or tool use which sets us apart from other animals. But these apparently firm lines of separation have been blurred by recent discoveries -- the chimpanzees' adroit modification of twigs for extracting termites from their mounds, the previously unappreciated sophistication of other primates' non-verbal communication. What is beyond dispute is the uniqueness of humankind's determination to escape its physical inheritance. The chameleon may change its coloration but unlike us it has no control over this transformation -- it doesn't get up in the morning and ask itself "What colour shall I be today?'
A Surma woman of Ethiopia with lower lip piercing which has been stretched to accommodate large wooden plate This fact of human nature has often been seen as trivial and insignificant -- prompting only a 'So what?' shrug of the shoulders. Yet the persistence and universality of the customized body -- not to mention the sheer expenditure of effort and the acceptance of pain and discomfort for the sake of appearance -- surely points towards some reasons for such behaviour which cannot be so easily dismissed. Why do human beings persistently alter their natural appearance? From the perspective of the (so-called) 'Developed World' the most likely and obvious reason is that such alteration of the body provides an invaluable means of self-expression. We want to stand out from the crowd -- to be different and unique -- and hair-styling, make-up, jewellery and other adornments, our choice of clothing, etc. offer a straight-forward means of accomplishing this. Furthermore, our particular choice of appearance style serves to tell others about our personal values, beliefs and approach to life. That is, our 'presentation of self' (to use the sociologist Erving Goffman's phrase) exploits a complex communication code which, arguably, says more about us than words ever can -- or, at least, unlike words, offers the means to broadcast 'where we're coming from' to people we've not even yet met. In this way our chosen appearance style functions as an advertisement for ourselves -- the first cr4ucial step in our interactions with others.
Body painted mother and child (with distinctively shaved head) of the Tchikrin tribe, Brazil But even today, in the modern world, that which appears to be done in the pursuit of individuality may actually serve to accomplish its opposite -- demonstrating our membership in some social group or 'tribe.' For example, within the arena of streetstyle, a keen sense of communality and group membership is often visually focused upon various dress and appearance styles which (while demonstrating a non-conformity in relationship to the mainstream) proclaim a compliance with the shared values and beliefs of a chosen subculture or style tribe. Such customizing of the body is in one sense a uniquely modern phenomenon -- with international groups like Hippies, Punks or Goths only possible within the context of the 'global village.' Yet at the same time, here is a contemporary revival of the most ancient function of body modification -- the visible realization of tribal identity, appearance as a marker of group membership.
A Dzonokwa dancer wearing a mask with false hair, northwest coast, North America The tribe is humankind's most important invention. An inter-generational system, it allowed our most distant ancestors to pass on and build upon the discoveries made within one lifetime. The tribe also imposes rules and regulations which make communal life efficient, productive and powerful. But 'our tribe' is only a vague mental construct until it is literally embodied in the form of our tribe's distinctive appearance style. If tribe A decrees that the body should be painted with red stripes while the neighbouring tribe B decrees that the body should be painted with blue dots then immediately a clear line has been drawn between 'us' and 'them.' In this way the customized body -- far from being frivolous -- played and continues to play a crucial role in human development. But this isn't all. Because colour, pattern, adornments and so on all tap into and express deeper meanings -- that is, because red/blue, stripes/dots, etc. are a kind of language -- a tribe can use the customized body as a means of expressing complex values, beliefs and ideals. In this the customized body is the medium within which tribal customs are most succinctly and powerfully expressed. This is as true of our contemporary styletribes as it is of the ancient tribes of the Third World. For example, the different appearance styles of Hippies and Punks in the late 1970s or Travellers and Technos today each serve to express and realize the respective values, beliefs and ideals of each of these different subcultures. A Punk dressed as a Hippy, or vice versa, would be 'saying' all the wrong things -- his or her look in complete contradiction to his or her subculture's worldview.
A Punan girl of Borneo with ear piercings stretched by the wearing of heavy brass rings Where our contemporary world differs from that of the traditional tribes and peasant communities of the Third World is in the fact that we have choice -- in selecting which look (and therefore which tribe) we want to opt for. As well as choice and complexity our world is also characterised by rapid change and this too has a profound effect upon the customized body. New fashions come and go with each season and particular styletribes gain or lose popularity. The result is a perpetual motion machine of different, constantly changing ways of altering the appearance of the human form. All of which is in marked contrast with the situation in any traditional society where an appearance style may remain constant and unchanging through dozens of generations.
Rajasthani girl, India, with nose piercing and three tattoo dots on chin (a protection against evil) Yet it is also true that a growing number of people in contemporary society are shifting away from fashion's capricious imperative of constant change -- choosing instead to stick to a chosen appearance style year in and year out. In its most typical, mainstream form this is seen in a new appreciation of 'timeless classics' -- an Armani suit, a 'Perfecto' style black leather jacket, a pair of Levi 501s which look right whatever year it is and whatever Vogue may say is 'in' or 'out.' More radically, permanent alterations of the body first seen amongst traditional peoples -- tattooing or piercing, for example -- are employed to render the customized body a truly timeless creation. Responding to a world where everything is in flux the permanently customized body offers stability, continuity and (when desired) an enduring demonstration of tribal commitment.
Finger jewellery of a Ramakien dancer, Thailand Complexity, confusion, diversity, fragmentation and alienation increasingly characterise our post-modern world. When 'there is no such thing as society' (Margaret Thatcher) neither is there such a thing as one appearance style which defines normality and which is accepted as beautiful or desirable by one and all. Radically different, often extreme, apparently bizarre versions of the body compete for our attention. Reflecting on a half million years of our ancestors' experience in customizing the human form, fine-tuning our extraordinary abilities in using the body as a medium of expression, these experiments in the possibilities of appearance propose alternative visions of life in the next millennium.
Mangbetu mother and baby with cranial shaping to point, Central Africa Having left behind the dictatorship of fashion, able to choose between dozens of different styletribes -- or, increasingly, to simply go it alone as unique, extraordinary individuals -- we stand at an unprecedented point in human history. Never before have we had such choice and possibility in how to look/be. Never before has the customized body been so unfettered in its potential metamorphosis. This book attempts to trace the history of how we got to this point and to offer an index of possibilities for the future. For however extensive, various and innovative today's techniques and styles, the history of the customized body is far from complete. All that we can be certain of for the future is that -- as in the past -- human beings will go on finding ever more ingenious ways of transforming their flesh into art.
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