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They are the real life coneheads In 2004 on a remote island in the South Pacific exclusive footage was shot of headbinding or skull elongation which the Lonely Planet said had long since died out On what became an impromptu largely unplanned adventurefilled expedition the filmmakers found that not only were these longfala hed Small Nambas tribe members alive and well but contrary to Lonely Planets assertion they were binding the heads of newborn babies in timehonoured fashion Led by their progressive chief they had moved out of the dense jungle to the shoreline just weeks earlier In this clip longfala heds listen to an island string band
Where big heels are beaten by a long head
By Sunanda Creagh Sydney Morning Herald
Posted Wednesday October 27 2004
Concepts of beauty are relative
If you want to pay a Vanuatuan a compliment call them a Longfala Hed The pidgin English term for intelligent has its roots in an incredible form of body modification head elongationAnd according to Kirk Huffman an expert in head elongation those who practise it wonder why others do not
From the point of view of the cultures that practised head elongation its best to describe it as head beautification says Huffman a research associate at the Australian Museum
Huffman an anthropologist has studied the practice for more than 20 years on Malakula Vanuatus second largest island which boasts a proud tradition of binding babies skulls to produce a coneshaped head
Some cultures are into pyramids these cultures are into cones says Huffman
The process is simple but laborious About a month after birth the babys head is smeared with oil to soften the skin A soft bandage made from the inner bark of a banana tree is then wound tightly round the head and covered by a woven basket To keep the cap in place the head is bound again with fibre The process is repeated daily until the child can walk producing a conical head
The technique was carried out on both men and women and can still be found in parts of Vanuatu It was considered aesthetically desirable but Huffman says Vanuatuan head elongation also has cultural significance
In southern Malakula many cultures have a belief in a spiritual hero called Ambat who had a very long head Theres also a belief that head beautification increases your memory he says
Huffman says head binding does not mean squashed brains If its done properly there are no side effects he says
Head elongation has been practised in many places One South American culture specialised in bilobal modification tying a string around the head so that it would grow into two bulbs
Theres an Indian tribe in Columbia who are nicknamed plateheads because up until 1947 they were binding the skull in a way that flattens but makes it round says Huffman
Europe has also embraced head modification One 17th century French text recommended midwives bind the skulls of babies to increase memory storage space
Huffman says it continued into the 19th century in parts of France Germany and Eastern Europe The last known instance was recorded by a doctor in a French mountain village in 1925
For Huffman head binding has to be put into a cultural context
Its considered beautiful and why not Humans throughout the world have done all sorts of things to their bodies Look at white women today they wear high heels and get Botox
I remember sitting in the capital of Vanuatu looking through a modern fashion magazine People from the outer islands who had come in with me picked up one of the magazines and said I feel sorry for them I said Why and he said Look theyre all starving They are not being fed enough
I just laughed and said They think thats beautiful
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Added: 25th November 2008
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