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The women that wear brass neck coils are called Kayan Lahwi. These rings, as shown on the left, are often worn beginning at the age of 6. Each coil, as the child gets older, is replaced with a longer coil. These coils then get heavier and therefore push the collar bones down and compress the rib cage. Their neck does not actually get longer, it just appears that way. If you ask these women why they do it, they will say that it is a culture trait that makes you seem more beautiful. Although, anthropologists have many theories as to why they may have started this tradition. Maybe these rings helped make them look less attractive to other tribes and then therefore protect them from slavery. They also may have been used to protect tiger bites, or to symbolize the important figure a dragon. These rings are removable, but often done so other then for cleaning or putting more neck coils on. This is because their neck is usually very weak or bruised from wearing the neck coils.
I love this topic! I can't wait to see what choose to write about in the future. It would be nice to see some links to your sources?
ReplyDeleteI agree, this is a very interesting topic to blog about. Much of the world is very unknown to Americans and this will allow us to get more educated about different cultures. The idea of wearing rings around my neck seems very strange, but to the people of Burma its a normal thing to see.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very unique culture. I wonder what their true logic is behind the coils and why they make their necks look longer, but they're really not. To us, this may look weird since we aren't ever exposed to anything of this sort, but to them, this is normal.
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