Everyone has their own idea of what is beautiful. To us beauty can mean many different things. The magazines define it as tall, slim women and muscle men. We have also been told that beauty is only skin deep, that you shouldn’t just judge people by their physical appearance, but to the Maya people a certain appearance was a thing of great pride. The Maya went to great extremes to achieve this ideal of beauty too!
We now think that is such an effort to be considered beautiful; women buy makeup, creams, colour their hair, buy the latest fashionable clothes, shoes and bags, men go to the gym, some use creams, and keep up with the clothing fashions. It can be hard work, but imagine living in a time where making yourself beautiful started the moment you were born, imagine if your body was altered to make you more beautiful without your consent.
The Maya were a smaller race of people with dark skin, dark eyes and straight black hair, but to them what was considered physically beautiful was not the way they were born, but a long sloping forehead and slightly crossed-eyes.
It didn’t matter what social class you were were in – the Priests and warriors, merchants and artisans, loaders, bricklayers, woodcutters, peasants, and slaves alike all desired this type of beauty.
The Mayas prized a long sloping forehead. It is thought that this is because it resembled an ear of corn – not only the staple of their diets, but they believed that it was from the corn that all humans were created. The corn god himself (Yum Kaax) was depicted with an elongated head with a husk attached to it.
To achieve the sleek straight elegant look that the Maya admired, it had to start when their babies were born. Really you had no say in the look at all.
The Maya would bind the newborn infant’s head between two boards for several days. The infant was tied on a board and then another board was attached at an angle. This then gradually increased the pressure on the baby’s head creating a deeply sloped forehead. It was common for a child to die from this process, but as the sloped head was considered extremely attractive, the parents ignored the risk and deformation continued. Whilst it was an extremely dangerous practice, it has been found that it had no effect on the intelligence of the child, as the brain has a great deal of plasticity in infancy and was able to accommodate itself to the new shape.
The Mayas also held slightly crossed-eyes in high esteem. Apart from changing the actual shape of their children’s heads, the Maya parents also attempted to induce this condition.
They would do this by hanging a piece of thread between the infant’s eyes with a stone or ball of resin attached that caused their eyes to focus on it, eventually causing the eyes to rotate inwards.