Wooden statue of a woman breast-feeding a child, North America
- Made:
- 1850-1950 in North America
This image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
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LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseWooden statue of a female breast-feeding a child
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Wooden statue of a female breast-feeding a child
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Wooden statue of a female breast-feeding a child
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Wooden statue of a female breast-feeding a child, mothers head shows anterio-posterior flattening, North American, north-west coast
This carved wooden statue shows a squatting North American Indian woman breast-feeding her child. Her distinct head shape is due to the practice of head flattening. It is also called ‘anterior posterior flattening’. This is the deliberate deforming of the head to increase skull height. Artificially changing the shape of the skull was practiced by several North, Central and South American Indian tribes. It was a process begun in infancy and achieved by either binding the head or strapping the child to a cradleboard. The skull became elongated over time by the gentle and consistent pressure.
Details
- Category:
- Ethnography and Folk Medicine
- Collection:
- Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
- Object Number:
- A158673
- Materials:
- wood
- Measurements:
-
overall: 260 mm x 125 mm x 103 mm, .7 kg
- type:
- statue
- credit:
- Glendining
