body modification? non-western topic

one thing that did come up during the class critique was body modification and so i thought how to connect it to the research topic of this phase which is non-western, i looked up different areas of body modification and found one that takes place in new zealand, and i'm sure now in other areas. But the "artist" Steve Haworth was looking for a way to give a client a permanent "bracelet," The first human canvas for this art form was a woman from New Zealand who came in and asked for a bracelet. Haworth pondered the challenge, then suggested that he could place series of beads under the skin around her wrist. She enthusiastically agreed.
In years that followed, subdermal implants became popular in the community of extreme body modification. The process creates a raised area on the skin in a shape of the artist's choosing. The effect is dramatic: Implants can be most any form you can think of, from Star Trek ridges and small horns, to little stars and hearts sprayed across the chest. Many people with body modifications have combined their implants with tattoos to create often beautiful or terrible effects. this article is located at: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2006/03/70322?currentPage=all

this form of body modification, while interesting is not what i had in mind for body modification, what other cultures come to mind when thinking about this? of course there is foot binding, neck lengthening, etc. these are also interesting, but how does this connect to what i am doing, it can possibly be lightly connected through the process of modifying how you hold soemthing, how it sits on your body, does it change your posture, etc.





other non-western cultures involved in body modification is for the divine passage or sacrifice to the gods, where in the hindu culture celebrates Thaipusam by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting. On the day of the festival, devotees will shave their heads undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of kavadi (burdens). At its simplest this may entail carrying a pot of milk, but mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers is also common. The most spectacular practice is the vel kavadi, essentially a portable altar up to two meters tall, decorated with peacock feathers and attached to the devotee through 108 vels pierced into the skin on the chest and back. Fire walking and flagellation may also be practiced. It is claimed that devotees are able to enter a trance, feel no pain, do not bleed from their wounds and have no scars left behind. However, some of the more extreme masochistic practices have been criticized as dangerous and contrary to the spirit and intention of Hinduism. http://glennh.tripod.com/wa_sing_tpsm.htm


some may wonder what constitiutes as body modification, and the extremes of them are in australia there is a conference for body modification, the topics included are:

non-mainstream: body modification (tattooing, piercing, scarification, branding, etc)
body sculpting (corsetry, dieting, body-building, binding, constriction, negation, elongation, etc)
body politics
transformative rituals
body modification in non-Western cultures and/or in other historical epochs
transgender and/or transsexualism; intersex
cosmetic surgery
fatness; anorexia; eating
technology and the body (cyborgs, nanotechnology, reproductive technologies, transplants, implants, cloning, ethics, etc)
virtual bodies
self-mutilation
fashion
illness; pain
sadomasochism; fetishes; bodies and pleasures
pregnant embodiment
the racialization of the body; hybrid bodies
monstrosity; the normalization of deformed bodies
ageing
addiction
reading/writing the body
intercorporeality

these topics make you realize that there is more to body modification than tattooing, binding, and is more expansive to be a state of mind rather than being just a state of the body and how you can personnally change and manipulate it, proving that the mind can be as powerful as the actual physical doing of manipulation.

In the Flesh the Cultural Politics of Body Modification
By Victoria Pitts-Taylor
is a book that focuses on the many layers of body modification and where it lies in different cultures, minds, etc. It also speaks about the transfiguration/transition of the body and the endless need for transformation of the self. I would be interested in borrowing/buying the book to furthur read into it.