The cranial deformations of Paracas they are well known due to the study of the skulls found in the necropoliswhich are one of the Main sources of archaeological information About this ancient civilization. The practice of deforming the skull is well known all over the world And at all the cultures of all continents: in Europe it was practiced by some Germanic tribes, in Asia by the nomadic peoples of the central part of the continent, but also by many other cultures in Africa, Oceania and the Americas. Culture Paracasconsidering the progenitor of that of Nazcaknown for the famous petrolfi In the Peruvian desert, he flourished on the peaceful coast of the current Peru during the The Millennium BCis considered one of the most important Andean civilizations before the affirmation of the Empire of Inchwhich took place from the XII century. This ancient pre -Columbian culture is rather known due to the incredible quality of its Textile productsup to us in perfect condition thanks to the dry climate of the Peruvian coast, but also for the cranial deformations who practiced on themselves. The elongated shape of their skulls made them protagonists of a “conspiracy theory” that supported their alien origin or belonging to a new human species. Scientific evidence has never been presented to support these theories, nor any academic or scientific institution has ever supported these statements, making it a clear and clearing buffalo.
How the cranial deformation in culture happened Paracas
Cranic deformation, in practice, was a process that He had to start necessarily from the first days of a child’s lifeand that should continue for Much of childhood. A few days after birth, the newborn head came wrapped or subjected to some Bland pressure With other methods, such as details or wooden boards fixed to the forehead. In this way, imprinting the right pressure (never painful, but constant) on the child’s skull, the cranial bonesrather malleable In the first years of life, they would be consolidate following the desired “form”. To date There is no correlation between this practice and any disorders.
Because the paracas performed the cranial deformation
The cranial deformation was performed for different reasons depending on the culture of those who practiced it. At the Paracas it was most likely a practice that served a express your gender identitygiven that no correlations have been demonstrated between the equipment (and therefore the richness of the deceased) and the shape of the skull, and was practiced by almost all of the populationwith a precise form for women and another for men. Recently, some researchers have proposed a theory that reviews the traditional gender distribution. The forms of the cracks of the Paracas are twoand are distinguished by archaeologists as Tabular Erat (with the High and flat front) And bilobate (with the back of the skull bilobata): traditionally the first form has always been attributed to male individualswhile the second a those of female. In 2022 a Peruvian-Colombian-Brazilian-Austrian research group highlighted how, although the trend in the gender distribution is largely respected, Some deformed skulls according to the “male” model belonged to female individuals and vice versa.
The researchers proposed that for the Paracas The concept of gender was not binarybut but quaternarya particular feature Note in different Andine culturesparticularly from the Inca tradition. According to advocates of this theory, the world view of the Paracas restarts individuals in Men, women, female men, and masculine womenwith genre roles well characterized in society. This would explain the presence of “male” deformations on female individuals and vice versa at the ancient Paracas communities.
