Ming Dynasty Skeletons Reveal Secrets of Foot-Binding

[Judi Lynn]

By Megan Gannon, Live Science Contributor | February 25, 2019 06:56am ET

- click for image -

https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzEwNC80NjMvb3JpZ2luYWwvY2hpbmEtZm9vdC1iaW5kaW5nLU5PLVJFVVNFLmpwZw==

A high caste lady's feet were bound to form the " lotus shape, " in China around 1900.
Credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images


Foot-binding was practiced for about 1,000 years in China. The memory of this practice is preserved in historical documents, shoes found in graves of the elite and the testimonies of a dwindling number of women with bound feet who survive today.

But only in recent years have archaeologists looked at skeletons with bound feet to learn more about the women who experienced this extreme form of body modification.

Elizabeth Berger, a postdoctoral fellow in Chinese studies at the University of Michigan, had been working on an archaeological excavation at the site of Yangguanzhai near Xi'an in China's Shaanxi Province. The archaeological team, led by Liping Yang of the Shaanxi Archaeological Academy, was primarily interested in a Neolithic village buried there; they unexpectedly found an overlaying cemetery from a much later era, the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and they salvaged the graves. [Gallery: Ancient Chinese Warriors Protect Secret Tomb]

"I was looking at the bones and I noticed that there was something very strange about the feet," Berger told Live Science. "My first thought was that it might be foot-binding, and I started to look into it and found that at that point there hadn't been many publications on what the bones of foot-bound feet actually look like, although there was a lot of research on the history of it."

More:
https://www.livescience.com/64849-foot-bound-skeletons-china.html

Felt it important to go look for images of bound feet in google images. I won't post any of them but you can look through what is available. I never would have guessed this could have happened to a lot of feet:

http://tinyurl.com/y5zn4y4a


From Wikipedia:



Small bound feet were once considered beautiful while large unbound feet
were judged crude



A lotus shoe for bound feet. The ideal length for a bound foot was 3 Chinese inches ( 寸 ) , which is around 4 inches (10 cm) in western measurement.

Foot binding was the custom of applying tight binding to the feet of young girls to modify the shape and size of their feet. It was practiced in China from the Tang dynasty until the early 20th century, and bound feet were considered a status symbol as well as a mark of beauty. Foot binding was a painful practice and significantly limited the mobility of women, resulting in lifelong disabilities for most of its subjects. Feet altered by binding were called lotus feet.

The practice possibly originated among upper class court dancers during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in 10th century China, then became popular among the elite during the Tang dynasty, eventually spreading to all social classes by the Qing dynasty. Foot binding was practised in different forms, and the more severe form of binding may have been developed in the 16th century. It has been estimated that by the 19th century, 40–50% of all Chinese women may have had bound feet, and up to almost 100% among upper-class Chinese women.[1] The prevalence and practice of foot binding however varied in different parts of the country.

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding

On edit:

Is this the forerunner (or "fore-limper" ) of high heels? Actually going through contortions to look unlike yourself?