Body Decoration as a Cultural Element
We’ve all heard stories about bad tattoos. The lower back tramp stamp of some tribal design a rebellious teen got when she was certain it would make her life complete. The drunken night in Vegas where a guy sobers up and realizes he has a strippers name on his backside. Or maybe, your friend who hennaed a peace sign on her foot because, obviously, she is a hippie who loves peace. A lot. When done properly, however, tattoos and other forms of body art can be very effective in showing who a person is and what they want to portray to the rest of the world. It is a public but also very personal way in which a person can use art to communicate. Different forms of body decoration have been used for centuries to give deeper meaning, connect individuals, and illustrate personal distinction.
Achieving deeper meanings can be obtained through body decoration in a variety of ways; such as demonstrating ones spiritual connections and personal connections with loved ones. Spiritual connections can be seen in tribal rituals through the use of body painting or self-mutilation when recreating the power of their ancestors. According to William J. Peace, author of Body Art: Exhibit Review Essays, “ body art is an integral part of the spiritual life and ritualistic practices of all people. Regardless of the form it takes, body art is a way of marking one’s affiliation with a host of ancestors…” (Peace 591). The people that perform these ritualistic practices showing their connection with their ancestors and the dreamtime that Peace is referring to are the Australian Aborigines. The men and women of these tribes paint different pictographic designs onto other members specific to the message the design is trying to portray. Ragnar Johnson, author of The Anthropological Study of Body Decoration as Art explained that, “The designs contain ancestral power (marr), which creates growth and life and can be used to recreate ancestral events when combined with the appropriate songs and dances” (Johnson 422). This explanation is best shown through the Guruwari designs that are painted by men onto the dancers, sacred artifacts, and ceremonial grounds during the most sacred Walbiri ceremony. During this ceremony the ancestors are represented to immortalize the processes of reproduction and food production and in order for these Guruwari ancestral rituals to be effective, the appropriate songs must be sung and performed. We see the same kind of affiliation to ancestors and loved ones today in the modern American society through tattoos. Author of Tattooing and Death: An American Folk Custom, Ken Cohort says, “Tattoo motifs are, like other forms of memorials and remembrances, the ritualized expression of emotions commonly associated with issues surrounding death” (Cohort 19). Tattoos are also seen as “a sign of one’s affiliation with a loved one or country to one of deep spiritual meaning” (Frances 701). Like the Aborigines, many people pay their respects and dedicate their tattoos to remembering loved ones; the contrast: tattoo body decoration is permanent where as the Walbiri body painting is temporary. One of the most interesting attributes of these body aesthetics is that they have the ability to connect individuals to their communities.
Body decoration can be a link between an individual and their place in the community. It can also be a demonstration of crosses between different worldly barriers such as social, cultural, and economic barriers. Maria Abeyami Ortega Dominquez explains that, “the body can be conceived of as a text in which values and ideologies are revealed in their historical, economic, and social context” (Dominquez 191). For the Aborigines, the body as a canvas to paint pictorial images for rituals is a strong example as to how values and ideologies are revealed through not only their historical elements, but the social elements as well. Dominquez goes on to show how the body is the same type of canvas for tattoos. “Once tattooed, [the body] becomes an inscribed territory in which a dialectic clash occurs, confronting the private and the public, the real and the imaginary, the mythological time of individuals and their quotidian performance in society” (Dominquez 191). Polynesian Aboriginal tattoos are meant to connect social and sacred elements through the permanent designs on the body that represent an individual whose status would be complementary to the design received. Jeremy Coote elaborates on the importance of the appreciation in the visual decorations when he says, “…elements of visual appreciation in a given culture is an end in itself, contributing to an understanding of what it is to be a member of that culture” (Coote 263). Connections and understandings like these help to show how the individual is linked to their society through the appreciation of the cultural elements within those designs. In the New Guinea Highlands, Johnson found that, “individuals dress up as members of a group to display collective qualities” (Johnson 421). The term “dress up” can be interpreted as body art, attire worn to decorate the body, or accessories worn to add decoration but stand for the same concept that Dominquez explained in her article. Decorations like these are used to make statements about the clan’s unity, prestige, and individual well being and attitude.
Individuality and expression are an enormous part of how human beings set their selves apart from each other and allow them to convey who they are not only to the world, but also to themselves. By using body decoration, people can find their own personal distinctions emotionally, metaphorically, and even ironically. Raymond Firth, author of Art and Anthropology, states that, “modern anthropology of art has been concerned not only with explicit but also with implicit meanings - relationships which the people themselves do not, possibly cannot, formulate in words, but which arc of prime importance for an understanding of the origin and maintenance of their art” (Firth 25). Firth’s words speak boldly of the artistic value that body decoration around the globe holds but to each individual there is a message that within the design itself cannot be understood by just the formulation of words. Dominquez makes the point that, “The body has become one of the last feasible spheres for making a forceful statement about individuality and affiliation” (Dominquez 191). Through the use of art and decorations upon the skin, a message can be conveyed about the person and their individual traits, and also how they affiliate themselves within a subculture. With so many different types of decoration, it’s reasonable to ask why these distinct characteristics help individuals define themselves. “In many cultures, body art is a mark of distinction that signifies the transition from one phase of life to another” (Peace 591) which is another compelling reason as to why people use body art to define their individuality. For a teen, it could be the irresistible urge to be rebellious and get a tattoo guaranteed to be a regret 10 years later. Or for an Aboriginal tribal member, it could be the body paintings used to initiate themselves into the tribe. Regardless of the intricate details, body decoration across the globe helps determine who a person is, and where they belong.
After exploring different anthropologist’s studies on body decoration in a cultural setting, it is safe to say that this style of aesthetic is not a simple one to define. Many different forms of body decoration have been used throughout the centuries to give deeper meanings, connect individuals, and illustrate personal distinctions. We use these distinctions, connections, and deep meanings to define our culture and to determine the world in which we believe we belong to.
Peace, W. J. (2000), Body Art. American Anthropologist, 102: 589–593. doi: 10.1525/aa.2000.102.3.589
Mascia-Lees, F. E. (2001), Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community. American Ethnologist, 28: 700–701. doi: 10.1525/ae.2001.28.3.700
Johnson, Ragnar. "The Anthropological Study Of Body Decoration As Art: Collective Representations And The Somatization Of Affect." Fashion Theory: The Journal Of Dress, Body & Culture 5.4 (2001): 417-434. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 24 Apr. 2013.
DOMINGUEZ, M. A. O. (2005), Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community. Visual Anthropology Review, 21: 191–192. doi: 10.1525/var.2005.21.1-2.191
Cohort, K. (1997), Tattooing and Death: An American Folk Custom. Teaching Anthropology: Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges Notes, 4: 18–23. doi: 10.1525/tea.1997.4.2.18
Firth, Raymond. "Art and Anthropology." Art and Anthropology. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 15-39. Print.
Coote, Jeremy. "Marvels of Everyday Vision": The Anthropology of Aesthetics and the Cattle-keeping Nilotes. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 245-73. Print.
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