Cranial Deformation, an interesting tradition

This practice is, just like tatoos and piercings, a way of making oneself look different than others.

Historically, this practice has been around since the beginning of time and has happend all over the world within all kinds of different cultures. However, in South America the neonatal cranial deformation was mostly popular in the Andes region, and widely practiced by the ancient Peruvian people, dating back to 6,000-7,000 years BC. There were three different methods used in order to modify the shape of the newborn skull. One method was to compress the head (front and back) by putting it in boards, or pads, which were fastened with bandages. Another way of doing it was to tightly wrap the head with a binding. The third method introduces a cradle-board.

What was the reason for this practice though? The reasons varied from culture to culture but mostly, just like tattoos and piercings nowadays, the practice was used to make someone look different than the rest of society or to distinguish between groups in society (e.g. slaves, classes, castes, nobility, ruling classes, etc.). In certain regions it was used to show the social status of a person, meaning the higher classes had a different head shape than the lower classes in society. In some cultures, this practice was only performed on men, in other cultures it was only performed on women. However, scientific evidence has shown that this practice has no effect on the brain functions in general. Interesting is that the practice of deforming skulls is a lot older than piercings and tattoos, and it is still performed in some cultures up to this day.

I could not exactly find out where this practice has its origin though. Some say it is a religious practice, other articles I have found even argued that the practice came about after aliens visited these cultures and the people wanted to look like them .