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 There are two main examples of peoples who perform ‘neck stretching’ body modification known: The women of the Kayan and Padaung tribes in Thailand; the females of Ndebele of South Africa. Both are beautifully complete examples of an ancient, tribal form of bodily modification that has generated dissent, controversy and vigourous debate
about human rights as the first world ethos of modernity marches and spreads itself onwards and outwards. There are those who would argue we are being clumsy to march in and brand the Kayan culture as a damaging one, and those who are alarmed at the huge distortion to the natural physical form that the tribes’ women undergo. For those who are unsure as to what exactly this modification involves, a simple explanation: At a young age, girls will start to wear a single coil of heavy brass rings about their neck. These rings are added with extra coils over weeks, months and years (traditions varying from tribe to tribe), and this has the effect of twisting and pushing down the collarbones and ribs to produce the impression of a long neck.
Kayan tribes will often put rings on a girl as young as two; sometimes girls are started from age twelve. It’s much less painful when the modification can be made across years and years, so obviously the younger starting age, the easier the stretch. Full stretches could be between ten and fifteen inches long.
Original explanation traces back to the aesthetic ideals of their culture: a long neck is graceful and beautiful; a body ornamented with shining metal and jewellery is even better, a sign of wealth and beauty combined. Amongst the Ndebele, neck coils signify a married girl. Theories from western anthropologists suggested that neck rings were worn to render the female population of a specific tribe unattractive to all but their own men – though this seems, retrospectively, rather subjective and unlikely.
The outrage and negative attention that they have received arrived in recent years for more than one reason. One is a partial myth and partial truth; it spread that a full grown woman who betrayed or offended her tribe would be punished with removal of her rings, something that could result in her choking to death thanks to her own crippled, atrophied respiratory musculature.
The reality of this is that ‘long neck’ women do not choke or die upon the removal of their brass rings, and will in fact swap their coils for new sets and readjust their modification jewellery without fatal consequences: those who have their necks stretched will always put this rumour down with vigour. Permanent removal of the coils even from wearers of up to forty years results in roughly three days of discomfort and then a normal health.
It is true, however, that it’s rare a woman will take her coils off, and never in public. What is hidden beneath the golden gleam of the brass is bruising, discolouration and warped bone, not a pretty sight.
One can easily compare the phenomenon with foot binding practice in China, something still not quite extinct a century ago: impossibly small, delicate, silk shoes hid feet that were crippled, cramped and broken back into themselves in order to be perfectly tiny.
Where the real controversy and issues presently come from is the fact that there’s now split opinion upon the continuation of the practice. In 2006, some members of the Thailand tribes who practiced neck stretching removed their rings as a statement against exploitation and the existence of their culture as a ‘freak show’ for western tourism. Some also did it in order to go on into higher education and live anonymously. In the wake of the women who made this choice, most other women have since stopped practicing it and modifying young girls.
Those few tribe members who continued to practice, had to stand in the face of a blast of opinion: they were being exploited, they were exploiting themselves, they were exploiting tourists and destroying themselves in the process. Even the Burmese government actively discouraged the tradition in face of the backlash. Again, this reaction has partial truths, and a lot of complexities: it is true that as recently as 2008 there were villages in Thailand that take fees from tourists to enter and encounter stretched-neck women in their own surroundings. Opinion is impossible to root through fully, but the consensus is that not all of these places are voluntary, and some of the women there are virtual prisoners present against their will. Some women have openly spoken about it to the western press, describing pathetic ‘wages’ that were docked if you complained, and gawking sightseers.
Such ‘living wonders’ are completely antithetical to the western ideals of humane equality and acceptance, and are consequently drawn up as victims and sufferers in the western media. We advise gently stepping back, and considering the fuller picture; the fact that for centuries it was a vital mark of a cultural identity, the need to recognize where autonomy and independent decision is involved, and where it is not. One final question… What do you all think? CREDITS: Article - Rachel Kennedy Photos - Elliot Margolies, Agustin Campilleio and Adam Howarth of Flickr   
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