Cranial Modification

This #NationalWomensMonth2022, the #NationalMuseumPH explores the concept of beauty and aesthetics among the different groups in the Philippines. For our #MuseumFromHome series this week, we look at the pre-colonial practice of intentional cranial modification. 

In one of the earliest documentations of skull molding in the Philippines, Jesuit priest Fr. Diego Bobadilla recorded in 1640 the practice among Visayan locals of binding and compressing the heads of newly born infants between two flat boards. The broad faces and receding and flattened foreheads, which resulted from the cranial modification, produced a head shape that the Visayans considered beautiful and ideal. Variations of the modification depended on the pressure applied and the placement of the rod on the frontal and occipital bones. Some had both flattened foreheads and backs while others only had flattened foreheads. In some cases, the resulting form was asymmetrical due to uneven pressure.

Historian and anthropologist William Henry Scott, on the other hand, recorded the Visayan’s use of a device called tangad, a comb-like thin rod which was bound to the forehead of the infant and secured by bandages wrapped around and fastened behind the head. The pressure from the rod hindered frontal skull development but instead, forced it backward, causing the head to grow higher at the rear. 

In the Vocabulario de la Lengua Visaya,the 1711 lexicon compiled by Jesuit priest Fr. Mateo Sanchez, the term tinangad was used by the Visayans to refer to those who had achieved the desired head shapeor puyak, referring to the flatness of the back. In contrast, the unmolded skulls were referred to as ondo, or “having the appearance of a hunchback’s hump.” 

Sites in central and southern Philippines, such as Romblon, Marinduque, Masbate, Albay, Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Surigao, Butuan, and Davao have provided evidence that supports the existence of the practice of cranial modification among the early Filipino communities. The number of grave goods found in these sites, such as gold ornaments, gold-pegged teeth, jewelry, and Asian trade wares, suggests that skull molding was a practice among the elites. Thus, it may have also served as a symbol of status, and not merely of beauty, particularly in areas from where the modified crania were recovered. 

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Text and poster by the NMP Ethnology Division and illustrations by J.C. Bruma.

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