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306. Cranial Deformation in Ancient Egypt?Author(s): Cyril AldredSource: Man, Vol. 53 (Dec., 1953), pp. 194-195Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2793699 .Accessed: 19/04/2011 10:32

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Nos. 303-306 Man DECEMBER1, 953

Islam. (Pagans, one is rather startled to see, are entered under 'Noreligion.')

It is a pity that the North Borneo census did not further followthe Sarawak one by including a chapter discussing the ethnic classi-fication used. The Sarawak census report also included an illuminat-ing appendix by Harrisson, the Government Ethnologist. It is truethat these are also lacking in earlier North Borneo censuses, but suchdiscussions in this would have enabled one to make more of the

figures. This is not merely to instruct anthropologists. Thesecensus reports, failing professional ethnographic studies, are thechief records of the present condition of the people, and materialfor the future writers of the history of the country. More importantfor census organizers is the fact that shaky ethnography leads tountrustworthy or unusable statistical conclusions. Tables 2 and 3,for example, indicate what would be very profitable points ofethnographic investigation. There seems little getting away from theconclusion that the Murut are decreasing, but when one sees thatthe stable and prosperous Dusun have increased since I93I by only6-68 per cent. and that the Other Indigenous have increased by70-45 per cent. one wonders how much the variations are due tothe ethnic classifications used by the two censuses. The 'OrangSungei' (a problem here) have increased by 95-70 per cent. TheKwijau, who are supposed to have increased by 205 25 per cent. in

the period I92I-3I, have decreased by 78-45 per cent. in I93I-5I-No reliable verdict on the Murut can be reached without a separateexamination of the Kwijau; but the Kwijau in their turn must beexamined in relation to the Dusun, and the Dusun in relation to theOrang Sungei. The Superintendent of Census seems to have beenaware of such problems to some extent (e.g. p. 47), and because ofthis one would have been interested to learn more about his princi-ples of classification. Tribes for which there are figures in previous

censuses might well have been separately enumerated: e.g. theTambunwa and the Idahan were included with the Dusun, buttribes that in I93 i numbered 5,ooo and 3,000 should not be sub-merged without strong reason.

Some specific suggestions: when the time comes to plan the nextcensus it would be useful to engage the services of a professionalanthropologist (in a university long vacation, perhaps) to help planthe ethnic classification on which to base the census statistics; thereport should include a discussion of this by the anthropologist;and-what no census report should be without, and this one is-there should be an ethnic map illustrating the groups distinguished.

Mr. Jones has written a clear and instructive report, and the tablesare well arranged and clearly printed. Our knowledge of the peoplesof North Borneo has been considerably increased.

RODNEY NEEDHAM

CORRESP ONDENCEWebs of Fantasy. Cf. MAN, I953, I52, 229, 28I

SIR,-Dr. Mair invites me to justify my application of3 the term 'fantasy' to the theories of social anthropo-

logists. I have read many recent works on social anthro-pology, both British and American, and have been led to concludethat in general the writers

describe savages as 'primitive,' which seems to mean that theywere isolated from the beginning to the coming of the Euro-pean;believe that savage tribes developed the whole of their culturesfor themselves, even if they speak a dialect of a widespreadlanguage;believe that savages are inventive, yet never look for the inven-tive savage;believe that savages devise their own rites, yet never indicateany that are not traditional;believe that all customs arose to meet needs, though some, suchas those which forbid the eating of wholesome foods, obviouslydid not;describe savages as 'preliterate,' which seems to mean that theyhave not yet invented an alphabet;hold that similarities in belief are due to the similar working ofthe human mind, while ignoring the converse, that dissimilarbeliefs must then be due to the dissimilar working of thehuman mind;ignore the evidence for degeneration in savage cultures;ignore the fact, well attested by history, that cultural advanceis a rare and complex phenomenon;ignore the evidence for diffusion even when it is indisputable,such as that domesticated cattle were introduced into NegroAfrica;believe that all savage institutions are of non-historical origin,and were developed to fulfil the functions which they nowfulfil, though all the institutions of civilized societies are ofhistorical origin, and have mostly changed their function.

Some of the above seem to me fantastic in themselves, and theothers to lead to fantastic conclusions.Usk, Monmouthshire RAGLAN

The Game of 'Kubuguza' among the Abatutsi. Cf. MAN,I953, 262

30 5 SIR,-Mr. Merriam's paper is an important con-tribution to our knowledge of the group of mancala IV

games, in which captured beans are not removed from the board,

but are added to the capturer's beans and sown on his side of theboard. It supplements an account of an Urundi variety whichR. de Z. (now Sir Robert) Hall made about 20 years ago whenfirst stationed in Tanganyika. Collation of different descriptions ofmancala IV games is laborious, because no two recorders of thesegames use the same terms of notation. When dealing with mancalain my History of Board Games other than Chess, Oxford, I952, I hadto devise a common list of terms and system of lnotation whichwould serve for all mancala games and which I hope will be used byfuture recorders: hole for the compartments in which the beans areplaced store for the compartments in which captured beans arekept; bean for the pieces; lap for each element of what Mr. Merriamcalls 'cumulative moves'; lift for the pick-ups of beans from a hole;sow for the deal of the lifted beans one at a time in successive holes;all of which have been used in the same way by previous recorders.Beginning from each player's end left-hand hole, and proceedinganti-clockwise, I use italic letters, upper case one player and lowercase for the other-on the 4 x 8 board, A-P, a-p-to denote theholes.

A necessary preliminary to a game is to ascertain that both playershave the right number of beans, and this is done not by countingthem but by arranging them equally in the holes of the board;Abatutsi do this as in Mr. Merriam's fig. i. Each player thenrearranges his beans, generally simultaneously, to obtain the arrayfrom which he desires to begin the game. In forming this arrange-ment he does not necessarily observe the rules of move, nor is itnecessary that the two players arrange their beans in the same way.Mr. Merriam does not give any example of this rearrangement,unless that shown in fig. 5 is one, but Sir Robert Hall gives thefollowing:

0 0 3 0 3 0 3 0

00 0 0 0 0

0 I7

The full description of this children's exercise is very welcome forcomparison with similar exercises, which are played on the mancalaII board. H. J. R. MURRAYHeyshott, Midhurst, Sussex

Cranial Deformation in Ancient Egypt? Cf. MAN, I953, 242SIR,-Some demur is necessary at Mr. Siroto's bland

30 6 acceptance in his review of The Webster Plass Collectionof African Art that artificial cranial deformation existed in

Ancient Egypt if only as a transitory and limited fashion during theXVIIIth Dynasty. Presumably he refers to the royal family during

'94

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D)ECEMBER, 1953 Man Nos. 306, 307

the reign of Akhenaten, when heads are usually represented withsuch distortion that some theorists have been led to advance the sug-gestion, among many others, that artificial deformation must havebeen practised. For such general deformation in Ancient Egypt thereis absolutely no evidence despite the countless human skeletons thathave been exhumed and examined. The alleged fashion in Courtcircles during the Amarna period can be adequately explained as anartistic convention-the expression of a truly revolutionary art thatfor various reasons

consciously attempted to break with the tradi-tions of the Pharaonic style. Such distortion was not confined to thehead; the whole body was represented in a 'new' way that is no lessbizarre. Just how violent this revolution was can be seen in the re-markable colossi of Akhenaten from Karnak. That such 'expression-ism' is only a convention is shown in the traditional-style reliefsfrom the tomb of Kheruef and in other Theban reliefs of the earlyco-regency, which show Akhenaten as a 'normal' Egyptian. Thereare also representations of Princess Ankhes-en-pa-aten in certainstelx and in the tomb reliefs at Amarna which show her with a de-formed cranium; yet no such distortion is evident in her appearanceunder Tut-ankh-amun, when the exaggerations of the Amarna stylewere avoided. Moreover in the famous painted wall fragment fromAmarna in the Ashmolean Museum, the princesses Nefer-neferu-aten and Nefer-neferu-re are shown with fully deformed heads eventhough their ages could not have been more than three or four yearsat the most.

Lastly we have some proof in the mummies of Smenkh-ka-re andTut-ankh-amun that artificial deformation was not practised even inthe case of the royal family, and despite the fact that in the fewrepresentations that can plausibly be identified as of Smenkh-ka-re,he is shown in all the conventions of the later Amarna style. Tut-ankh-amun was not much younger than Nefer-neferu-ra and there-fore would presumably have had his head deformed as much as hers,if such practices had been followed. Both he and Smenkh-ka-re hadunusual platycephalic skulls, but they inherited this trait from theirancestor Yuya; and though both Elliot-Smith and Derry haveclosely examined the remains of these three men neither has ad-vanced the least hint that their skulls were artificially deformed.Since members of the royal family were inextricably inter-marriedat this period it is safe to assume that all their heads were more or lessplatycephalic, and as such unusual but not unnatural.Royal Scottish Museuin, Edinburgh CYRIL ALDRED

Note

Mr. William Fagg, British Museum, adds the following note:'As the too gullible perpetuator of the myth which Mr. Siroto cor-rected, only to be himself taken in the rear by Mr. Aldred, I shouldlike to thank both for turning the error to such good ethnologicalaccount. I wonder, though (as one who does not think that all cul-ture, or even all African culture, came from Egypt), whethertravellers' tales of a Central African people whose standards ofbeauty caused them to lengthen their heads may not conceivablyhave had some influence upon the art forms of the Egyptian expres-sionists, rather as rumours of the primitive influenced those of theexpressionists and fauves of the twentieth-century revolution. Itis doubtful whether we can ever prove that the Mangbetu existed ordeformed their heads in those days; but the trait seems likely to bea very old one.'-ED.

Stonehenge and Midsummer. Cf. MAN, I953, I5I, 228, 260SIR -Professor A. T. Hatto's main theses may be thus

r3 X7 stated:(I) The complex of trilithons cum bluestone horseshoecum luestone circle is to be regarded as a planned unitv inwhich the trilithons are intended as female sexual symbols(vulvx) and the bluestone horseshoe and possibly the circlealso as male sexual symbols (phalli).

(2) The concentric arrangement of the elements in thiscomplex imitates the arrangement of participants in concentricdances connected with fertility rituals, the complex being infact the translation into stone of such a dance.

(3) The orientation of the horseshoe 'cove' towards themidsummer sunrise is also connected with fertility rituals, the

'cove' being regarded as a symbolic uterus into which thesun's rays penetrate.

(4) The outer lintelled sarsen circle is to be interpreted as a'ritual fence.'

(5) Any calendrical function of the structure is to be regardedas of secondary importance.

These propositions will now be considered in Qrder.(i) That the trilithon-bluestone complex as it now exists forms a

plannedunity may

beconceded,

but it cannot beregarded ascertain that it was originally so. The point of importance in this

connexion is that the bluestones were definitely erected later thanthe trilithons I: it is however impossible to determine the length ofthe interval between the two operations. If this was not more thana year or two it would not be inconsistent with the two elementshaving formed part of the original plan, since the erection of thewhole structure must have taken a considerable time. But if theinterval could be shown to have been substantial this would seemto indicate that the bluestones were an addition to the originaldesign, which would have included only the trilithons and thesarsen circle (together, of course, with the ditch and other incor-porated elements from 'Stonehenge I'). In this event, in order topreserve Professor Hatto's theory as to the relationship between thetrilithons and the bluestones it would appear necessary to assume adefinite change in the ritual and ideological associations of thewhole structure as accompanying the addition; this of course is notimpossible, but the introduction of a further

assumption, incapableof proof, into his argument does nothing to strengthen it.Consideration may next be given to his novel and ingenious

suggestion that the trilithons are female symbols. On this point itseems impossible to concede any validity to the arguments from thealleged symbolism of burial chambers which he adduces in supportof his theory. No evidence exists to justify his statement that pre-historic man conceived burial 'as a return to the womb which issymbolized in the burial vault,' 2 and the alleged symbolism hastherefore no factual basis 3 and is in fact a mere guess that cannotlegitimately be used in support of his claim that so-called 'trilithonentrances' in megalithic tombs are sexually symbolic. Properlyspeaking, the term 'trilithon entrance' should be confined to aportal formed by two columnar jambs and surmounted bya mono-lithic lintel of comparable cross-section; but such entrances areactually not specially common in megalithic tombs and are as oftenfound in domestic and secular buildings.4 They are generallyassociated with drystone masonry walling, where their use offers asimple and efficient method of forming an entrance, and thereappears really to be no need to look beyond the practical advantagesof this form of construction for an explanation of its use in anytype of building.

The rejection of these arguments leaves, as the sole evidence forthe alleged symbolism, thefacies and styling of the trilithons. Theyare themselves unique; but it would appear legitimate to suggestthat if either the trilithon, or the more naturalistic image consistingof the sexual triangle and lower limbs of a female figure, fromwhich the trilithon might be derived by stylization, had been at theappropriate period a recognized sexual symbol it might be expectedto be found occurring in the form of figurine or amulet. Suchforms appear however to be lacking. In the absence of any suchcorroboration it appears to me that the stylistic features adduced byProfessor Hatto are inadequate to commend his theory.

Turning to the bluestones, these are also claimed as sexuallysymbolic (as phalli) and Professor Hatto further contends that thebluestones in the horseshoe stand in a deliberate and definite relation-ship to the trilithons, considered as female symbols.5 If, as has beenargued above, the claim made for the trilithons is to be regarded aserroneous, the latter contention falls with it and it would seemunnecessary to discuss the point further here 6; but this does notnecessarily affect the proposition that the bluestones are to be takenas phalli, and on this point I am personally of the opinion that agood case may be made out for this as far as the horseshoe blue-stones are concerned. This view is based primarily on the styling ofthe surviving stones, which undoubtedly have a certain phallicappearance; in this case, of course, we have very numerous examplesof phallic representations with which the bluestones may be

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