The pre-colonial Bisayan practice of skull moulding

17 November 2006 (The News Today) – Henry F. Funtecha writes another article about the early Bisayans and talks about their skull moulding practices and how they appear in the archaeological record.

The pre-colonial Bisayan practice of skull moulding Before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, the Bisayans practiced skull moulding as a way of enhancing one’s beauty. As mothers and midwives are well aware, the skulls of newborn infants are so soft if they are continuously laid on the same side, their head become flat on that side. Many societies have taken advantage of this reality in order to provide their children a skull shape which conforms to the local tenets of beauty. … How do present scholars know that the early Bisayans practiced skull moulding? Archaeological diggings in burial sites in Cebu, Samar, Bohol and other places in the Philippines had turned out dozens of skulls that clearly show the physical effects of moulding or binding. This writer himself had seen at the Aga Khan Museum at the Mindanao State University in Marawi City in 1992 two complete skeletons that were discovered in Butuan grave site showing reshaped skulls with black teeth filed to points.