A labret is a form of body modification that consists of an ornament that is inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper lip, the lower lip, both lips as well as the corners of the mouth (Keddie 1989). The term ‘labret’ covers all the different forms of lip piercing ornaments including; lip plates, lip plugs or lip discs. They are often circular in shape but can also occur in various shapes and sizes. Additionally a wide range of materials were utilized to make labrets, including; clay, wood, bone, shell, stone, ivory, glass, as well as semi-precious and precious metals; gold, silver and copper (Keddie 1989). They can be worn individually or “in combination with others” (Keddie 1989). Labrets, in their various forms, have been a common form of body modification worldwide and archaeological evidence suggests that they have been around for as long as 10000 years (Keddie 1989) and were simultaneously and independently invented in multiple places all over the globe. There are many different forms of labrets and various ways they can be worn; on the North West Coast and in British Columbia the most common forms were medial or labial labrets, where an incision was made below the lower lip (Moss 1999). Previously labrets were just assumed to have been markers of status and rank, loosely linked to gender, although this is true, it can also be a little simplistic. More recent archaeological evidence has examined the complex symbolic meanings of labrets and how they are linked to ideas of personal, social and cultural identity. It is evident from the huge variation and intricacies across geographic locations and between tribes, as well as within certain groups, that there was greater meaning to labrets than just rank. (La Salle 2008).
On the North West Coast labrets were traditionally worn by the Haida, Tsimshian, Tlingit and Haisla peoples (Keddie 1989). Archaeological evidence shows that during prehistoric times labrets were worn by both men and women in British Columbia, but by 1500 years ago the practice had become extinct in the southern part of the province. By the time the Europeans began to arrive it was only women in the Northern areas of the North West Coast who wore them (Keddie 1989). Labrets in BC are thought to be as a result of cultural diffusion from other areas of the Pacific Rim; across Beringia (Keddie 1989) the main mode of transmission between cultures was through trade networks and intermarriage (Keddie 1989) which provides evidence of complex trading and marriage alliances between different groups over vast geographic areas as far back as 5000 years ago along the Pacific Rim (Keddie 1989). These trade relationships played an important role in the later development and complexity on the North West Coast (Keddie 1989).
On the North West Coast, the largest and most elaborate labrets were worn by the most highly ranking women in the villages (Keddie 1989). There are even ethnographic reports that tell competitions within Haida villages between the chief’s wives to see “which should have the longest protruding under lip and largest labret” (McKenzie 1891). Although rank and status obviously influenced the size of a woman’s labret there were other factors involved as well; for example, the number of children she gave birth to and “the position of her kin group” also affected the size (Moss 1999). Among the Haida and Tsimshian peoples of the North West Coast labret use was “part of a rite of passage” (Moss 1999) for all free (non-slave) girls and women, regardless of rank (Moss 1999). Many ethnographic sources suggest that the piercing was made and the labret inserted at the time of first menstruation (Moss 1999). The rite of passage also required the young girls to fast and go into seclusion around the same time (Moss 1999); a Tlingit woman was expected to fast in order to “spiritually prepare for the piercing in her lip” (Keddie 1989). The event was a highly marked and celebrated occasion involving potlatch feasts and raising of a totem pole” (Howay 1930). Initially, young girls wore a small needle shaped labret to indicate they were of marriage age; the hole was then later stretched out through the use of different labrets of varying sizes (Moss 1999).
It is evident that labrets had symbolic meaning attached to their use; as well as just being indicators of rank, “labrets are important visible conveyers of information”(Keddie 1989), the most apparent being recognition ethnicity, sex and age. The recognition of these factors, along with rank and status would have affected the way the individual was perceived, therefore labrets acts as metaphor and cultural symbols. Labrets were associated with origin myths of certain groups and were linked to and representative of “social, cultural, political and cosmological concerns” (Keddie 1989). Evidence suggests that labrets are symbolically linked to the mythological and sacred spheres of culture; they served to empower elites through associating them with these areas.
For more info: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/pacific/history2.html
Shannon Turner-Riley
Prehistory of British Columbia
Instructor: Darcy Matthews
February, 2010
Feedback
Shannon,
Excellent summary of labrets in both archaeological and ethnographic contexts. It is very well written and researched (but twice as long as it should be).
Score: 15/15 Good work! Darcy
References
Howay, F.
1930 A Yankee Trader on the Northwest Coast, 1791-1795, The Washington Quarterly, 21 (2): 83-94
Keddie, G.
1989 Symbolism and Context: The History of the Labret and Cultural Diffusion on the Pacific Rim. Paper presented at The Circum-Pacific Prehistory Conference, Seattle. Retrieved 14th March, 2010 from http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/content_files/files/labretw89papersept5-07forweb.pdf
La Salle, M.
2008 Beyond lip service : an analysis of labrets and their social context on the Pacific Northwest Coast of British Columbia. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia.
MacKenzie, A
1891 Descriptive Notes on Certain Implements, Weapons, etc., from Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C. Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Vol. IX, Section II.
Moss, Madonna
1999 George Catlin among the Nayas: Understanding the Practice of Labret Wearing on the Northwest Coast. Ethnohistory 46 (1): 31-65. Retrieved 14th March, 2010 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/483428
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