Permanent Body Modification
Among The Maya
      Leah Huff
      huff@interchange.ubc.ca

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There is considerable information, in both the ethnographical and archeological evidence, to support the suggestion that the Maya extensively practiced body modification before and at the time of the Spanish arrival. This modification ranges from forehead flattening, to cutting or tattooing, to possibly even implantation. However, in the last few decades of Maya research, this area has been highly disregarded, and passed off as either not being permanent body modification, or simply not being significant.

The forms of body modification suggested, however, are incredibly intricate and in some cases quite intense. It would be incredibly naive to pass these off as being insignificant, because I think it is quite clear that these were not insignificant to the Mayans! It is not possible to know the details of the people who had these modifications, and because some of them seemed to be practiced within all sectors of society, it cannot be easily fit into an hierarchical model. In this essay, I will attempt to outline the physical representations of the different facial modifications, and to offer possibilities as to how these may have been created. I will make no attempt to come to any definitive explanation, or even to give any proof to my or others' claims, as I feel that I simply do not have the extent of knowledge of the Maya necessary to make such claims. However, I hope to show that this is an area of Maya research that has foolishly been ignored, as it is an area of great possibility in the drive to learn more about the Mayan people.

Figures 1 & 2, Schele: 1997

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