These elongated skulls result from intentional cranial deformation. The Mangbetu practiced this from infancy, viewing it as a sign of intelligence and beauty.
These elongated skulls result from intentional cranial deformation. The Mangbetu practiced this from infancy, viewing it as a sign of intelligence and beauty.
The photo shows a mother and child from the Mangbetu tribe in Congo that practices head elongation from a young age. Traditionally, babies heads were wrapped tightly with cloth in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice began dying out in the 1950s.
Artificial cranial deformation was a common practice among a number of cultures that are widely separated geographically and chronologically, spanning among Europe, Asia, America and more.
Amazing_Parking_3209 on
Probably still cognitively normal and functioning. The feet binding in some parts of the world was far more destructive.
Archon-Toten on

Remarkable-Worth-303 on
And UFO conspiracists still think old skulls formed like this are proof of aliens.
BananaPeelPorridge on
So intelligent that they became aliens
hobbbis on
The Xenomorph trend
Hellboydce on
Sign of intelligence? 😂
Cirno-BreastLicker on
I feel so bad for the kid 🙁
OkRiver5883 on

PragmaticBadGuy on
I’d be really interested in seeing brain scans and comparisons to people without the cranial modifications to see what, if any, differences there is.
Alterations like that could show that certain deformations in the skull could actually be beneficial.
ronman32bit on
They saw the aliens and copied them
Baanditsz on
Shockingly, not one Nobel laureate from this culture.
Different_Tax6444 on
Yes, sign of intelligence …
Ok-Thing-2222 on
Now we have babies that have flat heads from laying in a carrier all day and not getting held enough. Very sad indeed. I view it as neglect.
FANTASMA-W on

Historical-Brush6055 on
I wonder if this give any damage to the brain.
IntelligentCase9873 on
It was given as a reference in indiana jones movie
Ok_Internal_8500 on

Tolik1111 on
Horatio
GODMarega on
Mother said it was my time to post about the elongated guys today
thefalloncarrington on
Thats actually not interesting and mostly pretty fucked up
soymilo_ on
Humans are weird
Astroft on
They do it because they are trying to mimic aliens that came down and taught them ages ago. Or so I read somewhere
Alice_iswondering on
Did it have any impact on brain functions? Is there a research out there we know of?
In the USA we cut parts of men’s dicks off for literally no reason so I can’t really say this is good or bad
Rickb92 on
Oh man ,i saw a picture where the kids eyes looked like they were going to pop out from the pressure. I know its a tradition for them. But it looked painful and I felt bad for the child!! But maybe im just a weenie
Mundane_Life_5775 on
Evidence of alien existence right here!
AVP enters the chat.
Dense-Bake-5490 on
OMG they look like ETs
Gastlyperformance on

Only_Searchs on

Representative_Bat81 on
There are people on here referencing the fact that studies have shown no difference in cranial capacity between elongated and normal skulls. Cranial capacity is not the issue with this kind of head manipulation though.
While the size is not affected, the shape is, which does have significant negative effects.
39 Comments
The photo shows a mother and child from the Mangbetu tribe in Congo that practices head elongation from a young age. Traditionally, babies heads were wrapped tightly with cloth in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice began dying out in the 1950s.
https://preview.redd.it/zfs23n0y6cag1.jpeg?width=892&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=196e474a2b1c34ee9e7aacad8b6f46363c2dcbdf
Nah I’m outta here
We come from France!
Artificial cranial deformation was a common practice among a number of cultures that are widely separated geographically and chronologically, spanning among Europe, Asia, America and more.
Probably still cognitively normal and functioning. The feet binding in some parts of the world was far more destructive.

And UFO conspiracists still think old skulls formed like this are proof of aliens.
So intelligent that they became aliens
The Xenomorph trend
Sign of intelligence? 😂
I feel so bad for the kid 🙁

I’d be really interested in seeing brain scans and comparisons to people without the cranial modifications to see what, if any, differences there is.
Alterations like that could show that certain deformations in the skull could actually be beneficial.
They saw the aliens and copied them
Shockingly, not one Nobel laureate from this culture.
Yes, sign of intelligence …
Now we have babies that have flat heads from laying in a carrier all day and not getting held enough. Very sad indeed. I view it as neglect.

I wonder if this give any damage to the brain.
It was given as a reference in indiana jones movie

Horatio
Mother said it was my time to post about the elongated guys today
Thats actually not interesting and mostly pretty fucked up
Humans are weird
They do it because they are trying to mimic aliens that came down and taught them ages ago. Or so I read somewhere
Did it have any impact on brain functions? Is there a research out there we know of?
https://preview.redd.it/7teb21tzccag1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03d6f517ae6a187d6ffbbffa7736c079db3b52a4
How’s the brain handle that?
In the USA we cut parts of men’s dicks off for literally no reason so I can’t really say this is good or bad
Oh man ,i saw a picture where the kids eyes looked like they were going to pop out from the pressure. I know its a tradition for them. But it looked painful and I felt bad for the child!! But maybe im just a weenie
Evidence of alien existence right here!
AVP enters the chat.
OMG they look like ETs


There are people on here referencing the fact that studies have shown no difference in cranial capacity between elongated and normal skulls. Cranial capacity is not the issue with this kind of head manipulation though.
While the size is not affected, the shape is, which does have significant negative effects.
Wikipedia cited article about cranial size: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.10286
Study about effects of cranial elongation: https://www.longdom.org/open-access/artificial-cranial-deformation-potential-implications-for-affected-brain-function-33364.html
Note that these studies do not contradict each other in any way. Cranial size can be unaffected, while the shape change still has an effect.

You’d think this would hurt the brain but apparently there’s not evidence of cognitive impairment from this
„iNtElLiGeNcE“