Body Modication at the Musée de l’Homme (National Museum of Natural History), Paris, France : An Overview of the Collections and Research Examples
Résumé
The Musée de l’Homme is a museum of anthropology belonging to France’s National Museum of Natural History, Paris. Together with public rooms and a research department, it houses about one million specimens, including 23,000 human remains. They come from all continents, except Antarctica, and date from prehistoric to modern times. This chapter provides a novel and detailed overview of the evidence for body modication that is present in these collections. Two ensembles are discussed: the collections of prehistory and those of biological anthropology. Concerning human remains, the chapter reports 1,202 deformed skulls, 124 craniodental remains attesting to voluntary tooth alterations, 59 tattooed skin aps, and 10 tattooed mummies. To these are added eighty-three archaeological body piercing ornaments. Visual media are also described: thirty-nine nineteenth-century plaster face casts showing ear perforations, eighteen paper surveys of prehistoric rock art (Algeria) attesting to body decoration; and early ancient pictures testifying early interest on body piercing. The nal part of the chapter highlights recent and ongoing museal and scientic work on some of the specimens described, with the aim of providing inspiration to researchers and museum curators willing to investigate body modication evidence and display it to a public audience.