# Skull deformation: what did it do to peoples' minds? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skull-deformation-what-did-it-do-to-peoples-minds/444983 "2008-04-12T01:51:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skull-deformation-what-did-it-do-to-peoples-minds/444983/21 "2008-04-12T19:46:50Z")
[QUOTE=GusNSpot] Wasn’t there a native tribe in the Americas called the flat heads that did this in a milder form? [/QUOTE] [Apparently not.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederated_Salish_and_Kootenai_Tribes_of_the_Flathead_Nation) ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skull-deformation-what-did-it-do-to-peoples-minds/444983/22 "2008-04-12T20:09:12Z")
Hee hee, **3waygeek**. We’re from France. [QUOTE=Lumpy] Some cultures in different places and times have practiced deliberately deforming their children’s skulls, usually flattening or elongating, in order to achieve some strange ideal of beauty. [This photo](http://www.britannica.com/eb/art/print?id=94637&articleTypeId=0) shows two skulls that could human-Xenomorph hybrids by the look of them. My question is what the hell did this do to peoples’s brains? Has the practice survived into modern times and ever been studied by neurologists? [/QUOTE] This [article](http://www.springerlink.com/content/bkx5jv2qmdhna7mn/) states > [@](#): > > \*Conclusion \* There is no evidence of any neurological impairment among indigenous groups who practiced cranial deformations in newborns. IANA brain surgeon. This actually makes a fair amount of sense. The brain is a flexible fatty bag, right? Traumatic brain injury usually comes from the brain being knocked around in the skull at high G’s. Deformation of the skull would result in a marginally smaller cranial capacity, but not any significant damage to the organ. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skull-deformation-what-did-it-do-to-peoples-minds/444983/23 "2008-04-13T16:33:51Z")
When I visited the ruins near Cozumel, the tour guide said that nobody really knows what it does to the brain. _Some_ people believe that it might heighten one’s senses. _Some_ people believe that it might improve one’s mathematical abilities. What it certainly did, was provide a very clear indication of who was an aristocrat, and who was a peasant. My tour guide’s favorite theory about the fall of the Maya civilization was that class warfare broke out, and the normal-headed peasants wiped out the pointy-headed aristocrats. With the educated classes gone, the big cities were abandoned, and the culture reverted to the small villages where the Spaniards found them. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skull-deformation-what-did-it-do-to-peoples-minds/444983/24 "2008-04-14T01:46:19Z")
[QUOTE=Pullet] Sorry, but I can’t find a reputable link now. Everything on google is traipsing on about Alien modification of humans :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] I just checked out some of those sites. While I don’t think aliens were involved, some of the skulls pictured just don’t look human to me- not Homo Sapiens at any rate. I could actually believe that some unknown side branch of human evolution existed in the past. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skull-deformation-what-did-it-do-to-peoples-minds/444983/25 "2008-04-14T06:07:17Z")
That skull on the left has been trephined. If you’ve got the stomach for it, [YouTube’s got the video](http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/02/the_operation_of_the.html). I admit that I watched this movie and it blew my mind. ---
**Author:** ![JimB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f4b2a3/32.png) [@JimB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimB)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skull-deformation-what-did-it-do-to-peoples-minds/444983/26 "2008-04-14T06:43:17Z")
And here I am worrying about the grooves caused by my glasses… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skull-deformation-what-did-it-do-to-peoples-minds/444983.md?page=1)