| I contend that the practice of cranial modification among the Maya was a symbol of ethnicity due to its ubiquity and appearance across class lines within communities. In contrast, cranial modification along the coast of Peru does not appear to have marked class or ethnicity, as it does not appear consistently among a community or population at any one site or region. In order to asses this hypothesis, information was gathered from past cultures that practiced cranial modification and studied via a literature search and review the various types of cranial modification. Analysis of actual crania was performed using the collections housed at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C.. |
