Other cultures – ethnic differences
We might be tempted to believe that cultures
other than ours are less preoccupied with personal appearance and standards
of ideal beauty”, but this is not the case. Even cultures regarded as
primitive attach great importance to beauty and bodily adornment.
More than half a billion people live in
the 40 countries of Africa. There are innumerable ethnic groups and large
cultural differences between them, and the concept of beauty varies accordingly
although many ideals are shared. Many dark-skinned women in history have
been acclaimed for their beauty, such as the Egyptian queen Nefertiti.
We can only speculate about what the African ideals of beauty were in
early history, since there are no written records and most of what we
know has been preserved by oral tradition. There are, however some writings
by 17th-century European explorers that describe African ideals of appearance.
African women were reported to use palm oil to make their hair glossy,
and to wear bracelets and broad bead-encrusted belts.
Although beauty is praised, “ugliness” also commands respect in some African
cultures. Africans have also learned to integrate children with birth
defects into society, and sometimes these deformities have even been regarded
as omens of a happy future. Some Africans have learned to see beauty in
deformity. Modern medical science has been slow in reaching these countries,
and people have had to live with these defects since they could not have
them surgically corrected. Many people have the idea that plastic surgery
is not prioritized in developing countries, e.g. in Africa, but the fact
is that there are few places in the world where the need of reconstructive
plastic surgery is so great. In many underdeveloped parts of the world
there are plastic surgery volunteer organizations. The help that modern
plastic surgery can provide to people in the Third World is enormous,
but of course this work is quite different from the aesthetic surgery
described in this book.
In many African cultures there are different ideals of beauty for different
age groups. A mature African woman, as opposed to a young one, should
look substantial and motherly. Women who are too thin are therefore apt
to fill out their clothing with padding. There are inter-tribal differences
in standards of beauty, but many African ethnic groups prefer a