5 Things To Know About Black Teeth
Here are 5 things to know about black teeth. Japanese women used to blacken their teeth and shave off their eyebrows post marriage, prior to the mid nineteenth century. Ohagaru was practiced up until the Meiji era. It is interesting to view this custom through the lens of our current 21C obsession with very white teeth. Some see this as further evidence of the control and denigration of the human rights of Japanese women in their traditional society, whilst others disagree with this conclusion. Early western anthropologists described ohagaru as an abhorrent custom, which disfigured women. The custom was, also, practiced in parts of China by minority groups.
List Of 5 Things To Know Of Black Teeth
- Black teeth were once considered sexy in Japan.
- This female fashion trend caught on in China & The Philippines too.
- Black teeth signified female sexual maturity in many parts of Asia in earlier centuries.
- The polarity between black & white may reflect the earth vs the heavens.
- Women represent the earth/black sexuality = fecundity.
Black Teeth Were A Mark of Girls Coming of Age in Asia
It is recorded in the seventeenth century by Spanish colonial officials that this practice, also, occurred in the Philippines. Other countries where the black teeth regime for women was practiced were Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and various Pacific Islands. It was a ritualistic mark of girls coming of age as women in parts of Asia for millennia. Its social function was involved in the determination of the status of women within these societies. The obvious result to western eyes was to make the married woman less attractive to those who observed her. This, however, was not the case in traditional Japanese society, where it was a sign of sexual maturity and beauty.
More Black & White Issues
5 things to know about black teeth. The black and white polarity plays out throughout humanity’s many interests and values. White teeth are considered today to be a mark of youth, beauty and purity. Movie stars in Hollywood are signposted by their gleaming chompers on screen, no matter what type of character they may be portraying. Dentists are making a fortune from our current obsession with white teeth as an aesthetic imperative. Click here for more to see an example of a modern dental practice philosophical approach to dentistry in the 21C.
Teeth Blackening Agents
In Vietnam, Si La men painted their teeth red and women theirs’ black. The interesting thing about this practice is that the blackening agents used, often, protected their teeth and enamel from decay. In Japan, they utilised iron filings in vinegar with some vegetable tannins to create the blackening agent. The agent needed to be applied daily or every few days to maintain the effect. In India they employed a mixture of iron and copper sulphate with vegetable tannins, such as myrobalans. Islamic cultures, also, employed the teeth blackening ritual as part of the female sexual cycle. Prostitutes had black teeth to symbolise their sexual maturity. 5 things to know about black teeth!
Reasons To Blog
“There are those that blog and those that don’t. I would posit that there are many more non-bloggers out there than the dedicated and diligent keyboard artists. Here are 5 top reasons to blog. Writing is for many an undiscovered joy and a challenging chore, when they are forced to record their thoughts on screen in print. Many owners of websites outsource all the boring bits to poorly paid writers, who are, often, located in the third world. Now, of course AI can do all that too. Communication via the written word is, somehow, seen as arcane and not worth the effort. Which means that we have a lot of bad writing and poorly constructed sentences adorning the pages of the world wide web. However, despite this, blogging is the new medium for the essay.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Bite & Smile: Delving Into Dental Care For An Informed Choice; What Price Life?; SpeakTruth; The Stoic Golfer; Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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