Research article
Osteological characteristics of Chinese foot-binding in archaeological remains

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2019.12.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Foot-binding was a widespread custom in China for hundreds of years, though the severity and type of binding varied considerably over time and space. To examine the morphological consequences of extremely severe foot-binding, this paper uses 35 sets of bound and 33 sets of unbound foot bones, from the remains of women excavated from the Xinzhi cemetery in northern Shandong Province. Based on macroscopic observation, CT slices, and measurements of bound foot bones, multiple distinctive consequences of foot-binding were identified. Compared with normal bones, bound foot bones have severely reduced overall size and weight. The density of trabecular mesh was reduced and its structure was altered in all tarsal bones. While the talus and navicular bones of bound feet retained all major groups of trabeculae, the calcaneus experienced massive trabecular loss, suggesting that in a bound foot the calcaneus lost its weight bearing function and its role in plantarflexion. The severity of changes was greater in the laterally positioned foot bones, i.e. the lateral cuneiform, the cuboid, and 4th and 5th metatarsals, than in the medial ones, showing that most of the body weight in the bound foot was transmitted along the first ray. Degenerative osteoarthritic changes affected articular surfaces of the foot bones, even in young individuals. These changes suggest that the biomechanics of bipedal locomotion were considerably affected in all females with severely bound feet.

Introduction

Foot-binding was a cultural practice of artificial deformation of female feet to dramatically reduce the size of the foot and alter the gait. No consensus exists on the timing of its origin, with different scholars tracing its roots either to the Six dynasties (AD 222–589), the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907), or the Five dynasties (AD 891–979), among others (Gao, 1999, 2007; Peng, 2013). According to historical records, iconography, and findings of female shoes from archaeological contexts, the practice likely became fairly common during the Northern Song dynasty (AD 960–1127). However, during that early time period, foot-binding was mostly characteristic for elite families. The popularity of foot-binding reached its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties (AD 1368–1912), when foot-binding was practiced even by commoners and the poor (Qiu, 1993 2007; Gao, 1999). Notably, the practice was extremely common in the Qing territory, especially in places where the Han ethnic population lived; it was rare or did not exist among ethnic minority groups (Li and Bao, 1997). At the end of the Qing dynasty (AD 1644–1911), “Tianzuhui” or “Natural Foot Societies” appeared one after another across the country, which began advocating against this body modification. The government of the late Qing dynasty adopted a tactic of persuasion to discourage the practice, while following the revolution and the fall of the imperial government, the government of the Republic of China banned the practice and instituted punitive regulations against foot-binding. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many local governments persistently carried out anti-foot-binding activities, and the phenomenon gradually disappeared (Yang, 1998 & 2006).

During the early stages of foot-binding practice in ancient China, women's foot-binding only involved increasing the straightness and narrowness of the foot and did not alter the shape of the arch. Women's shoes from the earlier periods tend to be flat; the size of the shoes is only slightly reduced. For example, seven pairs of women's shoes were excavated from the Southern Song dynasty Tomb of Zhou in De’an County, Jiangxi Province, and were all flat shoes. The length of the shoes is 18−22 cm, the widest point is 5−6 cm, and the depth is 3.4–4.5 cm. The main occupant of the tomb was Zhou (周氏) (AD 1240-AD 1274), the wife of a local officer Wu Chou (吴畴). Her body was well preserved with some soft tissue still present, so the excavators were able to observe the consequences of foot-binding in great detail (Li et al., 1990). Even during the middle and late Ming dynasty, such flat-bottom women's shoes are still found, such as the pair of satin-finished flat-footed shoes unearthed in the Ming dynasty tomb of the Liu Xiang (刘湘) couple of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. Liu Xiang’s wife was born in CE 1496 and died in CE 1558. The shoes found in the tomb were 20 cm long and 5 cm in depth, with an upturned toe (Ye, 1992).

By the Ming dynasty, with the universalization and further elaboration of foot-binding techniques, the foot was wrapped considerably tighter, not only to achieve a straight profile, but also to deepen the arch. The ideal shape of the bound foot was praised as the “three-inch golden lotus” (Greenhalgh, 1977; Gao, 2007). The high-top bow-shaped shoes reached their zenith in the Ming dynasty, when true curved soles appeared and the late-type of bow-shaped shoes gradually developed. For example, a pair of Qing dynasty high-top boots collected by the Fenggetang Museum are only 9 cm in length (Li, 2012). The 2nd to the 5th phalanges of the person who wore such shoes were folded underneath the sole of the foot, so the anterior aspect of the foot became pointed. This practice destroyed the normal arches of the foot and created an “over-curved arch.” It raised the height and reduced the length of the foot. This kind of shaping practice had different impacts on multiple parts of the foot. The anterior aspect of the foot underwent the most external compression forces, which resulted in a dramatically slenderized morphology. The compression forces applied to the tarsal bones, especially the calcaneus and the talus, were weaker, so these bones were less affected than those in the anterior portion of the foot.

As the primary purpose of foot-binding was to reduce the size of a foot as much as possible, the techniques used for foot-binding across China had clear similarities. Even though differences existed between individuals, including some size differences, the overall size of the bound foot was still much smaller than that of an unbound foot (Zhao et al., 2017).

Several studies of foot-binding have focused on the origin, cultural significance, women’s rights aspects, and social and historical context of the practice (Blake, 1994; Ko, 2005; Stone, 2012). Cummings et al. (1997) examined the prevalence of osteoporosis and fractures among Beijing women with bound feet that were 70 years or older. Their study shows that these women had lower femoral neck bone density, and a higher incidence of hip fractures caused by falls resulting from the loss of stability from their tiny feet. Using X-ray and CT techniques, Guo (2011) researched female foot-binding deformities in Yunnan Province in a living population. He reported that foot-binding compressed foot bones together. Each tarsal bone showed various degrees of wedge-shaped changes. The metatarsals were significantly smaller and slenderer than those of normal feet. Moreover, the bone density of the calcaneus in the foot-binding group was significantly lower than that in the unbound group. In addition, the biomechanical study on bound feet conducted by Gu et al. (2015) shows that the anteriormost and posteriormost points of the bound feet bore the entire load of the body during the stance phase. The center of pressure displacement velocity of bound feet was also greatly reduced with the shortening of trajectories.

There is a dearth of osteological research on pathological consequences of foot-binding, likely because foot bones of bound feet are often poorly preserved due to severe osteoporosis, and because postcranial remains in general were rarely collected in China until the past few decades. Hou (2013) analyzed and described size differences in bound feet from the Ming and Qing dynasties in Shanxi Province. Zhao et al. (2017) studied three women with bound feet of the Qing dynasty in Shandong Province. Berger et al. (2019) analyzed the morphology of the bound feet of four elite women from the Ming dynasty in Shaanxi Province. Lee (2019) examined the paleopathological consequences for foot-binding at the Xuecun archaeological site in Henan Province.

In this study we used 35 sets of female foot bones from the Qing dynasty, when foot-binding was arguably at its most extreme. Comparing the size, shape, and trabecular structure as seen from a CT scan of these bones allows us to evaluate the consequences of foot-binding for mechanics of locomotion, assess the redistribution of tensile and compressive stress in a bound foot during walking, and assess the developmental capacity of foot bones to adapt for different mechanical loads.

Section snippets

Trabecular structure of the cancellous bone

The morphology of the human foot departs considerably from that of non-human apes as an evolutionary adaptation to obligate bipedal plantigrady (Harcourt-Smith and Aiello, 2004; Tsegai et al., 2017; Holowka and Lieberman, 2018). Walking or running on four legs is more effective for shock absorption than on two legs, because in a quadruped the impact force from the ground is absorbed by and spread among four legs, thus decreasing the potential damage to each limb and the body above (Bajraliu et

Materials

The Xinzhi cemetery is located in Changyi City, Shandong Province (Fig. 1). The cemetery was excavated by a joint team from the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Changyi Museum from 2010 to 2013. The authors were invited to start bioarchaeological analysis in 2017. Nine hundred sixty two burials were excavated at the site, including 24 burials dating to the Zhou dynasty (BC 1046-BC 256), 737 burials of the Han dynasty (BC 202-AD 220), seven burials of the

Overall size and morphological differences between bound and unbound feet

All 35 sets of female remains from the Qing dynasty showed foot bone deformities. Macroscopic observation showed that foot-binding affected not only the foot bones, but also tibiae and fibulae, which had rounded cross sections with poorly expressed anterior and interosseous crests. Entheseal areas of the leg bones were also poorly defined, in contrast with well-defined deltoid tuberosities of the individuals’ humeri. All tarsal and metatarsal bones, as well as pedal phalanges, were more gracile

Conclusions

Based on macroscopic observations, CT images, and linear measurements comparison of bound foot bones excavated in Shandong Province, and in comparison with normal bones, multiple distinctive characteristics of bound foot bones were identified. In addition to an overall size reduction of all foot bones, there were several changes in bone shape and trabecular structure:

  • 1

    The calcaneal tuber experienced a strong disproportional reduction and cranial reorientation of the Achilles tendon insertion

Acknowledgement

This project was supported by the Shandong University Humanities and Social Science Youth Team Project(IFYT17003), the Shandong University Basic Scientific Research Fund for Natural Science Special Interdisciplinary Cultivation Project(2017JC026), and the Archaeological and Historical Peaks Project of Shandong University and the National Social Science Foundation of China.

We would also like to extend our gratitude to the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the

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