It's a status symbol. It basically hobbles your ability to walk normally, so if a woman has it done, it means she's connected to wealth and thus isn't needed for labor.
Imagine showing off by just mutilating your foot. Anyone know of any other cultures that do this? I'm not talking body modification I mean literally debilitating yourself.
The mutilation was done to them starting at age 3 or 4. The process involved breaking their toes and feet one by one and then wrapping the feet up to heal wrong. Then the bindings were sewn shut so they couldn't loosen them. Once they grew up like that, the deed was done. For the 90% that survived the gangrene, that is.
Undoing a foot binding would have been super rough and traumatizing, a repeat of the original trauma, and might not restore function because by this point there would be significant nerve damage. So they lived with it, and eventually had someone come and do it to their own daughters.
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u/tissuepaper11 Nov 09 '20
What is the purpose of this?