Mutilate teeth, deform skulls. An art of appearing in pre-Columbian America? Décorer les dents, modifier les crânes. Un art du paraître dans l’Amérique précolombienne ? En Fr

Résumé En

In 1937, Maurice Leenhardt made this statement in Gens de la Grande Terre : “Adornment and modifications of the body arethe most subtle aesthetic means by which man expresses complexes or affirms states that his word cannot formulate”. Indeed, there is no society in which the body is left in the raw state. It carries a strong symbolic burden and occupies a decisive place in the expression of identity and in social communication. Ornament has significance as much as it adorns and all these ways of ornamenting the body are necessary and participate in human expression. But beyond the aesthetic aspect, being the primary role of adornments in building one’s identity and in socialization, the modified body weaves links with the cosmos. We thus ask this question : why and in what way regulate its appearance by manipulating the body ? To answer this question, we take the example of modification by cranial deformation and dental in the Mesoamerican and South American regions up to modern times.