128:) This results in a permanent groove in the forehead of the women. However, there is no evidence of other harmful effects on the health of women who carry heavy loads on top of their heads. Researchers speculate that training from a young age may explain this. Up to 20% of the person's body weight can be carried with no extra exertion of energy. Other researchers have shown that African and European women carrying 70% of their body weight in controlled studies used more oxygen while head-carrying, in contrast to carrying a load on their backs. The research did not support the notion that head-loading is less exerting than carrying on the back, "although there is some evidence of energy saving mechanisms for back-loading at low speed/load combinations".
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woman, with a brimming water-pail balanced on her head, or perhaps a cup, saucer, and spoon, stop suddenly, turn round, stoop to pick up a missile, rise again, fling it, light a pipe, and go through many revolutions with either hand or both, without spilling a drop". Until the turn of the 20th century, African-American women in the
Southern states continued carrying baskets and bundles of folded clothes on top of their heads, when they found work as
211:"), during which individual dancers would take turns dancing. Competing dancers would try to perform complicated steps given to them by a caller (usually a fiddler), without stepping outside the bounds of a circle drawn on the ground. To add to the challenge, some dancers would compete while balancing a glass full of water on top of their heads, trying not to spill the water while they danced.
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African-American women continued the practice during the 19th century, which they learned from their elders who had been enslaved from Africa. One observer during the
American Civil War noted the impressive sense of balance and dexterity that the practice gave women in South Carolina: "I have seen a
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It is also wide-spread in Africa. Women in particular may have practical reasons for carrying on the head. For many
African women it is "well-suited to the rough, rural terrain and the particular objects they carry—like buckets of water and bundles of firewood". The practice is usually not abandoned
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were more rigid, young women were sometimes instructed to improve their posture by balancing books or a teacup and saucer on their heads while walking and getting up or down from a chair. They were told to model themselves after "the
Egyptian water-carrier, with the jug of water poised so prettily
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in the late 19th century, with porters competing to carry up to 15 stacked baskets on their head. In describing "the most cosmopolitan fruit market in the world" just before the Great
Depression in the late 1920s, the United States department of Agriculture said the porters carried produce on their
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Carrying on the head is common in many parts of the developing world, as only a simple length of cloth shaped into a ring or ball is needed to carry loads approaching the person's own weight. The practice is efficient, in a place or at a time when there are no vehicles or beasts of burden available
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is a common practice in many parts of the world as an alternative to carrying a burden on the back, shoulders and so on. People have carried burdens balanced on top of the head since ancient times, usually to do daily work, but sometimes in religious ceremonies or as a feat of skill, such as in
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for transporting the objects. Today, women and men carry burdens on their heads where there is no less expensive, or more efficient, way of transporting workloads. In India, women carry baskets of bricks to workmen on construction sites. It is also used by the lowest caste to carry away
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after migrating to urban areas where their daily routines, and socially accepted practices, are different. In Ghana, affluent residents of the southern cities employ young women who migrate from the poorer northern region to work as "head porters", called
136:, doing laundry for white employers. This practice ended when the automobile became common in affluent communities, and employers began delivering the clothing to the homes of the washerwomen, rather than the workers coming to the employers' homes.
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have dances that include balancing "delicate terracotta figures" on the head while the arms and torso are moving. This tradition continued among
Africans taken to America during the
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There are several traditional dances of West
African cultures that include balancing an object on the head as a skillful feat. Ritual dancing among worshippers of the thunder
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Maloiy, GM; Heglund, NC; Prager, LM; Cavagna, GA; Taylor, CR (20 February 1986). "Energetic cost of carrying loads: have
African women discovered an economic way?".
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tribe carry similar heavy loads, but using a leather strap wrapped around their forehead and the load to secure it while it is carried. (see
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heads, backs, or in barrows. Every day loads continued to be transported on the head into the 1950s, as shown in the documentary film
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397:"A comparison of the physiological consequences of head-loading and back-loading for African and European women"
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women may carry loads of up to 70% of their own body weight balanced on top of their heads. Women of the
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Telling
Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South
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497:"Captivating images show a glimpse of Covent Garden through the ages"
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Lloyd, R; Parr, B; Davies, S; Partridge, T; Cooke, C (July 2010).
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African Dance: An
Artistic, Historical, and Philosophical Inquiry
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323:"Head case: The art and science of carrying on your head"
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on her head, and her figure so straight and beautiful".
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Spinning dancers balance flaming bowls on their heads,
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Women and children carrying pots filled with water in
223:for young women were at their peak and manners and
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495:Marshall, Gareth Richman, Tom (15 June 2015).
73:desert. The adults carry double-stacked loads.
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520:: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
584:Beard, Lina and Adelia Belle Beard (1887).
474:. Louisiana State University. p. 90.
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404:European Journal of Applied Physiology
638:Personal care and service occupations
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445:Higginson, Thomas Wentworth (1969).
297:"Human rights and manual scavenging"
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151:Head-carrying was used in London's
81:Porters for an expedition climbing
16:Method for humans to carry a burden
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116:, for $ 2 a day. In East Africa,
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559:. Africa World Press. pp.
537:Marketing Fresh Fruit in Europe
449:. Forgotten Books. p. 22.
321:Dweck, Jessica (Aug 27, 2010).
275:. South End Press. p. 23.
219:During the Victorian era, when
30:, India, balancing a basket of
553:Welsh-Asante, Kariamu (1996).
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447:Army Life in a Black Regiment
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592:. David R. Godine. pp.
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535:Smith, Edwin (June 1929).
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159:Every Day Except Christmas
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588:American Girls Handy Book
416:10.1007/s00421-010-1395-9
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628:Human-powered transport
238:Human-powered transport
172:Paraguayan bottle dance
470:Tucker, Susan (2002).
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271:Bohm, Robert (1982).
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205:Atlantic slave trade
153:Covent Garden market
39:Carrying on the head
643:Human head and neck
358:1986Natur.319..668M
248:Matki (earthen pot)
501:www.standard.co.uk
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104:manual scavenging
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100:pit latrines
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59:Ellis Island
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34:on her head.
506:28 November
225:comportment
215:Comportment
209:set de flo'
134:washerwomen
96:human waste
633:Lifestyles
617:Categories
259:References
170:See also:
516:cite news
329:April 13,
432:20265240
424:20186424
306:28 April
253:Tumpline
232:See also
184:, India.
126:tumpline
87:Tanzania
623:Walking
382:4346077
374:3951538
354:Bibcode
182:Udaipur
113:kayayei
46:Working
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346:Nature
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201:Yoruba
198:Egbado
194:Shango
122:Kikuyu
55:Slovak
32:chikoo
28:Mysore
428:S2CID
400:(PDF)
378:S2CID
300:(PDF)
190:deity
166:Dance
598:ISBN
565:ISBN
522:link
508:2021
476:ISBN
451:ISBN
420:PMID
370:PMID
331:2012
308:2018
277:ISBN
71:Thar
24:Sari
594:355
561:107
412:doi
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362:doi
350:319
118:Luo
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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