Photo © AMNH

This photograph, taken by Herbert Lang in 1913, features Chief Danga of the Mangbetu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and illustrates the practice of head elongation. In the beginning of the century the Mangbetu people of northeastern Congo bound the heads of infants with fine thread in order to elongate the skull. The fashionable look was emphasized in adulthood by again binding the head and wearing ornaments and hats, as shown in this image of Chief Danga, who also has a braided beard.