The ancient Chinese had a strange custom known as foot-binding. This practice, which persisted from the tenth to the twentieth century, caused severe lifelong disability for millions of elderly women. According to a study conducted by the University of California at San Francisco in the United States, a large percentage of cases of osteoporosis in China—a disorder in which the structural integrity of the bone is impaired—can be blamed to the prevalence and consequences of foot-binding. Of the randomly selected sample of 193 women, aged 70 to 80, in Beijing, fifty-three had bound-feet deformities.

Historians trace the practice of foot-binding back to Sung Dynasty (960-976 BC). They claim that it started as an imitation of an imperial concubine who was required to dance with her feet bound. Observing that the sight appealed to the Emperor and wanting to earn his favor by offering their daughters as concubines, many parents began binding their daughters’ feet. By the twelfth century, the practice was widespread and harsher—girls’ feet were being bound so tightly and early in life.

In further retrospection, historians say that the reason foot-binding persisted was that it provided the affluent males a way of preventing their wives or concubines from leaving the house, for females with bound feet found the simple act of walking an extremely painful feat.

Customarily, parents began binding the feet of their daughters at the age of three. All toes except the hallux (the first innermost digit of each foot) were broken; the feet were then bound tightly with cloth strips to keep them from growing larger than ten centimeters. This caused the soles of the feet to bend in extreme concavity. The girls were then made to wear a special kind of footwear called lotus shoes, which were made of leather or, sometimes, steel and which prevented further growth of the foot bones.

The terminal portion of the leg of most vertebrates, the foot is used primarily for locomotion. In humans, its significance surfaces during the toddler years, when a child starts to learn how to walk. So, it is really regrettable that a body-deforming custom such as foot-binding continued for centuries. Fortunately, the cruel practice ceased in 1911, when the new Chinese republic finally banned it. /(C)2004 eLf ideas