For the Mayans, beauty included an elongated head. This is said to be because it resembled an ear of corn. This was the main part of their diet, but also central to their creation story, the Popol Vuh, in which humans were created from corn (via Living Maya Time). According to Villa del Palmar, the altering of the Maya’s heads began at birth using trepanning. In this process, two boards are attached to a newborn’s head at an angle to press on the forehead, thus resulting in the elongated head (per Cancun to Chichen Itza).

Per Revelations – The Initial Journey, the Mayans also valued crossed-eyes. They would hang a piece of string with a stone in front of their baby’s eyes, causing them to focus and eventually lead the eyes to rotate inwards. Pointed teeth were a sign of beauty for Mayan women. They would file their teeth to achieve a corn kernel-like look, all without anesthesia (via Mayans and Tikal). Large beaked-shaped noses were prized and if they didn’t naturally have one, the Mayans used a removable nose bridge to get the shape.

Although these concepts of beauty are perhaps hard to understand, the Mayans took part in several practices that are considered the norm today. According to History on the Net, they pierced their ears, lips, and noses. Moreover, the nobility would inlay their teeth with precious stones, and tattoos in both men and women were common. Interestingly, it seems that art and not reality is what drove the Mayan beauty standards (via Archaeology Archive).