What they are?

[Prof.Witchheimer]

these Foundry african warriors, with this special head dress, are they a certain people?

[Smokeyrone]

I don't know, but I'll take an educated guess and say they are mostly "Hollywood"?  (which is fine)

I could see Ron Eli hanging with these guys. 

[Hammers]

these Foundry african warriors, with this special head dress, are they a certain people?

I sure Plynkes will know. I am also hoping he can explain these privy door shields Foundry equips some of their Africans with.

[Plynkes]

I'd be tempted to say "Congo." Hammers' "Privy Door" shields certainly say Congo to me. The Mangbetu had shields like that, in fact some even bigger, to the extent that if they only had crescent moon holes cut in the middle one would assume they really had stolen a bunch of doors from settlers' outhouses to protect themselves with. The Mangbetu were considered notorious cannibals until some anthropologists came along and announced this was all racist stuff and nonsense. The Mangbetu however still like to consider themselves notorious cannibals, but what do they know? I've also seen drawings and photos of the odd Mangbetu chap in hats not all that unlike these, though for the most part they seem to have worn those funny little wickerwork fezzes with feathers, like the Azande wear.

I've seen a few illustrations of headgear like this that show people from the Congo, but haven't had much luck finding any online ones to show you. This picture from Camille-Aimé Coquilhat's "Sur le Haut-Congo" is the best I could come up with...



Personally, I would use them as Congo tribesmen, cannibals if you like (depending on whether you are an anthropologist or not).

[Plynkes]

Just for Hammers, some Mangbetu...


They appear to be saying "We've got your shithouse door and we're not giving it back."

[Hammers]

Just for Hammers, some Mangbetu...


They appear to be saying "We've got your shithouse door and we're not giving it back."

Were I a Belgian in employ of the Company, I'd be humiliated and downcast by this.

[Plynkes]

You literally could make a "shield wall" with those. If I were in charge of the army that's what I'd do. We'd plonk our shields in front of us so they stuck in the ground, and leave a tape of our war-song playing. While the enemy were plucking up the courage to charge this wall, we'd all quietly sneak off and hide in the woods.

[Plynkes]

Sorry to hijack the thread and go off on a tangent, but these Mangbetu are rather interesting. The women have striking hairdos...






I think this last one is the queen. She's a pretty lass, but don't half look miserable. I think she's posing for the picture on the Mangbetu Five-Pound note.

What's not immediately obvious from some of these pictures is that their heads go almost all the up inside those hairdos. To get their distinctive and beautiful elongated headshapes requires quite extreme measures while they are infants...



Note the universal looks of glee and approval on the faces of the infants concerned. "You'll thank me when you're eighteen and all the boys are chasing you because you're the most pointy-headed girl in the village." "Great, thanks a bunch, mum - in the meantime I look like the H.R. Giger alien."


The website where I found these pics also had some rather graphic in-progress shots of female genital mutilation (these Congo types sure know how to party!). To spare the sensibilities of the more squeamish of LAFers, I thought better of posting any of those here. 

[Hammers]

Sorry to hijack the thread and go off on a tangent, but these Mangbetu are rather interesting. The women have striking hairdos...






I think this last one is the queen. She's a pretty lass, but don't half look miserable. I think she's posing for the picture on the Mangbetu Five-Pound note.

What's not immediately obvious from some of these pictures is that their heads go almost all the up inside those hairdos. To get their distinctive and beautiful elongated headshapes requires quite extreme measures while they are infants...



Note the universal looks of glee and approval on the faces of the infants concerned. "You'll thank me when you're eighteen and all the boys are chasing you because you're the most pointy-headed girl in the village." "Great, thanks a bunch, mum - in the meantime I look like the H.R. Giger alien."


The website where I found these pics also had some rather graphic in-progress shots of female genital mutilation (these Congo types sure know how to party!). To spare the sensibilities of the more squeamish of LAFers, I thought better of posting any of those here. 

 "Create your Own Idiot Child" by Dr. (Witch) Mbutu Spock, author of Congo best seller "Labia Pruning and a 101 Creative Uses of a Shard of Glass".

Detestable. To think that the latter is still in practice... 

[Captain Blood]

Ah, but they were happy...


Don't do this with your forthcoming arrival, Hammers. Simply wouldn't work on Swedish babies... They just end up looking like ET 

[Prof.Witchheimer]

And I only wanted to know what the people on the pic are  thanks Plynkes 

[Doc Twilight]

The Maya used to do the same thing with their own children... of course, their charming addition was the filing of teeth to sharp points, and sometimes inlaying said teeth with jewels or gold overlay.

I'm amazed someone else shares the practice.

-Doc

[Lowtardog]

The Maya used to do the same thing with their own children... of course, their charming addition was the filing of teeth to sharp points, and sometimes inlaying said teeth with jewels or gold overlay.

I'm amazed someone else shares the practice.

-Doc

Quite common in Meso America at Doc says Huaxtecs and Otomi did this also

[JollyBob]

I'm sure I read somewhere that certain Celtic tribes bound the heads of infants as well. A pretty widespread practice by all accounts. (Although thinking about it, that may have been in one of those "fringe archaeology" books about pre-Columbian communication accross the Atlantic, more concerned with pet theories about lost continents than historical accuracy.)

Maybe they are trying to recreate the look of our one-time alien overlords? 

Am I right in thinking in those photos Plynkes posted, it is only the females of the tribe that get this done? I find that culturaly fascinating, and at the same time as repelent as the genital mutilation.

[Doomhippie]

Well, let's face it, these things are rather common even today. Only we call it cosmetic surgery. The idea behind it is still the same: to meet some defined standard of what we suppose is "good-looking". And obviously the cone-heads don't meet our collective western idea of beauty.