Mr. Purple Cat Esq. My random theory is: This is a sort of *conspicuous consumption* status symbol, except more *conspicuous mutilation of important working parts of me* ie. look how together/in control/well provided for I am! I can even seriously debilitate myself like this and I'm still doin jus' fine!
So its up there with spending millions on conspicuously horrible art.
frau_eva Its far more depressing than that. The lip plates weren't done until the Slave Trade happened. Doing crazy shit like lip plates made it much less likely that a slaver would decide to kidnap you.
Redford I have a friend who is a little obsessed with getting tatoos and body modifications (like this one). Whenever I ask him why he does it, his answer is generally to the theme of "Why would anyone not want to?" so no flashes of insight here.
FatFatuousNation Slave trade hypothesis seems a little specious, considering it's been done for thousands of years, deep into prehistory, and by many different groups throughout the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip_plate
My hypothesis: lip = about the same as an earlobe. Piercing and ornamenting one is culturally familiar to us, the other is not, but they're manifestations of the same thing.
memedumpster That really only makes sense to me if the plates are tambourines.
Robin Kestrel Or if all the men in your society have a duckbill fetish.
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