Throughout the world, there has been a peculiar practice taken place throughout various times in human history. This practice, known widely as shrinking human heads, is today thought of as tiny heads in pickle jars as portrayed in famous works like Harry Potter. Despite this portrayal, it was once a very real practice that took place after tribal warfare. Perhaps the most infamous of these shrunken heads were the Jivaro heads, which were made by the indigenous people of the Andes region of Peru and Ecuador. (Ḏḥwty, The Shrunken Heads of Jivaro) Originally having religious significance, it was believed that the original owner of the head had to serve and not seek revenge against the perpetrator. (Ḏḥwty, The Shrunken Heads of Jivaro) A seemingly …show more content…
Prefiguring the world for children turns them from creators of their own world to simple users. Societal concepts, such as the warfare and religion that made Jivaro heads, creep their way into children toys and influence them to think and act a certain way, rather than making their own way. “The bourgeois status of toys” (Barthes 54) means that the French toy issue is as widespread as Barthes fears, making many children fall into the trap of a prefigured world. This seems to be intentionally done by the adults of society when Barthes suggests that “French toys: one could not find a better illustration of the fact that the adult Frenchman sees the child as another self.” (Barthes 53) If children were to look into a mirror and have an adult stare back at them, then there is little individuality. This lack of individuality is the main arguing point of Barthes. Toys can use some improvement, yes, but it is the fact that society seems to be conditioning people to not be individuals that is the real issue. Rather than give children certain toys, Barthes thinks that giving children blocks to create their own toys will allow for imagination and creativity to grow. In turn, children could grow as individuals rather than clones of adults from previous generations. Once these children grow up to be adults, their individuality is threatened in a different …show more content…
Thomas’s connection between the image of the attic and the complexity of the brain allowed a connection to be made toward Barthes’s approach and his conveyed message. Toys being prefigured objects limit creativity by making children “users”. When someone isn’t creative, they simply borrow creations from others. When people borrow from others, then they are simply “[seen] as another self” (Barthes 53), a clone of another. Not only that, but people become the very Jivaro heads that are thought to be from an uncivilized society, nothing more than a product of prefigured concepts. Perhaps the society that exists now, the society that doesn’t want to be made up of individuals, isn’t so