Job Discussion Forums

[yaramaz]

Do we have big heads? I hadn't ever thought about it...

(oh crap, now I have the title tune to that odd series on Snek tv from last year in my head... koca kafalar, kocaman kafalar...)

[gelin]

I guess we don't have so much rounded heads as the backs of our heads aren't flat. Just have a look around Most people don't lay their babies down to sleep on their stomach (as we used to), so maybe that's why they stayed rounded. Who knows. I remember with my two boys people would comment on their heads and lovingly cup the backs of them. It was hysterical.

[MEDRACER]

[FGT]

I quote:

[MEDRACER]

[dmb]

^Medracer, thank you for your graphics. Very original and most appreciated.

If i wasn't so hungover I'd buy you a beer.

[MEDRACER]

Thanx for the advice about FLICKR and stuff, but I think I'd better keep to my own threads in future. Dont actually understand some of the responses I get here.

Cheers

[tarte tatin]

Interesting that other people have noticed the flat Turkish head shape. I have seen extreme examples of almost wedge shaped heads and one sad case of pea head syndrome (which in the UK is only prevalent in gypsy communities) due no doubt to inbreeding.

It scares me how inbreeding is still so acceptable here. I am not saying that always accounts for the flatter Turkish head but is surely a factor in some cases. I have actually noticed a fairly high level of physical deformities (lameness in various forms) dwarfism, midgets and so on.

Surely people should be educated about first cousin marriages, mothers smoking during pregnacy and so forth.

[Golightly]

The strange shaped head thing is something I've seen, too. the most extreme example was a kid with a classic case of microencephaly I saw in Buca, Izmir, once. He looked disturbingly like Picasso's 'self portrait as a child'
But with a smaller head.

[gelin]

Isn't at all uncommon in Turkey. I've done some research which shows that an educated male will still marry his first cousin, while an educated female won't. So the educated males marry the uneducated females. Amazing, huh? Up to 40% of the marriages in the southeast are to cousins. It used to be that high in the Black Sea region, but it's been decreasing. There used to public service announcements on TV about the dangers of marrying your cousin, but with the AK Parti government, those commercials are no longer. Suleyman Demirel married his cousin. He's not AK, but well you see my point...

[mongrelcat]

as Gelin pointed out, we in the West (and other areas also) are instructed by physicians to have our babies sleep in different positions, turning them occasionally as one would a roast.
This prevents "flat head." Also since the cranial skull is soft at birth up to some months, parents are also told to gently mold the head to keep it symmetrical.

Yes I have also realized there is a disturbing amount of birth defects here, "soft" signs as the medical community would call it. Is it due to inbreeding? Poor diet? Lack of prenatal care?

Whatever its due to, its 2007 and there's really no excuse for it. Except if your culture is hyper-superstitious. As in, "Close the window! It's 30 degrees and you might get pneumonia!"

[justme]

Ender HATES being on his belly and won't have it for more than a few minutes-- is he gonna get a flat head after all?

I think the flat head thing is kind of endemic to Asia-- I've seen lots of Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian and Mongolian people with the same thing.

As for the inbreeding, the number of albinos I've seen here shocks me-- I'd seen one in my life prior to coming here, and like 10 in the last 5 years. Certain types of hermaphroditism are caused by inbreeding as well, so I often wonder. And all the club feet and such are straight out of D*ckens! Mongrelcat's right-- it's 2007, and parts of Turkey are so developed there's no excuse.

Superstition and that 'Inşallah, Allah bilir' attitude...

[tarte tatin]

I shouldn't worry about your baby's development Just Me. I had a Kurdish boyfriend (Iraqi) and I commented to him about his very regular and slightly oblong head shape and he said his mother turned him regularly as a baby. It was not unattractive and nothing like the flat slope on the back of Turkish heads.

Also isn't it supposed to be safer for a baby to sleep on his back, less chance of cot death?

[dmb]

Reading the above posts I was beginning to think that inbreeding was an Islamic thing. Based on experience here and much more in the Gulf. I actually had a class In Qatar when a student told me had 11 toes. He took off his boot to show me. Almost every other student in the class then went on to tell me about relatives with similar deformites. But then I thought didn't the royal families of Europe all inter- marry. Not that I am saying Charlie is mad or anything.

[Golightly]

The British Royal Family is living proof that our top toffs used to interbreed with horses.
Charles took Camilla down to Haydock park the other day.





They won by three lengths at odds of 4-1.


And a little known fact: Prince William was born with six toes on one foot.