“No one ever made a difference by
being like everyone else.”
(P.T. Barnum)
 |
| Mira, Shfali, and Pushpa at Famous Circus, Calcutta, 1989. “Indian Circus”, 1993. Mary Ellen Mark |
A few days ago I was thinking about the word “Siamese twins”.
If words have a certain use it is for
sure because they have an origin and an explanation.
So I went looking for the story of
this word.
You all know what Siamese twins are,
those twins born united in different parts of the body, a phenomenon due to the
late division of the embryo, and whose pairs of twins are always monozygotic
and therefore of the same gender.
Until now, the reason for the delay
of this split is still unknown.
Births like this are very rare, one
in 120,000 happens, and in most cases they don't survive long due to malformations
of the internal organs.
Some studies also speculate that
Siamese twins joined to the cerebral cortex may even share the same thoughts,
as if they were a single individual.
Their appearance is ancient in time:
the Byzantine historian Leone Diacono was the first to describe one of these
cases in 954. But then no name was given to them, it was a sign of the devil or
in any case of doom.
And what scares us is not mentioned.
The term Siamese twins entered our
vocabulary in 1811, thanks to the most famous pair of twins in history; those
Chang and Eng Bunker born in the province of Samut Songkhram, in the Kingdom of
Rattanakosin in Thailand, the ancient Siam from which the name derives.
Here is the mystery explained.
The twins were born united at the
sternum and had a common liver. Despite this they lived up to sixty.
They performed in circuses, moved to
live in North Carolina, taking the surname of “Bunker”, and married in 1843 the
sisters Adelaide and Sarah Anne Yates. With their respective wives they had ten
and eleven children, and lived in separate houses, alternating three days in
the house of one wife and three days in the house of the other.
They died in 1874.
 |
| Chang and Eng Bunker |
It is no coincidence that they were
hired to work in circuses. At the time, deformed or wacky beings were highly
sought after to perform. Famous was the case of the Barnum Circus, founded by
Phinaes Taylor Barnum (1810-1892), the American circus entrepreneur who in the
1930s brought around his famous circus and museum of “freaks”, including a 161-year-old African woman, a mermaid or the skeleton of Christopher Columbus.
A mass of strangeness and oddities
of nature exposed to public enjoyment.
Moreover, these phenomena have a
clear psychological effect on those who assist you that is not so different
from the feeling of seeing fatal accidents on the street. It makes us feel
better, healthy and alive.
“Luckily it didn't happen to me!”
Dying between the sheets of the car,
having the body entirely covered with hair like a wolf, or being attached half
body to my twin.
Yet, enclosing all that is strange,
deformed and frightening in the same place, but still exposed to view – not
like the asylums or hospices that house the “different” but not to be seen –
has the opposite effect.
It is not that it makes us feel so much
better, because it gives us the illusion that it's so simple to discern and
isolate the different, the ugly from the “healthy” part that we are.
It's not a chemical laboratory where
the dark side is extracted to make us definitely healthy and not bizarre,
pleasant.
All of this always remains within
us.
And, as if by a sort of cathartic
rebellion, the “freaks” become, in reality, guiltless and moving beings, in the
meaning that they move with tenderness, because they have the onerous task of
raising our consciences with their appearance, a task that we gave them.
The work on Indian circuses by
photographer Mary Ellen Mark, released in 1993, which collects six months of
photographs in 18 circuses in India, is unforgettable.
As in all her works there is no
moral judgment, but only closeness and understanding, as was the case with the
prostitutes of Falkland Road in Bombay.
She herself describes her experience
in these circuses:
"A poetry and a craziness that are still uncorrupted, and honest, and pure”
All this gives us, sometimes, the journey into the history of words.
 |
| Twin Brothers Tulsi and Basant.Famous Circus, Calcutta, 1989. “Indian Circus”, 1993. Mary Ellen Mark |
P. T. Barnum: “Battles and triumphs - Forty years of memories” (Sellerio,
2018)
“P. T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman” (Alfred a Knopf, 1995)
Mary Ellen Mark: “Indian Circus” (Chronicle Books Llc, 1933)
This article reminds me of the oldest Siamese Twins in the world, Ronnie and Donnie Gaylon, who died at the age of 68. Both died on Saturday, 4 July 2020, at Dayton Hospital after undergoing intensive care.
ReplyDeleteThey were both born on 28 October 1951, in Ohio, USA, and spent the first year in the hospital. Ronnie and Donnie are united in the groin and abdomen. So both have only one digestive organ and one reproductive organ. Their parents rejected the doctor's offer to separate these Siamese twins, as it could be life-threatening for their children.
That is the secret of God's power in His every creation. Subhanallah.
Yes, a lot of amazing stories behind the twins 👌
DeleteAnother interesting matter i didn't bother to find out myself but suddenly got a free clear explanation..thanks a lot
ReplyDeleteReally thanks to you 🙏
DeleteGod created something for human to think and be grateful for His creation.
ReplyDeleteMy history teacher told me about this Siamese Twin when I was 3rd. Grade in school.
Thank you for sharing this good information.
A good writer can definitely write about everything very well.
Really thanks 🙏
DeleteThe 'first' is always special. 😍
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot 💪
DeleteSudah jadi all rounder writer. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteGrazie 😊
Delete