At steep angles! Bones fuse and prevent that if you don’t do it regularly as a kid. It’s the same reason we don’t climb trees like monkeys, whose ankles don’t have the same restrictions we do
Human ankles don’t normally work like that!
Iirc someone did an anatomical study and people of slavic descent have shallower hip sockets that allow that movement more easily as well.
Yes! This was something we talked about in my physical anthropology class, that like, some people physically cannot slav squat just because of their bones and skeletal structure.
Look until this post started going around I had no idea some people couldn’t do this???
Reblog and tag with whether you can slav squat or not.
I can squat like this, but I cannot maintain it as I have a spinal deformity and this position causes my back a fuckton of pain.
Let’s hear it for
SQUATTING FACETS!
They are in fact the #1 thing that got me interested in:
Anthropology
Physical anthropology
Forensic anthropology
The archaeology class I was in at the time*
So here’s a squatting person from the side:
This here, the point of contact between the talus and the tibia. Squatting like this culturally—ie, it’s the default way you sit—leaves evidence on your talus, tibia, and hips (the acetabulum or hip socket). The fact that we can see literal evidence for the different ways people live their everyday lives—not just how they got murdered or what *stuff* they *had*—blew me away when I was 3 days into college and it still does today.
Here is one on the tibia:
And here’s one on the talus, in medium and large versions:
*don’t tell Pam (but she saw the “oh shit this is awesome” fire in my eyes at the time and gods bless her for that and leaning into it.)
Editing to add: Slavs aren’t born like this. It’s not a genetic trait—it’s a behavioral marker. There are lots of other squatting cultures!!
I made a mistake and read the notes so I’m gonna go ahead and add:
