10 Historical Status Symbols That Seem Absurd Today

For virtually all of human history, the wealthy have looked for ways to flaunt their fortunes. In modern society, that usually takes the form of living in a mansion, driving a luxury sports car, and wearing designer clothing and jewelry. But in the past, there have been some status symbols that seem very strange to us these days. Here are 10 such examples—from pointy shoes to pineapples.

Related: 10 Ancient Religious Symbols and Their Meanings

10 Tulips

Although tulips are now associated with the Netherlands, they were originally a symbol of royal power in the Ottoman Empire. The flower had been cultivated in Turkey since at least AD 1000, with the elites—and particularly the sultans—taking a liking to the beautiful blooms. The flower’s name is tied to this history and is generally believed to derive from a Persian or Turkish word for turban, likely through a linguistic misunderstanding by European travelers.

When and how tulips made their way to Europe isn’t certain, but it’s thought it may have occurred during the 16th century thanks to Sultan Süleiman the Magnificent, who gifted bulbs to European nobles. The flower started being grown in the Netherlands, and Dutch tulips eventually became so sought after by wealthy Europeans that a full-blown mania for the bloom developed between 1634 and 1637. Prices for the flower became massively inflated, with reports of a single bulb fetching the same as a house in the best part of Amsterdam.^[1]

9 Board Games

The earliest known board games date back to around 3500 BC and came from Egypt and the Middle East. But early games weren’t just a form of entertainment. “Many of the first board games appear to have been diplomatic gifts to signify status,” explains historian Mark Hall from Perth Museum & Art Gallery in Scotland. “We have early examples of quite splendid playing pieces belonging to elite, privileged people.”

Some of these board games were so prized that royalty would even be buried with them. The ancient game of Senet was discovered in King Tutankhamen’s tomb, while a copy of the Game of Twenty Squares was found in Iraq’s Royal Tombs of Ur. The rules of these old games aren’t certain, but it’s thought that the latter may have shared similarities with later race games such as backgammon.

While people with money flaunted their intricately crafted board games, those with less money weren’t completely shut out of the fun; they just had to use cheaper materials that weren’t usually as long-lasting. Some games were simply drawn onto the ground, while others were woven from textiles.^[2]

8 Pointy Shoes

People with money have always used fashion to flaunt their wealth, and for men during the medieval period in Europe, that meant wearing long, pointy shoes. Known as poulaines or crakows (because the style came from Krakow, Poland, around 1340), the point on these shoes could extend up to five inches (12.7 cm) beyond the end of the wearer’s toe. “If you were a man of status and you had enough wealth, you wanted to show that off,” explains Rebecca Shawcross, author of Shoes: An Illustrated History. “And to do that, you had to take the toe to the extreme.”

The shoe’s point would be stuffed with materials such as wool and hair to prevent it from flopping around. But the difficulty of walking in poulaines was part of their appeal. The wearer clearly wouldn’t be able to engage in any physical work, signifying that they were rich enough to live a life of leisure. Although most surviving poulaines are made of leather (because of its durability), those with more money could buy velvet or silk shoes.

King Edward IV eventually grew fed up with the ridiculously long shoes, though, and even thought they were sexually indecent. “People thought the longer the toe, the more masculine the wearer,” explains Shawcross. In 1463, a law was passed that prohibited men from wearing “any shoes or boots with pikes longer than two inches.” Within a few years, the long-toed shoe—and its penis-length connotations—was left behind, with wide, boxy shoes becoming the new fashion.^[3]

7 Pineapples

From the 16th century onward, exotic fruits started making their way to Europe via explorers returning from America and Asia. Although various fruits were sampled, it was the pineapple that eventually caught the attention of the upper classes. In the words of Dr. Lauren O’Hagan, from Cardiff University, the pineapple outshone other fruits because its “exotic appearance” made it seem mythical, a quality that was “enhanced by its golden crown, viewed as the symbolic manifestation of the divine right of kings.”

Pineapples were incredibly expensive—the equivalent of thousands of dollars today for a single fruit—because of how hard they were to source, so people often didn’t even eat them. Instead, the spiky fruit would be placed on display at events and dinner parties. People would often show off the same pineapple until it rotted. But that all changed during the 19th century, when pineapples started being imported in such vast quantities that it drove down the price—and therefore the status—of the yellow fruit.^[4]

6 X-Rays

These days, X-rays are only used when medically necessary, but for a brief period during the Victorian era, they were treated like a toy. X-ray technology was invented by German engineer Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, and people were understandably fascinated by seeing their bones.

While the craze swept through all levels of society, those with less money could only experience X-rays at public lectures and exhibitions—which often called upon volunteers from the audience to demonstrate the technology. But the wealthiest enthusiasts could even install X-ray equipment in their homes. While jewelry interferes with X-rays taken for medical purposes (because it blocks the skeleton), it was essential in photos taken to flaunt wealth. “The woman’s jewelry functions as an identifying marker of gender and social status,” explains Professor Sylvia Pamboukian.

The fad didn’t last long, though, partly because people were being burned from repeated exposure to X-rays.^[5]

5 Elongated Skulls

Artificial cranial deformation—that is, purposefully reshaping the skull—is a practice that has been found in cultures around the world. The practice was (and sometimes still is) usually performed on infants—due to babies having softer skulls than adults—and often involved bands of cloth or a cradleboard-like device being tied around the head.

Each culture had its own reasons for shaping a person’s skull, but it’s not uncommon for it to have been a signifier of status. For instance, the Maya people often elongated the heads of children of nobility and high priests. But it’s thought that the Vikings might have had a different kind of status in mind. In 2024, the skeletons of three Viking women with oblong heads were found, but researchers don’t think they were elites. Dr. Matthias Toplak, from the Viking Museum Haithabu, explains that the dominant theory is “that they were a symbol of far-reaching trade contacts and commercial success due to their exotic appearance.”

Artificial cranial deformation has been documented on multiple continents and over thousands of years, suggesting that people repeatedly associated unusual head shapes with beauty, identity, prestige, or social standing. Whatever the motivation, it remains one of history’s most striking examples of status being physically displayed on the body itself.^[6]

4 Foot Binding

Most status symbols are just about showing off wealth, but the Chinese practice of foot binding was also about showing off commitment. The practice is thought to have originated in the 10th century with a dancer called Yao Niang, who bound her feet into the shape of the crescent moon to dance for Emperor Li Yu. Court ladies then started using their spare time to mold their feet into the same shape. Eventually, millions of women across China were doing the same.

The incredibly painful process usually started in childhood and took around two years. Girls would have their toes broken (aside from the big toes) and bound against the sole of their foot, and then the arch was bent over. Their feet would be bound in silk strips and crushed into lotus shoes (sometimes flesh was even cut away). The wrappings would gradually be made tighter (and were replaced often to prevent infection) to further shape the foot.

The ideal foot size was just three inches (7.6 cm), and if this was achieved, a woman would have far better marriage prospects. Although no longer widely practiced, for thousands of years foot binding was considered the height of female beauty and a demonstration of a woman’s commitment to Confucian values.^[7]

3 Egyptian Mummies

It’s well-known that in Ancient Egypt, being mummified after death could usually only be afforded by the wealthy. What’s less well-known is that owning an Egyptian mummy then became a status symbol in Europe during the 19th century.

“It would be quite unrespectable to return from Egypt without a mummy in one hand and a crocodile in the other,” according to Ferdinand von Geramb, a 19th-century Austrian nobleman. In earlier centuries, mummies had been ground up and added to medicine (people thought they could cure headaches and upset stomachs) and paint (the color was known as “mummy brown”). When mummy mania fully took off in the 19th century, rich people started holding unwrapping parties, where they would watch the bandages being removed.

It was around the early 1900s that mummies stopped being a hot commodity, with people finally realizing how disrespectful it was to treat human remains this way. What had once been one of the most fashionable collectibles in Europe eventually became viewed as one of the era’s stranger and more troubling obsessions.^[8]

2 Black Teeth

Bright white teeth are desired in today’s culture, but in centuries past, people in certain Asian countries wanted black teeth. Known as ohaguro in Japan and nhuộm răng đen in Vietnam, the practice of teeth blackening dates back to the Kofun period (around 300–538 CE) and the Hùng King era (traditionally dated 2879–258 BCE), respectively.

It was usually aristocratic women who blackened their teeth. “Women with pale skin and black teeth were deemed as beautiful, feminine and elegant,” explains Lenora Huỳnh, a Vietnamese-Canadian archivist. “It often signified their coming-of-age or was practiced by affluent women who could afford the various lacquer dye ingredients.”

In Japan, the black dye was typically made by dissolving iron filings in vinegar and mixing that with vegetable tannins or tea. In Vietnam, a variety of ingredients were used, including charcoal powder and betel nuts.

The practice started to fade from fashion during the 19th century due to the influence of Western beauty standards. But although no longer widely practiced, some women still paint their teeth black or wear black grills as a nod to their heritage.^[9]

1 Hermits

In the 18th century, a very strange new craze took off among British landowners: keeping an ornamental hermit. Hermits typically withdraw from society to focus on religion or philosophy, but the hermits who lived on the estates of the wealthy didn’t need to do any soul-searching. All that was required of them was to live in a sparse hermitage, grow out their hair and nails, and not wash.

The ornamental hermit trend spanned from roughly 1727 to 1830. Most hermitages were merely decorative and stood vacant, but the very wealthiest members of society could afford the extravagance of having a human being living in their garden. “Nothing, it was felt, could give such delight to the eye as the spectacle of an aged person, with a long gray beard and a goatish rough robe, doddering about amongst the discomforts and pleasures of nature,” wrote poet Edith Sitwell.

Those who didn’t have enough funds to pay for an actual person would attempt to achieve the status symbol in other ways. Some would place mannequins in their hermitages, while others would leave glasses and an open book out to give the impression that the hermit was momentarily out of sight.

In a period obsessed with romantic notions of nature and contemplation, owning a hermit became the ultimate luxury accessory. It was a status symbol so unusual that even many wealthy contemporaries found it difficult to take seriously.^[10]