A woman with a load on her head was staggering through an intersection on Main Street

In the wholesale district of Mumbai, where many people come and go, it was all men who carried the loads on their heads. Looking at this scene, it is perhaps natural that there are no women, as the work is heavy and the carrying of goods is very demanding. But the act of carrying luggage overhead itself is something that women are familiar with.

In fact, at an intersection I passed by, I saw a woman with a package on her head crossing the street with light steps. I even got the impression that this method of transport is more often performed by women. Upon further research, the Wikipedia entry for “overhead carrying” also states that it “tends to be carried out by women. The custom is also said to have once been common in Japan and Europe, while in some areas, such as India and Africa, it is still practiced on a daily basis.

In Japan, medieval picture scrolls depict overhead transport, and in Europe, women used it as a means of carrying heavy loads in the Middle Ages. Furthermore, the English version of Wikipedia shows a photo taken in New York in 1905 of a Slovak immigrant woman carrying a large bag over her head. Surprisingly, the custom may have continued in Eastern Europe until modern times.

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