Headhunting

Headhunting is generally a term for the practice of killing someone and decapitating them, usually for some ritual purpose and usually with some kind of public or semi-public display. Although there is much reference to the ceremonial taking of heads in Western civilization, this term is used mostly in reference to the practice in the precolonial era in parts of Nigeria, Nurestan, Assam, Myanmar, Borneo, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Micronesia, Melanesia, New Zealand, the Amazon Basin, and among certain sects of the Celts of ancient Europe. Today it is a universally prohibited practice, and appears to have all but died out as of the mid-twentieth century.

The practice of headhunting

Headhunting has been found in many parts of the world. Although those in contemporary western civilization think of it as primative and barbaric, there is much reference to taking heads and displaying them in the Bible and Mideivel Europe.

As a practice, headhunting has been the subject of intense discussion within the anthropological community as to its possible social roles, functions and motivations. Contemporary scholars generally agree that its primary function was ceremonial, and that it was part of the process of structuring, reinforcing and defending hierarchical relationships between communities and individuals. The debate is about the finer detail. Some believe that it was practiced because of a belief that the head contained "soul matter" or life force that could be harnessed through its capture. Themes that arise in anthropological writings about headhunting include mortification of the rival, ritual violence, cosmological balance, the display of manhood, cannibalism and prestige.

Another current use of the term is the practice of locating "heads" or executives for employment. Many businesses exclusively provide this service and are referred to as "head-hunters." Perhaps there is humor comparing the ferocity of modern business with the conventional use of the term.

Shrunken heads

Shrunken head exhibited at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, Florida.

An authentic shrunken head is a human head that has been prepared for display.

The manufacture of shrunken heads was formerly the specialty of a number of ethnic groups that practiced headhunting, most notably the Jívaro or Shuar people of present day Ecuador and Peru. Among the Shuar, a shrunken head is known as a tsantsa. The practice is no longer current, but the Shuar still produce replica heads which they sell to tourists.

In World War II shrunken heads of prisoners were also found in German concentration camps. Most notable findings were in the Buchenwald camp, where they were displayed in the camp center to terrify the prisoners. There were a few U. S. soldiers who kept skulls taken from enemies in the South Pacific battles as well.

The practice of making shrunken heads originally had religious significance; the heads were believed to harness the spirits of those enemies and compel them to serve the shrinker. The Shuar in Amazonian Ecuador and Peru practiced headhunting in order to make shrunken heads and use them for ritual purposes.

Shrunken head from the upper Amazon region, in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

They believed in the existence of three fundamental spirits:

• Wakani - innate to humans thus surviving their death, later turning into vapor.
• Arutam - literally "vision" or "power," protects humans from a violent death and assures their survival.
• Muisak - vengeful spirit, which surfaces when an arutam spirit-carrying person is murdered.

To block the last spirit from using its powers, and even turn them into their friends they severed their enemy's heads and shrank them. It also served as a way of warning those surviving enemies.

How it was done

The shrinking process primarily involved the desiccation of the skin. The skull was removed from the head: the maker would make an incision on the back of the neck and proceeded to remove all the skin and flesh from the cranium. Next,, they sewed the eyelids shut and held the mouth together with splinters. Fat from the flesh of the head was removed. The flesh was then boiled in water in which a number of herbs containing tannins were steeped, then dried with hot rocks and sand, while being molded by the preparer to retain its human feature. The lips were sewn shut, and various decorative beads were added to the head.

Shrunken heads are known for their mandibular prognathism, facial distortion and shrinkage of the lateral sides of the forehead; these are artifices of the shrinking process.

The process to reduce the size of the heads was accompanied by a ritual, which culminated with la Fiesta de la Victoria (Spanish for "victory feast") celebrated by the entire community.

Trade in shrunken heads

Traditionally, about one head a year would be taken, and then only from another village. There was, however, much fear and violence within the tribe and the need to revenge any offense was taught to the very young. It is estimated that these tribes would have self exterminated if it were not for the intervention of Christian missionaries who taught the concepts of Grace and forgiveness. There were many other cultural interventions, however, that increased the incidence in headhunting. Colonialists were fascinated and they created an economic demand for shrunken heads. A stop was put to this when the Peruvian and Ecuadorian governments outlawed the traffic in heads.

Replica shrunken heads are manufactured as curios for the tourist trade and can be bought in airport shops such as those in Quito, Ecuador. These are made from leather and animal hides carved to resemble the originals. Replica shrunken heads, due to their provocative nature, are also popular in the hotrod culture, where they may be seen hanging from rear view mirrors as ornaments.

The presence or absence of nasal hair is one clue as to whether a shrunken head is authentic or a replica. One of the largest collections of authentic shrunken heads is on display at Ye olde curiosity shoppe in Seattle, WA, USA with 7 heads. It also houses the smallest shrunken head in the world which is about the size of a tennis ball.

Examples of headhunting

Southeast Asia and Melanesia

Head tray, Papua New Guinea, early 1900s (Field Museum of Natural History). The artifact itself is a two-head tray. The photograph behind it is of a seven-head tray. The display would have been hung on the wall of a communal men's house.

Headhunting was practiced in many parts of Southeast Asia. Anthropological writings exist on the Ilongot, Iban, Dayak, Berawan, Wana, Mappurondo, and others. Among these groups, the rationale could vary. Janet Hoskins study in Sumba, Indonesia showed that rationale could vary even on one small island. In East Sumba, headhunting was largely showing territorial conquest. In West Sumba, it was more an and of vengeance between equals. In many parts of southeast Asia, the practice seems primarily for fertility rituals. Headhunting has been usually a ritual activity rather than an act of war or feuding, and involved the taking of a single head from another village. The spirit of the victim could be enlisted in one's own army of friends in the "skyworld." Headhunting also acted as a catalyst for the cessation of personal and collective mourning for the community's dead. Ideas of manhood were wrapped up in the practice and the taken heads were prized.

Around the 1930s, headhunting was suppressed among the Taiwanese aborigines during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan and among the Ilongot in the Philippines by the US authorities. In Sarawak on the island of Borneo, the colonial dynasty of James Brooke and his descendants eradicated headhunting in the hundred years before World War II.

Some believe that Michael Rockefeller may have been taken by headhunters in western New Guinea as recently as 1961.

In 1968, Michelle Rosaldo found that 65 of 70 adult Ilongot men in the northern Philippines over the age of 20 years had taken at least one head. This was very surprising to find, and the people seemed to "fit in" with more modern ideas of culture and seemed fairly peaceful. They did not report any previous reasons of earlier South East Asian tribes. They did not bring the heads back and display them, either. They said they took heads when they had a ‘heavy heart’ or felt angry or strong pressures. In 1974, Rosaldo returned to study more about the reasons they took heads. She found they felt that men were more passionate than women, yet had less recourse to verbal and other means of expressing this passion. They felt that the spirit of the victim was actually with them and helping them mature and grow to find better expressions of their emotion. They felt that they were able to get prestige from the group and attract wives through the head- hunting.

Kenneth George (1996) wrote about annual headhunting rituals that he observed among the Mappurondo religious minority, an upland tribe in the south-west part of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Actual heads are not taken; instead, surrogate heads are used, in the form of coconuts. The ritual, called Pangngae, takes place at the conclusion of the rice harvesting season. It functions to bring an end to communal mourning for the deceased of the past year, express inter-cultural tensions and polemics, allow men to display manhood, distribute communal resources, and resist outside pressures to abandon Mappurondo life-ways.

New Zealand

In what is now known as New Zealand, the Māori would preserve the heads of enemies, removing the skull and smoking the head. Māori are currently attempting to reclaim the heads of their ancestors held in museums outside New Zealand.

China

During the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, Qin soldiers were prone to collect their enemies' heads. Since most of the soldiers were slaves, they and their families could be freed from slavery and even secure promotions in the army by returning victorious with heads. The act of Qin soldiers carrying heads in battles usually terrified their foes. This is why headhunting is one of the factors in the Qin dynasty defeating six other nations and unifying China.

After the Qin dynasty, headhunting ceased to be practiced amongst Chinese people.

Euopean headhunting

The future King David in the Bible is known for killing Goliath, but few Sunday School classes teach the rest of the story. After he was killed by the stone, David went over, be-headed him, and displayed the head to all around in order to verify his victory and terrify the enemy.

This was a fairly common practice. The Celts of Europe practiced headhunting for an indeterminate religious reason. Headhunting was practiced after their conversion to Christianity by the demi-Celtic Gaels, though this was probably more traditional than religious. Heads were also taken among the Germanic tribes and Iberians, but the purpose is unknown.

Romans and Greeks recorded their habits of nailing heads of personal enemies to walls, or dangling them from the necks of horses, and human skulls are found amongst votive offerings. The Apian Way in Rome was often lined with severed heads on stakes meant to terrify and preclude any thought of rebellion. The ceremonial display of heads was common throughout Europe in the Middle Ages as well, although it became less common toward the end of the thirteenth century.

Although these practices could certainly be called "head-hunting," generally these are not referred to as such.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Kenneth George (1996). Showing signs of violence: The cultural politics of a twentieth-century headhunting ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-52020-041-1
• http://www.seasite.niu.edu/crossroads/russell/headhunting.htm, retrieved 11-28-06
• http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v11n1/relativism.html, retrieved 11-28-06

External links

• Head Hunting: History of the Shuar
• Shrunken heads from the Discovery Channel[1]
• General information
• [http://shamash.org/holocaust/photos/images/Shrunken.jpg Picture of a shrunken head from the Buchenwald concentration camp
• Encyclopedia Britannica entry 1996

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Headhunting  ^history
• Shrunken_head  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Headhunting"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.