There are very few thing more strongly associated with the darkest corners of the most remote jungles than shrunken promontory . Probably onlycannibalismis capable of evoking more apprehensiveness and discomforting imagery , yet some anthropologists still dispute whether cannibalism was ever widely practiced as a custom in any culture . There is evidence that homo have , across the earth and at unlike prison term in story , eaten other mankind . Yet , these instances may have engage place during time of extreme socialstress , like famine . The jury is still out on the sort of cannibalism most people assume took place among autochthonic tribes .

This is not the case with shrunken heads . Shrunken heads are an actuality . Ritual fountainhead contract is well known and widely documented – you could call in them in museums around the world . And its practice is n’t circularise out across prison term and distance : While grouping from Europe , Oceana , North America and Africa have long taken the heads of enemies belt down in fight , a single tribe , theShuar , who live in a region of the Amazon basin that straddles Ecuador and Peru , are the only grouping known to shrink heads . They continued this practice until as recently as the 1950s .

Much of the humans has long held a fearful image of the Shuar tribespeople . The idea of a person who , under the influence of hallucinogenic drug , will drive a lance through your throat , thin your head from your body , and wear it , shrunken , is indeed fearsome . begin in 1599 , the Shuar were one of the few groups to successfully repulse and maintain exemption from compound dominion . In that year , the Shuar killed 25,000 settler during a revolt . From then on , the tribe last as it pleased in comparative isolation from the rest of the world , war with one another .

This isolation and the Shuar ’s practice of create wizen head – calledtsantsas– has given them a direful reputation with the rest of the domain . Yet , as with any culture whose practice session are viewed as ghastly to most other cultures , a deeper look divulge reason and explanation that get away first notice . The Shuar shrink the read/write head of their dead enemies , yes , and such a ritual deserve a deeper look .

The Shuar: Death, Revenge and War

The culture of the Shuar is deep rooted in spiritualism , legerdemain and war . An account of the tribe published in National Geographic in 1921 cite that there ’s no established priestly class ; rather , through the use of hallucinogenic drugs , like the brew concoction callednatema , a Shuar tribesman can directly get through and consult with spirits . This is in particular relevant to the topic of head shrinking , because the Shuar believe that thedeathof a tribesman is the unmediated result of a ghostly or witching attack of another , hold up tribesperson .

This belief make the basis of the cultivation of vengeance that largely characterizes the Shuar . Not simply violent expiry , but death by lifelike causes is attributed to an unseen , remote enemy blast . The construct of retaliation is deep rout in Shuar refinement . From a very unseasoned age , boys are bore in the standing feud his family unit has with other families . He is also taught that not exacting revenge in the form of violence is to receive retribution from his fallen ancestors [ source : Jandial , et al ] .

When a family member die – disregarding of the drive – a tribesman consults a penis of the spirit universe under the influence of natema to ascertain the culprit . The answer comes in a imaginativeness , and the folk sets about recruit other nearby households to link them in a loose confederation with the use of demand revenge . Over the trend of several weeks or months , the mathematical group prepares for warfare , at time even alerting the intended target of its plans .

Ethnographies differ on who is killed during attack on rival menage . An earlier survey of the Shuar describes them as polygamous and cite thatmenfrom the raiding party may capture fair sex from the targeted household as wife . A more recent history of the Shuar paint a picture that while a undivided tribesman is identified as the informant of the folk member ’s death is thus the primal butt for revenge , anyone found with that someone may be killed . Indeed , an total home , includingwomenand children , may be subject to slaughter , although the heads of children are n’t occupy .

The heads that are take are removed by write out the skin at the extreme basis of the neck , just above the collarbone and in a " V " shape meeting at a point between the nipples . Once the question is removed , a hair band or vine is occur through the open neck and out of the mouth , creating a eyelet that cook for prosperous transport as the warrior swiftly makes his path back home .

Skinning the Victim’s Head

The process of chief shrivel is part of the entire sweeping series of actions that take to thedeathof the target in the first seat . It is part of the requital performed in the death of the family member ; there is a methodical summons involved and it must be followed for the retribution to be to the full carried out .

The Shuar lived spread over a relatively tumid geographical area , so raiding parties often traveled for day to conduct out attacks . The process of recoil an enemy ’s psyche ca n’t wait until the raiders fall home , so the raiders begin the process on the way back . The leader of the party , typically an aged warrior related to the raiders who does n’t attend the foray , meets the raiders at a camp outside the small town . He ’s in charge of guide the incantations and rites associated with transforming the point into a tsantsa – the ritually shrunken oral sex .

The step in this process will be carried out in camps along the way back home . At each of the stages in preparation , the political party leader – forebode thecuraka– presides over the unconscious process . The members of the bust political party are attentive to each step , reinforce the curaka ’s actions . During this unconscious process , and for some time to come , the warriors abstain from certain foods , fromsexand from other practices , like hunting alone . There are purport being held at bay by the process and not following the rituals is dangerous .

The head of the dupe is first gear up by cutting from the base of the capitulum down or from the base of the skull , either way make a flap that begins to loosen the skin from the skull . Musclesand tissue paper that link up the skin to the skull are severed with a tongue . The skull is generally confuse into a nearby river . The eyes are removed and discarded and the cartilage that anchors the olfactory organ and spike are cut away , leaving just the skin and hair that work up the face and scalp ; ideate a rubberHalloweenmask . Although separating the skin from the head can take a skilled preparer as little as 15 minutes , enough finesse is used that the facial characteristics of the victim will still be recognisable after wither [ source : Jandial , et al , National Geographic ] .

The Process of Head Shrinking

A small ceramic pot make expressly for the processing of this special head is filled withwaterand put over afire . The headskinis sneak in into the hot piss three clip by the drawing card and then left to simmer for 30 minutes ; anything longer than that may lead to the fuzz coming out . After that , it ’s removed from the water and placed on a spear to dry out . The Shuar consider the instruments used in their raids as spoiled after they ’re used . They leave their spears behind after the raid , they fling the skulls of victims and , likewise , after its single use , the pot used to churn the question cutis is discarded .

The boiling activity leads to a significant decrement in the size of it of the skin – to about one - third its size – but it is spicy pebble , sand and rock-and-roll that complete the transformation . After it dry out , the sewing set about . In most cases the mouth is pinned shut using wooden pegs prior to stewing . After dry out , the pegs may be leave in and the mouth is further run up shut by wander the top and the bottom lip together using fiber ; this fiber is thread in such a way that characteristic twine typically hang down from knots along the lip in completed tsantsas . The centre of the victim are besides tailor-make shut as will the incision that created the initial flaps along the back or side of the neck . What outcome is essentially a pocket , with the infrastructure of the cervix as the only opening .

This serves as the entryway for stick in hot rocks that are roll out incessantly around inside the head to prevent burning the skin and to bring around the skin equally to prevent optical aberration of facial features . As further shrinking occurs , smaller hot pebbles and eventually red-hot moxie are used to complete the curing mental process . The outside of the cutis is hold against a flat , heated rock to smoothen out wrinkles , much like a apparel iron . A hot brand is fight to the rim to dry out them . Finally the school principal is dangled over a fire to finish the appendage , darken and toughening the skin ; charcoal ash scratch over the skin darken it further . This dry heat energy curing stage is carried out over a matter of days .

After a serial of footfall that takes billet over the course of several solar day and in locations along the way from the raid back home base , a tsantsa , a human top dog reduce to about one - quarter of its original size – about the size of it of a fist – has been created . While the head skin shrinks , the hair is not reduced , lend an odd , characteristic flavour to the modest fountainhead with long hair attached .

The Magical Significance of the Shrunken Head

While it is also a subject of practicality in preparation , tailor theeyesand sassing of the victim shut also has a ritual significance . Namely , with its eyes sewn shut , the feeling of the dupe ca n’t see and with its mouth sewn close , it ca n’t call for vengeance from its own family .

The pickings and shrinkage of a fountainhead was , for many geezerhood take after striking with Europeans , take as merely a state of war prize turn into an adornment . Indeed , the warrior who acquire the head does in fact wear the tsantsa for between a calendar month and a year . The tsantsa is more than a mere prize , however . It is both the physical means by which the dupe ’s emotional state – themuisak– is trammel and kept subservient and real cogent evidence for the spirit of the warrior ’s beat family member that he has carried out the necessary revenge .

Upon returning from a raid and over the form of a twelvemonth , the raid party and the warrior who take the tsantsa will be celebrate through parties and feasts that last several years , beginning first with " a ceremonial saltation at which there is an orgy of furious drinking " [ reservoir : Anthony ] . One ethnographer approximate the average casual intake of maniocbeerfor an grownup male was three to four congius ( 11 to 15 liters ) ; consumption at a festivity would far exceed this amount [ source : Harner ] .

This first solemnisation is callednumpenk , or " his veryblood , " and the raiding party dances with the tsantsas they took to reenact the battle for the others in the menage . Two other feasts –amianuandnapin– are hold to discharge the appeasement of the dead and further enrich the societal standing of the warriors . Amianu means " fulfillment , " and is maintain approximately a year after the raid [ source : McGuiness ] . After this celebration , the warrior ’s indebtedness to his deceased to demand revenge is to the full quenched .

It is here that the tsantsa , what was once a prized and witching self-control , drop off all of its economic value and import . Once the feasts and solemnization are completed and the dead are appeased , the shrunken head becomes meaningless and may be discarded . In some case , they become toy for children in the family , but more frequently after Europeans make it in the area , they were used forcurrencyin trade . It was need for tsantsas among bloodless settler that lead to an escalation of intertribal warfare and a counterfeit wizened question craft .

Western Head Collecting and Repatriation of Shrunken Heads

While the Shuar have long been resentful of encroachment and unwanted formula , as the 1599 uprising prove , they ’re also conformable to visitant and what they moot bonnie trade . The 1921 National Geographic ethnography on the Shuar reported , " we found them a secure natured multitude and very favorable to us " [ source : Anthony ] .

This helped hasten trade between the Shuar who had tsantsas they considered useless following the ritual jubilation and outsiders who hadgunsthey were willing to trade for the head . The pace was usually an even exchange : one gun for one mind [ germ : McGuiness ] . The demand among Westerners for tsantsas led to an addition in intertribal warfare among the Shuar . Prior to Western pursuit in tsantsas , warfare among the Shuar was relatively infrequent ; by the beginning of the 20th one C , raids were carried out on a monthly basis [ reservoir : Jandial , et al ] . The debut of torpedo into Shuar culture only served to bolster this cycle .

The late 19th and other 20th century saw the apex in the production of tsantsas . While the increase demand is suspected to have run to an gain in head hunting , this increased craft also led to increased exposure to Europeans and contagious disease . This , in turning , lead to an increase in death among the Shuar , who suspectedwitchcraft , which in turn led to increased war . Between 1889 and 1911 , the universe of Shuar in one local area correct by 50 per centum because of warfare [ source : Rubenstein ] .

This demand for heads outside of the Amazon Basin also make a grocery for counterfeit tsantsas . In Shuar society , there is a remedy for a site where a warrior successfully bolt down the someone who bewitched and killed his relative but give out to take that person ’s head . In this case , a warrior may make a tsantsa from a sloth ’s head as a symbolic pedestal in . Sloth tsantsas were probable the first counterfeits to enter the global market , since they were authentic insofar as they had been made by Shuar tribespeople . In light order , however , these counterfeits were comply by others made of imp chief , horse cavalry and goat cutis and in some cases human heads taken from Ecuadorian morgues .

While private aggregator and dealer made up most of the demand , museum commonly obtain tsantsas , by purchase them , but more frequently as the recipients of donations of shrunken head word from collectors ' landed estate . Museums too were subject to counterfeits ; an audited account conducted in the 1990s of theSmithsonian ’s collection found that only five of the 21 examined were authentic Shuar tsantsas [ beginning : Aufderheide ] .

In recent years , hold counterfeit shrivelled head has n’t been the problem for museums ; it ’s the reliable ace that are establish troublesome .

The Role of Tsantsa in Civilization

While Western adventurers led jaunt funded by wealthy trader and collector around the turn of the last century increased demand for tsantsas , Western missionary were simultaneously assay to free Shuar lodge of them . In big part , the missionary gain this battle . The encroachment of Christianity into Shuar finish brought them further into Ecuadorian society , and when the Shuar Federation was established in the 1950s a lasting peace among the members was build . Still , it ’s considered an exposed secret that tsantsa remain an important part of Shuar culture . It ’s the foe that ’s changed ; as recently as the 1996 Cenepa war between Ecuador and Peru , Shuar warrior enlisted in the Ecuadorianarmywere rumour to have make tsantsas from the top dog of Peruvian soldiers . These rumors are unsubstantiated and few if any anthropologist believe the Shuar have made a tsantsa in the last several decades . It is strongly consider that the knowledge and the willingness remain among the kinship group , however .

In much the same way that the Shuar have had to downplay or keep secret the role that tsantsas still play in their civilization as they ’ve become indoctrinated into Western society , so too have museums had to probe the role of tsantsas in their collections . Increasingly , what were once considered exotic objects of prurient interest – likemummiesand skeletons – have come to be seen as human cadaver . Because of their conversion from forefront to ritual physical object in hands of the Shuar , tsantsas in particular may be viewed asquasi - object , part human remains , part ethnical artifact [ source : Rubenstein ] . Yet the undeniable fact that they are the brain of a human beings placed on presentation has ultimately make headway out ; tsantsas are human remains and museum have progressively had to examine what role they represent in their accumulation .

An display in 1995 at the University of Oslo used the tsantsas in its collection to point out the complicity museum visitors still play today in the vehemence that get hold of billet X ago [ germ : Rubenstein ] . Other museums are giving their tsantsas back to the Shuar . A trend toward calling for therepatriationof objective – return them to their lands of origin – has take base . Central to this vogue are human stiff , which are abundant in museum assemblage . The National Museum of the American Indian at theSmithsonianwas the first to repatriate tsantsas to the Shuar Federation in 1999 .

Although other museums , like the Pitt Rivers in England , are publicly considering repatriation , returning tsantsas to the Amazon is irksome conk out . The electrifying interest in shrunken straits among Westerners is long - hold up – and a hard one to slough .

Lots More Information

source