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A shrunken head is a severed and specially-prepared
human head In human anatomy, the head is at the top of the human body. It supports the face and is maintained by the human skull, skull, which itself encloses the human brain, brain. Structure The human head consists of a fleshy outer portion, which s ...
with the skull removed many times smaller than its original size that is used for trophy, ritual, trade, or other purposes. Headhunting is believed to have occurred in many regions of the world since time immemorial, but the practice of head shrinking has only been documented in the northwestern region of the
Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
. Jivaroan peoples, which includes the Shuar, Achuar, Huambisa and Aguaruna tribes from
Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
and
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
, are known to keep shrunken human heads. While many were probably made from the remains of these peoples, the Shuar people are the only culture in the world that practiced ritualistic head shrinking. Shuar people call a shrunken head a ''tsantsa'', also
transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...
''tzantza''. Many tribe leaders would display their heads to scare enemies. Shrunken heads are known for their
mandibular prognathism Prognathism is a positional relationship of the Human mandible, mandible or maxilla to the skeletal base where either of the jaws protrudes beyond a predetermined imaginary line in the coronal plane of the skull. In the case of ''mandibular'' ...
, facial distortion, and shrinkage of the lateral sides of the forehead; these are artifacts of the shrinking process. Among the Shuar, the reduction of the heads was followed by a series of feasts centered on important rituals.


Technique

The process of creating a shrunken head begins with removing the skull from the neck. An incision is made on the back of the ear and all the skin and flesh is removed from the cranium. Red seeds are placed underneath the nostrils and the lips are sewn shut. The mouth is held together with three palm pins. Fat from the flesh of the head is removed. Then a wooden ball is placed under the flesh to keep the form. The flesh is then boiled in water that has been saturated with a number of herbs containing
tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widel ...
s. The head is then dried with hot rocks and sand while molding it to retain its human features. The skin is then rubbed with charcoal ash. Decorative beads may be added to the head. In the head shrinking tradition, it is believed that coating the skin in ash keeps the ''muisak'', or avenging soul, from seeping out.


Significance

The practice of preparing shrunken heads originally had religious significance; shrinking the head of an enemy was believed to harness the spirit of that enemy and compel him to serve the shrinker. It was said to prevent the soul from avenging his death.. Shuar believed in the existence of three fundamental spirits: *Wakani – innate to humans thus surviving their death. *Arutam – literally "vision" or "power", protects humans from a violent death. *Muisak – vengeful spirit, which surfaces when a person carrying an Arutam spirit is murdered. To block a Muisak spirit from using its powers, they severed their enemies' heads and shrank them. The process also served as a way of warning their enemies. Despite these precautions, the owner of the trophy did not keep it for long. Many heads were later used in religious ceremonies and feasts that celebrated the victories of the tribe. Accounts vary as to whether the heads were discarded or stored.


Trade

When Westerner curio collectors created an economic incentive for shrunken heads, there was a sharp increase in the rate of killings in an effort to supply tourists and collectors of ethnographic items. The terms ' headhunting' and 'headhunting parties' come from this practice. Guns were usually what the Shuar acquired in exchange for their shrunken heads, the rate being one gun per head. But weapons were not the only items exchanged. Around 1910, shrunken heads were being sold by a curio shop in
Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...
for one Peruvian gold pound, equal in value to a British gold sovereign.C. J. Eastaugh, "Shrunken Head For Sale", ''The Times'' (London, 17 July 1952), p. 7. "Sales By Auction", ''The Times'' (London, 4 September 1951), p. 10. By 1919, the price in Panama's curio shop for shrunken heads had risen to £5. By the 1930s, when heads were freely exchanged, a shrunken head could be purchased for about 25 U.S. dollars. This was stopped when the Peruvian and Ecuadorian governments cooperated to outlaw head trafficking. Also encouraged by this trade, people in
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
and
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
unconnected to the Jívaros began to make counterfeit ''tsantsas''. They used corpses from morgues, or the heads of
monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...
s or
sloth Sloths are a Neotropical realm, Neotropical group of xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant Arboreal locomotion, arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of move ...
s. Some used goatskin. Kate Duncan wrote in 2001, "It has been estimated that about 80 percent of the tsantsas in private and museum hands are fraudulent", including almost all that are female or include an entire torso rather than just a head. Thor Heyerdahl recounts in '' The Kon-Tiki Expedition'' (1948) the various problems of getting into the Jívaro (Shuar) area in Ecuador to get balsa wood for his expedition raft. Local people would not guide his team into the jungle for fear of being killed and having their heads shrunk. In 1951 and 1952 sales of such items in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
were being advertised in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
''; one example was priced at $250, a hundredfold appreciation since the early 20th century. In 1999, the National Museum of the American Indian repatriated the authentic shrunken heads in its collection to Ecuador. Most other countries have also banned the trade. Currently, replica shrunken heads are manufactured as curios for the tourist trade. These are made from leather and animal hides formed to resemble the originals. In 2019 Mercer University repatriated a shrunken head from its collections, crediting the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act as inspiration. In 2020, the Pitt Rivers Museum of
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
removed its collection of shrunken heads after an ethical review begun in 2017, as part of an effort to decolonize its collections and avoid stereotyping.


In popular culture

In the novel ''
Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...
'', the character Queequeg sells shrunken heads and gives his last as a gift to the narrator, Ishmael, who subsequently sells it himself. In the 1949 children's novel '' Amazon Adventure'' by Willard Price, the character John Hunt buys a shrunken head for the American Museum of Natural History from a Jivaro chief, who explains the shrinking process. The scene mirrors Price's own experience with the Jivaro, described in his 1948 travel book ''Roving South''. In 1955,
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...
opened its Jungle Cruise ride. Until 2021, the attraction featured a trader selling shrunken heads (three of his for one of yours). In 1975, Whiting (a Milton Bradley company) released '' Vincent Price's Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture Kit''. In the 1946 movie '' The Devil's Mask'', a crashed plane with a shrunken head aboard is the only clue to a mystery involving a secret code. The 1979 movie '' Wise Blood (film)'', a shrunken head from Mercer University is stolen from a museum and used as a "new Jesus" that "don't look like any other man so you'll look at it." The 1988 movie ''
Beetlejuice ''Beetlejuice'' is a 1988 American Gothic film, gothic dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by Michael McDowell (author), Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren based on a story by McDowell and Larry Wilson (sc ...
'' featured a ghost of a hunter whose head had been shrunken. At the end of the movie, the title character suffers the same fate. The film's 2024 sequel, '' Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'', features the return of the hunter with the shrunken head, named Bob, alongside many other ghosts with shrunken heads now employed at Betelgeuse's personal call centre. One of the North American television commercials for the 1990 video game '' Dr. Mario'' featured head shrinking, as well as a cover of the song ''
Witch Doctor A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor), or witchcraft doctor, is a kind of magical healer who treats ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is often misunderstood, and they could more accurately be called "anti-witch doctors ...
'' with slightly different lyrics. The '' Goosebumps'' book, ''How I Got My Shrunken Head'', released in 1996, is about a boy who gets a shrunken head from his aunt that gives him jungle powers. In the 2004 film adaptation of '' Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'',
Lenny Henry Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British Jamaicans, British-Jamaican comedian, actor and writer. He gained success as a Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ' ...
voices Dre Head, a Jamaican accented shrunken head on the magical Knight Bus. The same film features three more shrunken heads, voiced by Brian Bowles and Peter Serafinowicz, inside the wizard pub The Three Broomsticks. Both '' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'' (2006) and '' Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'' (2007) feature shrunken heads.


See also

* Mokomokai, preserved Māori heads also used as trade goods


Notes


References

* .


External links

*{{Commonscatinline, Shrunken heads Anthropology Decapitation Culture of Ecuador Human head and neck History of Ecuador Prehistory of Peru Human trophy collecting Indigenous culture of the Amazon Jivaroan peoples Mummies Culture of Peru Religious objects