Existing comment:
Headhunting cultures existed in various parts of the world, but only one group practices the art of shrinking heads. The Shuar, a subgroup of the Juivaroan Indians from the tropical rain forests of Ecuador and Peru, made battle trophies from the heads of their slain enemies. Called tsanstas, these shrunken heads were believed to hold magical powers that could increase a warrior's own power, known as arutam. By taking an enemy's head as a trophy, the Shuar warrior believed he assumed the victim's power and exacted blood-revenge for his ancestors. The headless person's soul was considered a threat to the victor and his community until the head was shrunk, which destroyed the victim's soul in the afterlife.
Shrinking a victim's head involved several steps. First, the back of the head was cut and the skull discarded. Next, the skin was turned inside out and cleaned of soft tissue. Then the head was simmered in a large pot of water. The skin was turned outside in and fastened shut, as were the eyes and lips. The head was then filled with hot pebbles and sand and smoked over a fire, which completed the shrinking and drying. Finally, the face was polished and blackened with charcoal. Shuar warriors often wore these victim's head on a cord around their necks as symbols of honor during tsansta feasts.
The Shuar also shrank the heads of tree sloths, which were believed to posses an avenging spirit. If a Shuar warrior killed a relative in another village, he was morally required to substitute a tree sloth's head for the human head. Sloth heads also were used in boys' initiation ceremonies to represent a boy's first tsantsa. The practice of tsansta was banned by Ecuador and Peru in the last century. Taxidermists and other counterfeiters, however, continued using the heads of deceased humans and monkeys to make tsanstas for the tourist trade. |