Headhunting is a practice that has been carried out by numerous cultures throughout the world. For instance, during the Qin Dynasty in ancient China, it is claimed that soldiers collected the heads of their dead enemies and tied them around their waists. This was intended to terrorize and demoralize their enemies. Even though headhunting was not too uncommon a practice, the shrinking of human heads is one that was practiced by the Jivaro Indians of Ecuador and Peru. The shrunken heads of the Jivaro were a special form of trophy obtained from their defeated enemies.
One of the shrunken heads of Jivaro. (Wellcome Images / CC BY 4.0)
Shrunken Heads of Jivaro: The Macabre Art of Trophy-Making
The process of making a shrunken head began by obtaining a human head in battle. A head was removed from the body by cutting the skin at the extreme base of the neck, just above the clavicles and in a ‘V’ shape meeting at the point between the nipples. A hair band or vine was then passed through the open mouth and out of the mouth. This allowed the warrior to carry his trophy home with ease.
Once back in his home, the warrior would make an incision up the back of the neck in order to peel the flesh away from the skull. The entire skull was then removed and thrown away. The eyes were sewn shut, and the mouth closed by passing small, sharp palm pegs through the lips. Then, the skin was put into a boiling pot and left to simmer for about an hour and a half to two hours.
When creating the shrunken heads of…
