- Related Topics:
- Cannibalism
- skull
- skull cult
- hunting
- shrunken head
Headhunting
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What is headhunting in anthropology?
In anthropology, headhunting is the practice of taking and preserving human heads. It stems from the belief that a soul resides in the head. Removing the head captures this soul, adding it to the community's collective soul, which enhances fertility for humans, livestock, and crops.
This practice links the head to the soul's location and is associated with cannibalism and fertility rites. Headhunting has been practiced worldwide since Paleolithic times. In modern times, headhunting is associated with physically intimidating or harming one's opponent in sports, or depriving political enemies of position or influence.
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Which cultures practiced headhunting?
Headhunting, the practice of taking and preserving human heads, has been practiced across the world from Paleolithic times into the mid-20th century. Cultures that practiced headhunting include:
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Europe Until the early 20th century in the Balkan Peninsula, in Ireland, and in the Scottish marches until the end of the Middle Ages
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Africa Nigeria
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Asia Kafiristan, Assam, Myanmar, Borneo, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan
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Oceania Micronesia, Melanesia, New Zealand and Australia
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South America Jívaro
Headhunting is associated with the belief that the soul resides in the head. Removing the head captures the soul, adding it to the community's soul matter, which increases the fertility of people, livestock, and crops.
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Why did some societies practice headhunting?
Headhunting is the practice of taking and preserving human heads. It stems from the belief that a soul resides in the head. Removing a head captures this soul, adding it to the community's collective soul, which increases the fertility of people, livestock, and crops.
Across societies that practiced headhunting, the practice has been associated with ideas of the head being the seat of the soul, some forms of cannibalism to transfer the soul of the victim to the eater, phallic cults, and fertility rites to make the soil productive. Headhunting can also develop into human sacrifice, a practice generally associated with agricultural societies.
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How was headhunting carried out and what rituals were involved?
Headhunting is the practice of taking and preserving human heads, motivated by the belief that a soul resides in the head. Removing the head captures this soul, enriching the community's collective soul matter, which enhances fertility for humans, livestock, and crops.
Tactics varied, but often involved raids and surprise attacks. In Micronesia, the heads of slain enemies were paraded with dancing to raise money for the chief. In Melanesia, heads were mummified and worn as masks to gain the dead enemy's soul. The Jívaro of South America removed the skull and shrank the skin to preserve the head.
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What meanings or beliefs did people attach to headhunting?
Headhunting is the practice of taking and preserving human heads. It stems from the belief that a soul resides in the head. Removing the head captures this soul, adding it to the community's soul matter, which increases fertility of people, livestock, and crops.
Headhunting relates to the idea of the head as the soul's location, some cannibalism forms, and fertility rites meant to make the soil productive. It can also become human sacrifice, which is often linked to farming societies.
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How has the practice of headhunting changed or disappeared over time?
The practice of headhunting, the removal and preservation of human heads, stems from the belief that the head holds soul matter that can contribute to community fertility. Headhunting has been associated with cannibalism, fertility rites, and human sacrifice and was practiced worldwide.
In Europe, it persisted in the Balkans until the early 20th century but ended in the British Isles around the Middle Ages. It was known in Nigeria and practiced in eastern Afghanistan until the late 19th century. In the Philippines, the Igorot and Kalinga peoples of Luzon formally abandoned it in the early 20th century. Despite prohibitions, scattered reports continued into the mid-20th century.
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Headhunting, practice of removing and preserving human heads. Headhunting arises in some cultures from a belief in the existence of a more or less material soul matter on which all life depends. In the case of human beings, this soul matter is believed to be particularly located in the head, and removal of the head is believed to capture the soul matter within and add it to the general stock of soul matter belonging to the community, wherein it contributes to the fertility of the human population, livestock, and crops. Headhunting has thus been associated with ideas regarding the head as the seat of the soul, with some forms of cannibalism in which the body or part of the body is consumed in order to transfer to the eater the soul matter of the victim, and with phallic cults and fertility rites intended to imbue the soil with productivity. It may thus develop into human sacrifice, a practice that has been generally associated with agricultural societies.
Headhunting has been practiced worldwide and may go back to Paleolithic times. In deposits of the Late Paleolithic Azilian culture found at Ofnet in Bavaria, carefully decapitated heads were buried separately from the bodies, indicating beliefs in the special sanctity or importance of the head.
In Europe the practice survived until the early 20th century in the Balkan Peninsula, where the taking of the head implied the transfer of the soul matter of the decapitated to the decapitator. The complete head was taken by Montenegrins as late as 1912, being carried by a lock of hair worn allegedly for that purpose. In the British Isles the practice continued approximately to the end of the Middle Ages in Ireland and the Scottish marches.
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In Africa headhunting was known in Nigeria, where, as in Indonesia, it was associated with the fertility of the crops, with marriage, and with the victim’s obligation as a servant in the next world.
In Káfiristán (now Nūrestān) in eastern Afghanistan, headhunting was practiced until about the end of the 19th century. In the northeast of India, Assam was famous for headhunting, and indeed all the peoples living south of the Brahmaputra River—Garos, Khasis, Nagas, and Kukis—formerly were headhunters. Headhunting in Assam was normally carried on by parties of raiders who depended on surprise tactics to achieve their ends.
In Myanmar (Burma) several groups followed customs similar to those of the headhunting tribes of India. The Wa people observed a definite headhunting season, when the fertilizing soul matter was required for the growing crop, and wayfarers moved about at their peril. In Borneo, most of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan, similar methods of headhunting were practiced. The practice was reported in the Philippines by Martín de Rada in 1577 and was abandoned formally by the Igorot and Kalinga peoples of Luzon only at the beginning of the 20th century. In Indonesia it extended through Ceram, where the Alfurs were headhunters, and to New Guinea, where headhunting was practiced by the Motu. In several areas of Indonesia, as in the Batak country and in the Tanimbar Islands, it seems to have been replaced by cannibalism.
Throughout Oceania headhunting tended to be obscured by cannibalism, but in many islands the importance attached to the head was unmistakable. In parts of Micronesia the head of the slain enemy was paraded about with dancing, which served as an excuse for raising a fee for the chief to defray public expenditure; later the head would be lent to another chief for the same purpose. In Melanesia the head was often mummified and sometimes worn as a mask in order that the wearer might acquire the soul of the dead man. Similarly, it was reported that Aboriginal Australians believed that the spirit of a slain enemy entered the slayer. In New Zealand the heads of enemies were dried and preserved so that tattoo marks and the facial features were recognizable; this practice led to a development of headhunting when tattooed heads became desirable curios and the demand in Europe for Maori trophies caused “pickled heads” to become a regular article of ships’ manifests.
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In South America the heads were often preserved, as by the Jívaro, by removing the skull and packing the skin with hot sand, thus shrinking it to the size of the head of a small monkey but preserving the features intact. There, again, headhunting was probably associated with cannibalism in a ceremonial form.
Despite the prohibition of headhunting activities, scattered reports of such practices continued well into the mid-20th century.