Monday, May 5, 2014

The Tsantsa; Shrunken Heads

This post is going to take a  look at Tsantsa, the Shuar rituals of shrinking heads.
Source: http://www.head-hunter.com/gallery.html

In the Andean area, shrinking heads of the enemy was a very popular thing. The Shuar were warriors and won many battles, however it was not considered a true victory unless they brought back a couple of trophies, and by trophies, I means the heads of the enemy. The Shuar people engaged in many head-hunting wars, even with other Shuar tribes.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cabeza_reducida_J%C3%ADbaro_(M._América,_Madrid)_01.jpg


In order to shrink the head, the scalp was sliced open, the skull was broken up and carefully removed to make sure that the skin was not damaged to much, the neck area was sowed up, then hot stones were placed into the skin. The hot stones would then dry the skin, which preserved it, and shrank it all at the same time.

No comments:

Post a Comment