The Cellar  

Go Back   The Cellar > Images > Image of the Day

Image of the Day Images that will blow your mind - every day. [Blog] [RSS] [XML]

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rating: Thread Rating: 7 votes, 5.00 average. Display Modes
Old 11-01-2010, 11:31 PM   #1
xoxoxoBruce
The future is unwritten
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
Nov 2, 2010: Shrunken Heads

Hey sailor, want a little head, only $25... or a gun.
That was the going price for a tsantsa (real shrunken head), from the Jivaroan peoples, prior to possession being outlawed by Ecuador & Peru in the 1930s. The US followed suit in the 1940s.



Quote:
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 an arutam spirit-carrying person is murdered.

To block the last spirit from using its powers, they decided to sever their enemies' heads and shrink them. The process also served as a way of warning those enemies. Even with these uses, 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 would be discarded or stored.
But most of the tsantsa out there are phony.

Quote:
Also encouraged by this trade, as early as the 1870s people in Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador unconnected to the Jívaros began to make counterfeit tsantsas. They used corpses from morgues, or the heads of monkeys or sloths. Some even used goatskin. Kate Duncan wrote in 2001 that "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 which include an entire torso rather than just a head.
Of course the Melanesians were supposed to shrink heads also, which is another interesting connection between the Pacific islands and South America.

You can read about the process here or here.
__________________
The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
xoxoxoBruce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2010, 12:27 AM   #2
Trilby
Slattern of the Swail
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 15,654
the guy on the left looks familiar...
__________________
In Barrie's play and novel, the roles of fairies are brief: they are allies to the Lost Boys, the source of fairy dust and ...They are portrayed as dangerous, whimsical and extremely clever but quite hedonistic.

"Shall I give you a kiss?" Peter asked and, jerking an acorn button off his coat, solemnly presented it to her.
—James Barrie


Wimminfolk they be tricksy. - ZenGum
Trilby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2010, 01:04 AM   #3
spudcon
Beware of potatoes
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Upstate NY, USA
Posts: 2,078
Wink

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna View Post
the guy on the left looks familiar...
Yeah, I think I saw him buried up to his head in mud at Woostock. Glad to see someone gave him a shampoo.
__________________
"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."
spudcon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2010, 08:35 AM   #4
Sheldonrs
Master Dwellar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 4,412
Who doesn't like a little head?

__________________
Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and the world laughs AT you.
Sheldonrs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2010, 09:38 AM   #5
newtimer
Operations Operative
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 479
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna View Post
the guy on the left looks familiar...
I think he was one of the guys from ABBA. Now we know why they haven't made any albums in a long time.
newtimer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2010, 09:56 AM   #6
glatt
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Arlington, VA
Posts: 27,717
I remember being fascinated by a shrunken head in a museum when I was a kid, but can't remember which one. I've tried to find it by revisiting the museums from my youth, but haven't been able to. I assume it was taken from public display.

Recently, I looked into shrunken heads, and was reading about them online. I found some website with stories about people who not too long ago (70's) traveled into the jungle to try to get shrunken heads from the tribes and were never heard from again. Then later, shrunken heads of a few white people (perhaps those collectors) showed up on the market.

It's kind of gruesome to be collecting trophy human parts.
glatt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2010, 05:12 AM   #7
SPUCK
Professor
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,911
Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt View Post
It's kind of gruesome to be collecting trophy human parts.

Naw... I like my human skin leather chair.
SPUCK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2010, 07:40 AM   #8
xoxoxoBruce
The future is unwritten
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt View Post
I remember being fascinated by a shrunken head in a museum when I was a kid, but can't remember which one. I've tried to find it by revisiting the museums from my youth, but haven't been able to. I assume it was taken from public display.
A lot of US museums have been caught up in the politically correct tide, returning human remains to their home countries, or native tribes. Other displays have been shuffled off to the back room to avoid criticism.

I looked for a story I read while putting this shrunken heads post together, and Googled "museums returning human remains"... I got 383,000 hits.
__________________
The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
xoxoxoBruce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2010, 02:44 PM   #9
spudcon
Beware of potatoes
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Upstate NY, USA
Posts: 2,078
Quote:
Originally Posted by SPUCK View Post
Naw... I like my human skin leather chair.
I'm glad to hear that Spuck. The wild Naugas are becoming extinct world wide.
__________________
"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."
spudcon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2010, 04:10 PM   #10
dirkydirk
Person Who Has Posted
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 2
On the right

Is he the singer with Guns and Roses ?
dirkydirk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2010, 04:16 PM   #11
Sundae
polaroid of perfection
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 24,185
I'm pretty sure I saw a shrunken head in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. No idea if it was fake of course.
I also saw the mummified head of St Catherine in a church in Siena (Italy).
She doesn't have the Pantene locks of the chap above left.
Attached Images
 
Sundae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2010, 09:51 PM   #12
spudcon
Beware of potatoes
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Upstate NY, USA
Posts: 2,078
I had her as my 4th grade teacher.
__________________
"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."
spudcon is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:11 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.