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Hunting the Web for shrunken heads, we quickly cut this question down to size. It turns out that shrunken heads are indeed real, and the process used to create them is just as grisly as you might imagine. Taking heads and other physical trophies from battle was common among many world cultures since antiquity, but shrinking the trophy head seems to have only occurred among a few tribes in Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil and probably dates back to around 200 B.C or earlier. In the 19th century, Europeans first discovered and publicized the last remaining tribe that practiced head shrinking. These were the Shuar
people of the Jivaro tribe in the tropical forest of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon. The shrunken head -- called the tsantsa -- was more than just a souvenir of battle for the Jivaro. The process of shrinking the head was thought to paralyze the spirit of the enemy, thus preventing it from taking revenge. Also, the power and strength of the defeated victim was passed on to the person who killed him. A Jivaro warrior with a history of taking many shrunken heads was to be feared. However, the Jivaro didn't keep the shrunken heads very long. The heads were used in a series of ceremonies and feasts in the Jivaro village to celebrate the victory. After that, the
heads were usually discarded and sometimes used by children as toys. Tsantsa-making began immediately after battle, where the head was cut off and taken away from the battleground. In deference to those with a weak stomach, we won't get into the gruesome details, but you can read all about it if you like. (Just don't say we didn't warn you!) After Europeans discovered the Jivaro, many counterfeit shrunken heads began to pop up. Some were faked from animal heads or goatskin, while others were actual human heads taken from morgues and shrunk by taxidermists. Some of the shrunken heads you'll see currently displayed in museums are early counterfeits, not traditional Jivaro
heads.
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