Headhunting
237500
224815407
2008-07-10T15:20:22Z
Lightbot
7178666
Units/dates/other
{{Refimprove|date=March 2008}}
{{Two other uses|the cultural practice|people who help others find jobs|Recruiter|other uses|Headhunter (disambiguation)}}
'''Headhunting''' is the practice of taking a person's head after killing him or her. Headhunting was practiced during the pre-colonial era in parts of [[China]], [[India]], [[Nigeria]], [[Nuristan Province|Nuristan]], [[Myanmar]], [[Borneo]], [[Indonesia]], the [[Philippines]], [[Taiwan]], [[Japan]], [[Micronesia]], [[Melanesia]], [[New Zealand]], and the [[Amazon Basin]], as well as among certain tribes of the [[Celts]] and [[Scythians]] of ancient [[Europe]].
In modern times, headhunting is prohibited <!--nearly?-->worldwide and typically occurs only as a form of [[mutilation]] after a [[homicide]] has been committed for other reasons. A rare exception to this was the behavior of Allied servicemen in the Pacific theater of World War II, who regularly took Japanese heads (and other remains) as trophies in spite of official condemnation of the practice.
As a practice, headhunting has been the subject of intense discussion within the [[anthropology|anthropological community]] as to its possible social roles, functions, and motivations. Contemporary scholars generally agree that its primary function was ceremonial, and that it was part of the process of structuring, reinforcing, and defending hierarchical relationships between communities and individuals. Some experts theorize that the practice stemmed from the belief that the head contained "soul matter" or life force, which could be harnessed through its capture. Themes that arise in anthropological writings about headhunting include [[mortification]] of the rival, [[ritual murder|ritual violence]], [[cosmology|cosmological balance]], the display of [[manhood]], [[cannibalism]], and [[prestige]].
==Southeast Asia and Melanesia==
[[Image:HeadTray2.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A two-head tray artifact, and a photograph of a seven-head tray, from [[Papua New Guinea]], early 1900s. The display would have been hung on a wall in a communal men's house. ([[Field Museum of Natural History]]).]] In Southeast Asia in the early 1700s headhunting was made illegal. If caught with a head other than ones own they would be decapitated.
Headhunting was practiced in many parts of [[Austronesia]]n [[southeast Asia]] and [[Melanesia]]. Anthropological writings exist on the [[Ilongot]], [[Iban people|Iban]], [[Dayak]], [[Berawan]], [[Wana (tribe)|Wana]], and [[Mappurondo]] tribes. Among these groups, headhunting was usually a ritual activity rather than an act of [[war]] or feuding and involved the taking of a single head. Headhunting acted as a catalyst for the cessation of personal and collective [[mourning]] for the community's dead. Ideas of [[manhood]] were encompassed in the practice, and the taken heads were prized.
Kenneth George wrote about annual headhunting rituals that he observed among the Mappurondo religious minority, an upland [[tribe]] in the south-west part of the [[Indonesia]]n island of [[Sulawesi]]. Actual heads are not taken; instead, surrogate heads are used, in the form of [[coconut]]s. The ritual, called ''pangngae'', takes place at the conclusion of the [[rice]] harvesting season. It functions to bring an end to communal [[mourning]] for the deceased of the past year; express intercultural tensions and polemics; allow for a display of manhood; distribute communal resources; and resist outside pressures to abandon Mappurondo ways of life.
Around the 1930s, headhunting was suppressed among the [[Ilongot]] in the [[Philippines]] by the US authorities.In Southeast Asia in the early 1700s headhunting was made illegal.
In [[Sarawak]], on the island of [[Borneo]], the colonial dynasty of [[James Brooke]] and his descendants eradicated headhunting in the hundred years before [[World War II]].
Some believe that [[Michael Rockefeller]] may have been taken by headhunters in [[western New Guinea]] as recently as 1961.
In his book ''[[PT 105 (book)|PT 105]]'', Dick Keresey writes that he was approached by [[Solomon Island]] natives in a canoe carrying heads of [[Japanese people|Japanese]] soldiers. He initially thought that they wanted to trade, but they continued on their way.
==Amazon==
The [[Shuar]] in [[Ecuador]] and [[Peru]], along the [[Amazon River]], practiced headhunting in order to make [[shrunken head]]s for ritual use. The Shuar still produce replica heads which they sell to tourists, and there are still some splinter Shuar tribes that continue to practice headhunting.
==New Zealand==
In Southeast Asia in the early 1700s headhunting was made illegal. If caught with a head other than ones own they would be decapitated.
==Taiwan==
Headhunting was a common practice among the [[Taiwanese aborigine]]s. Almost every tribe except the [[Tao people|Yami (Tao)]] practiced headhunting. [[Han Chinese]] settlers were often the victims of headhunting raids as they were considered by the Aborigines to be liars and enemies. A headhunting raid would often strike at workers in the fields, or employ the ruse of setting a dwelling alight and then decapitating the inhabitants as they fled the burning structure. The practice ended around the 1930s during the [[Japanese occupation of Taiwan]].
==England==
When [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] reclaimed the crown for his family, he exhumed the body of [[Oliver Cromwell]], who had his father, [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], beheaded, and had Cromwell's head removed from the body and placed atop the [[Tower of London]]. After [[Henry VIII]] had [[Sir Thomas More]] executed, he ordered his head placed atop the [[Tower of London]] for a month, until More's daughter [[Margaret Roper]] rescued it.
==Celts==
The [[Celts]] of [[Europe]] practiced headhunting for an indeterminate religious reason. Ancient [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] and [[ancient Greece|Greeks]] recorded the Celts habits of nailing heads of personal enemies to walls or dangling them from the necks of horses.<ref>see e.g. [[Diodorus Siculus]], [http://books.google.com/books?id=agd-eLVNRMMC&printsec=titlepage#PPA315,M1 5.2]</ref> Headhunting was still practiced for a great deal longer by the Celtic [[Gaels]] — in the [[Ulster Cycle]], [[Cúchulainn]] beheads the three sons of Nechtan and mounts their heads on his chariot — though this was probably as a traditional, rather than religious, practice. The religious reasons for collecting heads was likely lost after the Celts' conversion to Christianity. Heads were also taken among the [[Germanic tribes]] and [[Iberians]], but the purpose is unknown.
==World War II==
{{main|American Mutilation of Japanese War Dead}}
During World War II, [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] (specifically including American) troops occasionally collected the skulls of dead Japanese as personal trophies, as souvenirs for friends and family at home, and for sale to others. (The practice was unique to the [[Pacific Ocean theater of World War II|Pacific theater]]; German and Italian skulls were not taken.) The Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, in September of 1942, mandated strong disciplinary action for any soldier who took enemy body parts as souvenirs. Nevertheless, trophy-hunting persisted: ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'', in its issue of [[22 May]] 1944, published a photograph of a young woman posing with the autographed skull sent to her by her Navy boyfriend, causing significant public outcry. <ref>{{cite book
|last= Fussell
|first= Paul
|authorlink= Paul Fussell
|title= Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War<includeonly></includeonly>
|year= 1990
|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]
|location= New York
|pages=p. 117}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal
|last=Harrison
|first= Simon
|year=2006
|title=Skull Trophies of the Pacific War: Transgressive Objects of remembrance./Les Trophees De la Guerre Du Pacifique Des Cranes Comme Souvenirs Transgressifs
|journal=Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
|volume=12
|issue=4
|pages=817ff.
|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00365.x}}</ref>
However, despite the voiced objections of private citizens, religious leaders and government officials, many Americans viewed the Japanese as lesser people, and many American soldiers did not consider abuse of Japanese bodies morally wrong.<ref>James J. Weingartner “Trophies of War: U.S. Troops and the Mutilation of Japanese War Dead, 1941 – 1945” Pacific Historical Review (1992) p.67</ref>
== Vietnam War ==
During the [[Vietnam War]] U.S. soldiers again engaged in the taking of "trophy skulls".[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/02/AR2007070201710_pf.html],[http://george.loper.org/trends/2002/Mar/65.html]
==References==
{{reflist}}
* [[Kenneth George]] (1996). ''Showing signs of violence: The cultural politics of a twentieth-century headhunting ritual''. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20041-1
* Rubenstein, Steven L. (2006) "Circulation, Accumulation, and the Power of Shuar Shrunken Heads". ''Cultural Anthropology'', 22(3),pp.357-399
==See also==
* [[Shrunken head]]
* [[Decapitation]]
* [[Endemic warfare|Tribal warfare]]
* [[Human sacrifice]]
* [[Trophy]]
==External links==
* [http://www.lard.net/headhunters.html Encyclopedia Britannica entry 1996]
* [http://www.head-hunter.com/index.html Headhunting and headshrinking among the Shuar]
[[Category:Anthropology]]
[[de:Kopfjagd]]
[[fy:Kopperij]]
[[fi:Pääkallonmetsästys]]
[[zh:猎首]]