Scalping
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[[Image:Big Mouth Spring.jpg|thumb|Native American '''Big Mouth Spring''' with decorated scalp lock on right shoulder.]]
'''Scalping''' is the act of removing the [[scalp]], usually with the hair, as a portable proof or trophy of prowess in war. Scalping is also associated with [[frontier]] warfare in [[North America]], and was practiced by [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] and [[whites|white]] colonists and frontiersmen over centuries of violent conflict.
== Scythia ==
Scalping was practiced by the ancient [[Scythia]]ns of [[Eurasia]]. [[Herodotus]], the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[history|historian]], wrote of the Scythians in [[440 BC]]: ''"The Scythian soldier scrapes the scalp clean of flesh and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps and hangs them from his bridle rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks by sewing a quantity of these scalps together".''
== Northern Europe ==
Scalps were taken in wars between the [[Visigoths]], the [[Franks]] and the [[Anglo-Saxons]] in the 9th century according to the writings of Abbé [[Emmanuel H. D. Domenech]]. His sources included the ''decalvare'' of the ancient Germans, the ''capillos et cutem detrahere'' of the code of the Visigoths, and the ''Annals of [[Flodoard]]''.
== North America ==
[[Image:Robert McGee, scalped as a child by Sioux Chief Little Turtle in 1864.jpg|thumb|right|Robert McGee, scalped as a teenager by [[Sioux]] Chief [[Little Turtle (Sioux)|Little Turtle]], in 1864.]]
According to [[ethnohistorian]] [[James Axtell]], there is abundant evidence that the Native American practice of scalping existed long before Europeans arrived. Axtell argues that there is no evidence that the early European explorers and settlers who came to [[the Americas]] were familiar with the ancient European practice of scalping, or that they ever taught scalping to Native Americans. Axtell writes that the idea that Europeans taught scalping to Native Americans became popular recently, during the 1960s. This idea quickly became [[conventional wisdom]] because it fit the tenor of the times of the counter-cultural 1960s, writes Axtell, but he argues that archaeological, historical, pictorial, and linguistic evidence contradicts this notion. Certain tribes of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] practiced scalping, in some instances up until the 19th century.
The standard Native American technique for scalping was to place a knee between the shoulders while the body was on the ground, to cut a long arc in the front of the scalp, and then to pull back on the hair. If the person survived, the person's facial features droop. Women would sometimes make a tight braid to pull the skin back up.
Both Native Americans and American frontiersmen frequently scalped their victims in this era. It is believed that contact with Europeans widened the practice of scalping among Native Americans, since some [[European colonization of the Americas|Euro-American governments]] encouraged the practice among their Native American allies by offering bounties for scalps during times of war.
Examples of the payment for scalps are those issued by the government of [[Massachusetts]] in 1744 for the scalps of Indian men, women, and children; Governor [[Edward Cornwallis]]' proclamation of 1749 to settlers of [[City of Halifax|Halifax]] of payment for Indian scalps; and [[French colonization of the Americas|French colonists]] in 1749 offering payments to Indians for the scalps of British soldiers.
[[Image:Indian Warrior with Scalp.jpg|thumb|right|''Indian Warrior with Scalp'', 1789, by Barlow]]
In the Revolutionary War, [[Henry Hamilton]], the British lieutenant-governor of [[Upper Canada]], was known by [[Patriot (American Revolution)|American Patriots]] as the "hair-buyer general" because they believed he encouraged and paid his Native American allies to scalp American settlers. When Hamilton was captured in the war by the colonists, he was treated as a [[war criminal]] instead of a [[prisoner of war]] because of this. However, American historians have conceded that there was no positive proof that he had ever offered rewards for scalps.<ref>[http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=36053&query=hamilton Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: Henry Hamilton]</ref> It is now assumed that during the American Revolution, no British officer paid for scalps.<ref>Kelsey pg. 303</ref>
Famously, [[George Armstrong Custer|General Custer]] was not scalped after the [[Battle of Little Big Horn]] because he was deemed "a great chief."<ref>[http://www.astonisher.com/archives/museum/sitting_bull_little_big_horn.html Sitting Bull stated Custer's scalp was not taken because he was "a great chief."]</ref>
In [[Canada]], a 1756 British proclamation issued by Governor [[Charles Lawrence]] offering a reward for scalps has yet to be officially repealed.<ref>[http://www.danielnpaul.com/BritishScalpProclamation-1756.html British Scalp Proclamation: 1756]</ref>
== In popular culture ==
''[[Blood Meridian]]'', the famous novel by [[Cormac McCarthy]], is about a group of mercenaries making a living off of Indian scalps, and features the activity extensively.
In the 1994 film ''[[Legends of the Fall]]'' Tristan Ludlow ([[Brad Pitt]]) scalps many German soldiers in the [[First World War]] resulting in his discharge from army service.
In the video game ''[[Gun (video game)|Gun]]'', the player is able to scalp dying enemies , after purchasing a special scalping knife.
[[George Macdonald Fraser]]'s [[antihero]], [[Harry Flashman]], observes scalping and is himself partially scalped in ''[[Flashman and the Redskins]]''.
==See also==
[[Pitchcapping]]
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==References==
* Kelsey, Isabel, ''Joseph Brant 1743-1807 Man of Two Worlds'', 1984, ISBN 0-8156-0182-4
*[http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_034800_scalpsandsca.htm Axtell, James. "Scalps and Scalping" from ''Encyclopedia of North American Indians'']
* [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=36053&query=hamilton Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: Henry Hamilton]
==External links==
*[http://www.danielnpaul.com/BritishScalpProclamation-1756.html British Scalp Proclamation of 1756]
[[Category:Native American history]]
[[Category:Violence]]
[[da:Skalpering]]
[[de:Skalpieren]]
[[fr:Scalpation]]
[[fy:Skalpearjen]]
[[is:Svarðfletting]]
[[pl:Skalp]]
[[pt:Escalpelamento]]
[[ru:Скальпирование]]
[[sr:Скалп]]
[[sv:Skalpering]]