Headhunting
Videos
Headhunting is the practice of hunting a human and collecting the severed head after killing the victim. More portable body parts can be taken as trophies, instead. Headhunting has been practiced by m
Digital painting of a Mississippian-era priest, with a ceremonial flint mace and a severed head, based on a repousse copper plate.
A 1908 photo of a Bontoc warrior bearing a headhunter's chaklag chest tattoo
Punan Bah heads taken by Sea Dayaks
Human skulls in a tribal village; colonial Papua, 1885
Shrunken head
Videos
A shrunken head is a severed and specially prepared human head with the skull removed – many times smaller than its original size – that is used for trophy, ritual, trade, or other purposes.
Headhunting
…along the rivers Chinchipe, Bobonaza, Morona, Upano, and Pastaza, main tributaries of the Amazon, practiced headhunting for trophies. The heads were shrunk, and were known locally as Tzan-Tzas. The people believed that the head housed the soul of the person killed. In the 21st century, the Shuar produce…
Shrunken heads in the permanent collection of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in Seattle
Shrunken head from the Shuar people, formerly on display in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford
Shrunken head exhibited at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, Florida
Shrunken head in the Knight Bus, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter