A shrunken head is a severed and specially-prepared human head – often decreased to many times smaller than typical size – that is used for trophy, ritual, trade, or other purposes.
Shrunken heads in the permanent collection of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, Seattle
Shrunken head from the Shuar people, on display in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
Shrunken head exhibited at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, Florida.
Fake shrunken head in the Knight Bus, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Universal Orlando Resort)
Headhunting is the practice of hunting a human and collecting the severed head after killing the victim, although sometimes more portable body parts are taken instead as trophies. Headhunting was practiced in historic times in parts of Europe, East Asia, Oceania, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Mesoamerica, South America, West Africa, and Central Africa.
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's heads taken by Sea Dayaks
Human skulls in a tribal village. Photograph taken in colonial Papua in 1885.
