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| Figure 1: Jívaro tsantsa, or shrunken head |
Given the current Halloween season you may have seen several
very interesting things, including images of bats, witches, goblins, and
shrunken heads. Many of these items actually
have cultural significance in one way or another. Today’s blog post is going to explore the
realities of shrunken heads, which are an important part of the Jívaro culture. This blog post will discuss who the Jívaro are,
as well as their practice of creating tsantsas (Figure 1), which are popularly referred to as shrunken heads.
The Jívaro are an indigenous group that resides in the
Amazonian rainforests of Ecuador and northern Peru. They have lived in this region for
generations, but they have been moderately studied over the years. The reason for this is due to their perceived
(and very real, in many cases) fierce some lifestyle that deterred many from
reaching out and making contact with them.
The Jívaro were not without reason for being violent against those who
came into contact with them, particularly as the Inca and Spanish Conquistadors
had every intention of conquering and enslaving them.
Ritual violence is a part of the Jívaro culture, but it is
not the only aspect of their culture.
The term Jívaro actually refers to an amalgamation of at least five
different indigenous groups who share various cultural traits. These groups include the Jívaro (or Shuar), Achuara,
Huambisa, Aguaruna, and Mayna. They
share common linguistic, economic, and political practices, which mean they
speak the same language, are all horticulturalists, and have similarities in
regards to how their societies are divided, maintained, and led.
Of these five groups only the Jívaro frequently practice
violent rituals, particularly those associated with head hunting and head
shrinking. There is a specific purpose
to this ritual, however, as Jívaro believe that all individuals have a spirit, and
that an individual’s spirit would bring about bad luck onto the living if the
deceased’s death was not avenged. The
circumstances of the death were of little importance. The expectation was that the living Jívaro were
responsible for performing the blood revenge ritual to appease the spirit for
the death of its living body. This blood
revenge also served the dual purpose of helping the living with coping with the
death of a loved one, which follows in line with our modern understanding of
the stages of grief, of which anger is one of those stages.
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| Figure 2: Jívaro celebration after the creation of a tsantsa |
Shortly after the death of a relative Jívaro males would
congregate and go out on a hunt among other tribal groups (e.g. Achuara or
Aguaruna) in search of a suitable candidate for the manufacture of a tsantsa, which is a shrunken head. The ideal candidate was another unrelated male,
particularly a warrior. Warriors’ heads
were sought after because it was believed that warriors had arutam, a magical personal power that
increased based on the number of heads the warrior had acquired in his
lifetime. The arutam would be transferred from the head of the deceased to the
warrior through the ritual of making the tsantsa.
Once a head was acquired (through killing and decapitating
the victim) the male would return to his home village and begin the process of
making the tsantsa. First, the skin was removed from the skull
(which was discarded), followed by sewing the eyes shut and driving pegs through
the lips to keep them closed. The flesh
was then boiled in a pot of water for a specific amount of time. Failure to maintain a perfect boil could lead
to the head not shrinking or the hair falling out. The head was immediately removed upon
completion of the boil, but the process was not completed until after the head
had fully dried out, which entailed putting hot coals or stones into the head
to help keep its features and dry it out.
The pegs in the lips were replaced with cotton cords before the head was
finally smoked to keep its shape and produce a leathery tsantsa. The completion of
the creation of a tsantsa led to a
large celebration and ritual feasting, which was the most important aspect of
the ritual. The celebration and feast
helped validate and reaffirm the male’s status as a warrior, as well as aided
in coping with the grief associated with the deceased’s death that initiated
the tsantsa process and creation (Figure 2).
The Jívaro no longer practice head hunting or tsantsa creation as it was outlawed in
the early 20th century in part because demand by Europeans shifted
the purpose of the ritual from assuaging individual and community grief to a murderous
killing spree driven by monetary gains.
People can purchase replica tsantsas,
which are most commonly made from sloths heads and are a suitable alternative
to the real tsantsa as the Jívaro believe
that they are descendants of the sloth. It is important to note that the purchase of a
real tsantsa is highly regulated
today and in many circumstances is illegal.
In conclusion, the Jívaro ritual associated with the tsantsa is one steeped in deep cultural
roots and purpose. To an outsider it may
seem like a macabre practice, but it one that reaffirms the male identity and
assists in dealing with the grief associated with the loss of a loved one. While the Jívaro culture is different today
from what it has been in the past they try to maintain much of their cultural
heritage as much as possible, while existing in this modern, globalized world.
Bibliography
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