Life, Loss, Grief, and Blood Revenge: A Discussion of Jívaro Tsantsa Manufacture

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.  

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 20^th 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

Dhwty.  2014.  “The Shrunken Heads of the Jivaro.”  Ancient Origins.  http://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/shrunken-heads-jivaro-001797

Garniewicz, R.  2016.  How to Shrink a Human Head.  San Diego Museum of Man.  http://www.museumofman.org/how-shrink-human-head/

Eveleth, R.  2013.  “How Does One Actually Shrink A Head?”  Smithsonian.com.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-does-one-actually-shrink-a-head-5994665/?no-ist

Harner, M.J.  1984.  The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls.  University of California Press: Berkley.

  

Krystek, L.  2011.  “The Head Shrinkers of South America.”  The Museum of UnNatural Mystery.  http://www.unmuseum.org/headshrinkers.htm

Lu, F., Fariss, B., Bilsborrow, R.  2009.  “Gendered Time Allocation of Indigenous Peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon.”  Ethnology 48: 239-268.

Sauvageau, A, Kremer C, Brochu V, Julien F, Racette S.  2009.  Jivaro tsantsas or shrunken head: an expertise of authenticity evaluation.  American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology 30: 72-74.

Steel, D.  1999.  “Trade Goods and Jivaro Warfare: The Shuar 1850-1957, and the Achuar,1940-1978.”  Ethnohistory 46: 745-776.