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Headhunters

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Nick1986 View Drop Down
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Headhunters
    Posted: 28-Sep-2012 at 21:41

This sword, known as a parang, was made by the Dayaks of Borneo, a proud race of warriors who took the heads of dead enemies as trophies. Like the ancient Celts, the warrior with the most shrunken heads would become chief. Despite Christian efforts to suppress headhunting, it was still practised during WWII when the natives gave the Japanese a taste of their own medicine
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  Quote lirelou Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Sep-2012 at 23:01
Nick, are you sure about the 'shrunken" heads bit? The photos I've seen in the Taiwan Aboriginal museum show full sized heads. I know we're talking about different branches of the same race, with a bit of ocean between them, but to my knowledge the Jivaros of the Ecuadorian Amazon are the only ones who mastered the art of shrinking heads.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Sep-2012 at 20:35
This picture seems to suggest the heads did shrink to an extent. The Dayaks preserved the heads by smoking them:
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/headhunting-tribes-borneo/20773
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Sep-2012 at 21:47
Headhunting may have resulted from overpopulation: the tribe had to expand onto their neighbors' land, resulting in conflict. Taking the heads of dead enemies sent a powerful message: don't mess with us!
http://www.kashgar.com.au/articles/headhunting
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Oct-2012 at 07:39

Headhunting was an initiation into manhood. It was believed the head of a defeated enemy warded off evil spirits, prevented disease, produced rain, and would give a good rice harvest

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  Quote Johnsteve Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Oct-2012 at 06:14
Headhunting is the practice of taking and preserving a person's head after killing them. As a methodology recruitment training blends the proactive nature of executive search in terms of mapping out companies and individuals, with the urgency and pace of contract recruiting for the contingency market.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Oct-2012 at 07:53
Originally posted by Johnsteve

Headhunting is the practice of taking and preserving a person's head after killing them. As a methodology recruitment training blends the proactive nature of executive search in terms of mapping out companies and individuals, with the urgency and pace of contract recruiting for the contingency market.

You mean there are companies out there that pay you to cut the heads off people? Sign me up
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Oct-2012 at 09:06
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  Quote BoPoMoFo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Jan-2013 at 23:04
I am curious as how a head can be shrunken?  Do they take out the bony structures?
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  Quote okamido Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Jan-2013 at 22:27
This is what the headhunters of the Bontoc people used in the Philippines.
 
 


Edited by okamido - 28-Jan-2013 at 22:32
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  Quote okamido Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Jan-2013 at 22:31
Don't know if this is too graphic, so if it is, please feel free to delete.
 
Here is what is left of an enemy after an inter-tribal skirmish. Note that something is missing.
Decapitated enemy of an Igorot head hunter
 
And here is a couple of the mountain warriors.
Igorot Warrior
 
note the skulls above the door.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Jan-2013 at 11:40
Originally posted by BoPoMoFo

I am curious as how a head can be shrunken?  Do they take out the bony structures?

Typically they make an incision in the back to remove the skull, sew it back together, and dry it out in hot sand. Pieces of cloth can be used to pad out the shrunken head
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Jan-2013 at 13:08
Originally posted by okamido

Don't know if this is too graphic, so if it is, please feel free to delete.
 
Here is what is left of an enemy after an inter-tribal skirmish. Note that something is missing.
Decapitated enemy of an Igorot head hunter
 
And here is a couple of the mountain warriors.
Igorot Warrior
 
note the skulls above the door.

Great photos Okamido.Thumbs Up What did the headhunters do with the decapitated corpses?
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  Quote okamido Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Jan-2013 at 22:02
They aren't, or weren't, cannibals, so they probably just disposed of them. It is little known that this practice still goes on, as headless bodies are occasionally found in Bontoc province, and the police investigate by grabbing all of the youths, checking them for new tattoos that symbolize the successful hunt.
 
 
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-Jan-2013 at 19:46
Originally posted by okamido

This is what the headhunters of the Bontoc people used in the Philippines.
 
 

Are those spears on the left? Those axes look formidible
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  Quote okamido Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-Jan-2013 at 22:10
Yep, Bontoc and Kankanaey spears.
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Feb-2013 at 03:09
Originally posted by Nick1986


This sword, known as a parang, was made by the Dayaks of Borneo, a proud race of warriors who took the heads of dead enemies as trophies. Like the ancient Celts, the warrior with the most shrunken heads would become chief. Despite Christian efforts to suppress headhunting, it was still practised during WWII when the natives gave the Japanese a taste of their own medicine
 
 
See the Link:
 
Tom Capin, Hoosier Headhunter in WWII
 
 
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