11.15.2009

Watch 'Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers' See MY HEAD SHRUNK! SHRINK YOURS! (Nat. Geo TONIGHT + VIDEO PREVIEWS, Apps & MORE)


Photos of the head shrinking process



 

I recommend that you take

the medications while you are doing this.
 

 

The Mossie!

 


THE HEADSHRINKING PROCESS


  • First, the back of the head is opened and the skin is sliced free from the skull.  Care is taken not to damage the facial features. While the skull and remaining flesh are discarded, the skin is boiled in water for half an hour (any longer and the hair may fall out).
  • After being dried in the sun, the skin is turned inside out and any unwanted tissue is scraped off.  The skin is formed into a sack shape and hot stones are used to burn off the fat inside.


    MEET PIERS GIBBON

    Photo: Piers Gibbon
    "You cut the head off and shrink it to ensure that the person is fully punished and also so that his spirit is not going to come back and cry for vengeance. It's very effective!
    — Gibbon, on why headshrinking was practiced by warrior tribes.

    VIDEOS





    http://www.piersgibbon.com/headshrinkers/


    A British explorer and author as well as television host and correspondent, Piers Gibbon studied human sciences at Oxford University. For Channel 4 UK, he presented “Jungle Trip,” in which he had frog poison burned into his skin and swallowed a live millipede as part of a Peruvian shaman initiation ceremony. He has traveled extensively in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and the Sahara, and his book on tribes of the world will be published in 2010.
    In Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers, Gibbon traveled to the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle and was held by machete-carrying Shuar tribe members and later subjected to questioning at a military checkpoint. He witnessed a series of healing rituals (involving an egg and tobacco) of a community leader who believed he was attacked by evil spirits, and he met the last remaining Shuar warrior of his generation.
    Why did you agree to do the expedition?

    Photo: Man staring at shrunken head



    THE POWER OF THE TSANTSA

    By Kate Horne, Diverse Television
    For years the Shuar people of Ecuador have been referred to in numerous travel articles and novels as the "savage head-shrinkers of the Amazon". Less has been written, however, about the motivation behind these Indians’ ritual head-shrinking ceremonies of the past.

    Photo: Man holding Amazon bowl

    SHUAR AND SHAMANISM

    READ THE FASCINATING BIZARRE FACTS AND PRACTICES OF HEADSHRINKING AFTER THE JUMP!






    Legends tell horrifying Amazon Indian Headshrinkers that reduce an enemy's head to make the soul revengeful powerless.







    By Kate Horne, Diverse Television
    To understand the culture of the Shuar people of Ecuador, it is crucial to appreciate the importance they place on “the hidden world.”
    As the American academic and white shaman Michael Harner explains in his book The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls the Shuar believe that waking life is simply “a lie,” or illusion, while the true forces that determine daily events are supernatural. The Shuar believe that witchcraft is the cause of the vast majority of illnesses and non-violent deaths. This view of reality has created a demand for numerous Shuar shamans, people who are able to interpret the forces of the “real” world and help others interpret and deal with these supernatural elements.


    What’s next for you?
    The lighter side of life — like cannibalism and poisons and explorers whose bodies have never been found.



  • Hot sand is added to reach the fat in hard-to-get-to places, such as the nose and lips.  The head-taker massages the skin to help the drying process and produce the head shape once again.
  • The process is repeated and can take up to six days, until the head is a quarter of its original size.
  • The warrior must now make sure there is no revenge attack from the dead man’s soul:  Eyes are sewn shut, preventing the victim’s spirit from seeing out, and wooden pins are placed through the lips and lashed together with string.  This stops the soul from asking for the death to be avenged. 
  • The warrior is now safe, while the soul within will remain in the abyss.



Rare archival footage demonstrates the process of shrinking a human head. The Shuar engaged in this practice to render their victims powerless to take revenge.




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