on the chang gang

theweekmagazine:

Thirteen inches from heel to crown, the specimen is mounted on a mahogany stand that could serve as a paper-towel holder. The first thing you notice is the skin color. The Shuar, an Amazonian tribe known for shrinking the heads of slain enemies, believed that killing a man created an avenging soul that would leave the corpse via the mouth and come after the perpetrator. Lips were sewn shut to prevent this, and true ceremonial tsantsas [a Shuar word for shrunken head] have blackened skin, the result of the killer having rubbed it with charcoal to prevent the victim’s spirit from “seeing” out.

Author Mary Roach explores The Amazon’s head hunters and body shrinkers

I <3 Mary Roach.