Shrunken head ·  Ecuador · ID: 3038725

Description

with straight hair to the chin and a beard, tinged with grey, in a good state of preservation!
it is not a ceremonial shrunken head “tsantsa” but a so-called “tourist head”, probably caucasian. They were usually made with an effort to retain realistic proportions as much as possible. This was dictated by a market demand more concerned with human-looking shrunken heads than authentically-produced ones.
To produce a shrunken head first the skull bones were removed and the remaining skin was cooked together with the scalp. Afterwards the skin shell was filled with stones, sand or hot ashes, which made it shrunk and mummifying. The facial features were remodeled. Finally it was smoked for several hours which preserved it and produced the dark skin colour.

Expertise

Universitätklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, 11.02.2015

Comparing literature

Castner, James L., Shrunken heads, Gainesville 2002, p. 37, ill. 2-4