The Science of Shrinking Human Heads: Tribal Warfare and Revenge among the South American Jivaro-Shuar

Jandial, Rahul; Hughes, Samuel A.; Aryan, Henry E.; Marshall, Lawrence F.; Levy, Michael L.

doi:10.1227/01.neu.0000140986.83616.28

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Although the original study and four replications (A1-A5) include populations from Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, Southern Asia, and two geographically distant countries from the Anglosphere, the individuals tested all live in advanced market economies with police and courts to resolve disputes. Our next test was in a culture that differs along those dimensions: the Shuar, an indigenous Amazonian society living in the southeastern neo-tropical forest of Ecuador (Jandial, Hughes, Aryan, Marshall, & Levy, 2004;Patton, 2005). The Shuar hunt (with blowguns and shotguns), fish, gather, and practice slash-and-burn horticulture.…”

Section: Experiments A6: Replication Among Shuar Foragers In the Ecuadmentioning

confidence: 99%

The grammar of anger: Mapping the computational architecture of a recalibrational emotion

et al. 2017

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a b s t r a c tAccording to the recalibrational theory of anger, anger is a computationally complex cognitive system that evolved to bargain for better treatment. Anger coordinates facial expressions, vocal changes, verbal arguments, the withholding of benefits, the deployment of aggression, and a suite of other cognitive and physiological variables in the service of leveraging bargaining position into better outcomes. The prototypical trigger of anger is an indication that the offender places too little weight on the angry individual's welfare when making decisions, i.e. the offender has too low a welfare tradeoff ratio (WTR) toward the angry individual. Twenty-three experiments in six cultures, including a group of foragers in the Ecuadorian Amazon, tested six predictions about the computational structure of anger derived from the recalibrational theory. Subjects judged that anger would intensify when: (i) the cost was large, (ii) the benefit the offender received from imposing the cost was small, or (iii) the offender imposed the cost despite knowing that the angered individual was the person to be harmed. Additionally, anger-based arguments conformed to a conceptual grammar of anger, such that offenders were inclined to argue that they held a high WTR toward the victim, e.g., ''the cost I imposed on you was small", ''the benefit I gained was large", or ''I didn't know it was you I was harming." These results replicated across all six tested cultures: the US, Australia, Turkey, Romania, India, and Shuar hunter-horticulturalists in Ecuador. Results contradict key predictions about anger based on equity theory and social constructivism.

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Section: Experiments A6: Replication Among Shuar Foragers In the Ecuadmentioning

confidence: 99%

The grammar of anger: Mapping the computational architecture of a recalibrational emotion

et al. 2017

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“…The Jivaroan represent a small linguistic family consisting of dialects: Shuar, Achuar, Aguaruna, and Huambisa. All of them share similar customs and they are genetically related [1, 2]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetic evidence for human origin of Jivaroan shrunken heads in collections from the Polish museums

et al. 2016

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Advances in forensic identification using molecular genetics are helpful in resolving some historical mysteries. The aim of this study was to confirm the authenticity of shrunken-head artifacts exhibited by two Polish museums. Shrunken heads, known as tsantsas, were headhunting trophies of South American Indians (Jivaroan). A special preparation preserved their hair and facial appearance. However, it was quite common to offer counterfeit shrunken heads of sloths or monkeys to collectors of curiosities. We sampled small skin specimens of four shrunken-head skin from the museum collection from Warsaw and Krakow, Poland. Following genomic DNA isolation, highly polymorphic short tandem repeats were genotyped using a commercial chemistry and DNA sequencing analyzer. Haplogroups of human Y chromosome were identified. We obtained an informative genetic profile of genomic short tandem repeats from all the samples of shrunken heads. Moreover, amplification of amelogenin loci allowed for sex determination. All four studied shrunken heads were of human origin. In two ones, a shared Y-chromosome haplogroup Q characteristic for Indigenous Americans was detected. Another artifact was counterfeited because Y-chromosome haplogroup I2 was found, characteristic for the Southeastern European origin. Commercial genetic methods of identification can be applied successfully in studies on the origin and authenticity of some unusual collection items.

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“…The practice of taking trophy heads from enemies in war was widespread in the northwestern area of pre-Columbian South America while the making of ritual shrunken heads, or tsantsas, was mainly practiced by indigenous residents of Peru and Ecuador, the Jivaro-Shuar tribes in the postColumbian period (Jandial et al 2004;Rubenstein 2004). The raising interest in the tsantsas at the end of the nineteenth and through the twentieth century caused an increase in manufacturing of forged shrunken heads for profit purposes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetic signature of a shrunken head

Hermon

Gafny

Zamir

et al. 2011

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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The making of ritual shrunken heads, or tsantsas, was a common practice among the Jivaro-Shuar tribes of Ecuador and Peru during the post-Columbian period. The raising interest in the tsantsas in the late nineteenth through the twentieth century caused an increase in manufacturing of forged shrunken heads for profit. In the current study, we examined the authenticity and possible cultural provenance of the shrunken head displayed at the "Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv" using macro-and microscopic criteria together with DNA analyses. DNA analyses have revealed that the shrunken head represents a human male individual with a genetic profile compatible with an African ancestry and resembling that of modern South American populations.

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The Science of Shrinking Human Heads: Tribal Warfare and Revenge among the South American Jivaro-Shuar

Cited by 20 publications

References 2 publications

The grammar of anger: Mapping the computational architecture of a recalibrational emotion

The grammar of anger: Mapping the computational architecture of a recalibrational emotion

The genetic evidence for human origin of Jivaroan shrunken heads in collections from the Polish museums

The genetic signature of a shrunken head

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