Shrunken Heads

Authentic shrunken head MOS London
Photo in the public domain

In all of our forays into all that is bizarre, we have yet to touch on tribal, old-school oddities. In pondering this unfortunate lapse, I could think of nothing better to introduce this topic to this blog than shrunken heads. This is no legend. People can and often did shrink heads -- human heads. To be honest, I'm trying to start this off with a witty pop culture reference and am finding it tough. I'm sure I have seen them in movies, but I must have blocked it out. Beetlejuice? Indiana Jones? Ah, well. Let me know in the comments if you can think of any shrunken heads in film.

To give you an idea of what exactly a shrunken head is, apart from the obvious, I'm going to partially describe the process. You can refrain from telling me that I do not have it all quite right because I'll be darned if I'm going to write a recipe for shrinking heads. My love for the bizarre has its limits. Of course, shrinking a head involves the removal of the head. Then, the skin is taken from the head. This is what becomes the shrunken head through a process of drying and sewing a la Ed Gein. So, if you are thinking how odd it is that a skull shrinks like that, perish the thought. The skull is presumably given to the village witch doctor for use as a mortar with a femoral pestle or tossed aside like trash.

Thankfully, you do not have to worry about your head being shrunk. Well, you don't have to worry too much. It seems that the ever-frightful Amazon and the Nazi party are the only areas/groups responsible for shrinking heads in history. However, the cutting off and collecting of heads is pretty universal throughout all of the cultures in history. It's a madman thing.

If you want to see one of these macabre creations, many museums have them.