Wednesday, August 1, 2007

How to make a Jivaro Shrunken Head

From http://exn.ca/Stories/1999/08/27/52.asp

How to make a Jivaro Shrunken Head

  • Remove head.
  • Make a slit from the back of the head to the crown of the head.
  • Separate the fleshy part of the face and the top of the head from the skull. (Skull may be thrown in river to placate Anaconda god.)
  • Turn face inside out and scrape all fatty tissue off.
  • Place the head into a pot of simmering water (do not boil, or hair may fall off).
  • Simmer until head is about two thirds natural size.
  • Sew back of neck, eyes and lips closed with plant fiber.
  • Heat small pebbles in fire and place in head, constantly moving.
  • When head is too small for pebbles use hot sand.
  • Dye head blue-black with plant dyes.
  • While heating, continuously mold face to keep the look of its original owner as much as possible.
  • Use heated knife to dry and shrink lips.
  • Wear around neck.

6 comments:

Tammy Lind said...

Ok, I am a little creeped out at reading these directions, but I kinda love it too! You guys are doing such a great job! Keep it up!!

Nate said...

This one won't make it in the Grimm recipe box nor in a How To class speech.

Nate said...

Jan,

Did Audacity break each of Dawn's answers into approx. 15 second increments for you too?

That is what I'm getting when I import audio into Audacity. Not a huge deal. Just creates more work.

Hmmmm...I wonder why it does that automatically?

Melissa Stolaski said...

Nate and Jan,

Let me know if there is something I can do to help with the editing of the sound. From Nate's comment, I gather there may be more problems to using Audictity.

Melissa Stolaski said...

This recipe is one I would love to share with my World Cultures students. They will get a kick out of and then we can discuss the idea of shrinking heads. A concept we are glad is no longer practiced (except for tourist- It's scary what we as tourist will buy.)

Tammy said...

Nate- you want to edit from the large Audacity file not the little ones in the data folder. I'll help when you come tomorrow.