The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians

ISBN-13: 9780387769837 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 680 str.

Richard J. Chacon; David H. Dye

Opis

The Amerindian (American Indian or Native American reference to both North and South America) practice of taking and displaying various body parts as trophies has long intrigued both the research community as well as the public. As a subject that is both controversial and politically charged, it has also come under attack as a European colonists perspective intended to denigrate native peoples. What this collection demonstrates is that the practice of trophy-taking predates European contact in the Americas but was also practiced in other parts of the world (Europe, Africa, Asia) and has been practiced prehistorically, historically and up to and including the twentieth century. This edited volume mainly focuses on this practice in both North and South America. The editors and contributors (which include Native Peoples from both continents) examine the evidence and causes of Amerindian trophy taking as reflected in osteological, archaeological, ethnohistoric and ethnographic accounts. Additionally, they present objectively and discuss dispassionately the topic of human proclivity toward ritual violence."

Recenzje

From the reviews:

"The volume edited by Chacon and David Dye is a comprehensive source book on trophy-taking in the Americas. ... carefully produced, thoroughly researched, and thoughtfully written, drawing on ethnohistory and archaeology in about equal measure. ... essential reading for anyone interested in the archaeology of war and violence." (Elizabeth Arkush, American Antiquity, Vol. 73 (3), 2008)

"This volume of far ahead of many bioarcheological works...it should be the goal of the violence researcher (or any anthropologist for that matter) to not search for a single event that delineates and homogenizes a systematic function of a group (e.g. sacrifice, violence, or warfare) but rather try to understand how people are bound by events and processes that allow for a fluidity of responses to multiple stimuli. This volume moves in that direction by establishing skeletal and taphonomic studies in the Maya region that adhere to a rigorous methodology and that are systematically applied." (Ventura Perez, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, vol. 19 (566-571), 2009).

Spis treści

North America.- to Human Trophy Taking.- Heads, Women, and the Baubles of Prestige.- Human Trophy Taking on the Northwest Coast.- Ethnographic and Linguistic Evidence for the Origins of Human Trophy Taking in California.- Head Trophies and Scalping.- Human Finger and Hand Bone Necklaces from the Plains and Great Basin.- Predatory War and Hopewell Trophies.- “Otinontsiskiaj ondaon” (“The House of Cut-Off Heads”).- Human Trophy Taking in Eastern North America During the Archaic Period.- Severed Heads and Sacred Scalplocks.- Disabling the Dead.- Trophy Taking in the Central and Lower Mississippi Valley.- Latin America.- Captive Sacrifice and Trophy Taking Among the Ancient Maya.- The Divine Gourd Tree.- Sorcery and the Taking of Trophy Heads in Ancient Costa Rica.- From Corporeality to Sanctity.- Human Trophies in the Late Pre-Hispanic Andes.- Seeking the Headhunter’s Power.- “Handsome Death”.- Human Trophy Taking in the South American Gran Chaco.- Ethics and Ethnocentricity in Interpretation and Critique.- Supplemental Data on Amerindian Trophy Taking.- Conclusions.

O autorze

Richard John Chacon is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Winthrop University. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Amazonia among the Yanomamo of Venezuela, the Yora of Peru and the Achuar (Shiwiar) of Ecuador and he has also worked in the Andes with the Otavalo and Cotacachi Indians of Highland Ecuador. His research interests include optimal foraging theory, indigenous subsistence strategies, warfare, belief systems, the evolution of complex societies, ethnohistory and the effects of globalization on indigenous peoples.

 

David H. Dye is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Memphis. He has conduced archaeological research throughout the Southeastern. His research interests include the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Midsouth. He has had a long-term interest in late prehistoric warfare, ritual, and iconography in the Eastern Woodlands.