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Full Text: Anthropos, 102.2007

'* hro l>» S 102. 2007 
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Valent Blessings 
^ds i n the sense Elshout generally takes as valid. 
0r ere are indeed reports of magical uses of a skull 
jj °f parts of it to effectuate success in certain en- 
.^avors. 4 Moreover, the same trophies can be used 
Ij Sev eral rituals for a few years, after which “they 
^ c °me malevolent” (Rousseau 1990: 276). Often 
fj. are told that head trophies were treated in a 
fashion and fed at fests (see McKinley 
114). Such uses, however, do not require a 
t Sl ~physical energy. Rather, it appears that in cer- 
j lls c °ntexts the skulls are being ritually addressed 
^ as so many other “mediating” objects in In- 
Cp^a possessing a soul. 5 However, Needham is 
ainly right that the occasional instrumental uses 
f 0 ^Hs cannot be taken as an overall explanation 
r head-hunting. 
k ut what about Needham’s own argumentation? 
j^a prompt and, in my view, apt reaction, Michelle 
pi s ald° (1977; 169) has countered that “... a mis- 
Ce ^ model of causal explanation ... demands 
r ^a discussion, not of alternate causal logics, but 
5 Ct< er °f native views of how and why some human 
make good sense.” 6 
^ point the discussion seems to have be- 
Lj îttired down. In a monograph on Kayan Re- 
W n hy Jérôme Rousseau which was published a 
^ e ars ago (1998: 86), the author follows Need- 
111 his assumption that “there is no need to 
existence of a soul substance in the head 
“p r T ’ The transformation of heads into trophy 
\Vitjj Uces (or unlocks?) a propitious influence ... 
ti 0n ,°at [people] requiring [any further] explana- 
W^ver, there is a strange omission in the 
ar gument. Two pages earlier than his state- 
hiw J Ust quoted, Rousseau remarks that “head- 
ip p. § is a form of human sacrifice.” And later 
Pe s 8 book (207 f.) he describes various catego- 
•ripi h s P ir its involved in connection with the an- 
e ad-hunting ritual. 7 This brings us back to 
C ut 0926: 300, 327), Schuster (1956: 47), Adrian! en 
(lQq 0 (1950-51/1: 338), and in interesting detail Rousseau 
Cf s 8:206f -). 
<l intc) (1995a, 1999). - The conversion of the enemy 
eternal social person”, as mentioned by McKinley 
a bo ut seems to me a special elaboration of the ideas 
of tp Mediating agencies rather than a general explanation 
^o Sald Phenonaenon °f head-hunting. 
Wh ere 0 had based her reaction on the case of the Ilongot 
Plai n ph he beneficial consequences of head-hunting are ex- 
!ti So^u' n rat her psychological terms. This is an exception 
, v a |; ,. e ast Asia, but it does not impair the fundamental 
s '=4o 0iher p° int 
r eir° / ? l he corresponding arguments by Coiffier and Guer- 
be a( j_h u ?' a 5 ) for the characterization of Southeast Asian 
nting practice as a “dette de vie.” 
481 
Elshout. According to this author, a head-hunt 
ing trophy was considered to be a proof of the 
favourable disposition of the community of the 
spirits associated with head-hunting, the “spirits of 
courage” (bali akang)\ the above-mentioned local 
ization of these favours in the trophy itself appears 
to be Elshout’s own addition. Or, to quote an au 
thor about another Dayak group (Geddes 1957; 52): 
“... the heads were made into ... symbols of 
supernatural support by their presentation to the 
gods.” Again, about the Toraja in Sulawesi, we read 
(Adriani en Kruyt 1950-51/1: 246) that the enemy 
heads are food for the spirits {anitu)\ head-hunt 
ing induces fertility in people, livestock, and har 
vests; not going head-hunting would be punished 
by the spirits with misfortune. Looking at the west 
of the archipelago, about the Niasans, Scarduelli 
(1986: 140 and 1990: 461) remarks that the heads 
were offered first to the ancestors and later to di 
vinities of realms outside the human domain. They 
guaranteed plentitude for all the members of the 
community. 
Strangely enough, Needham (1976: 77 f.) him 
self comes close to such reports on the grounds of 
his own observations in Borneo when he writes that 
head-hunting was required by the spirits in order to 
avoid misfortune. And he goes on to acknowledge 
with regard to various Indonesian examples that 
“it is certain spirits ... which actually provide the 
desired consequences of the practice of head-hunt 
ing” (80). 
In view of all these documents, the first conclu 
sion to be drawn seems to me, that far from being 
forced to accept an alternate logic we should take 
what is stated by the people themselves seriously. 
As we have seen, just as any Indonesian ritual, 
head-hunting is performed for explicit aims and 
purposes. In another context (Schefold 1988: 22- 
24) I have called this purposeful function of rituals 
their “telic” dimension. To reach the ritual goals, 
mediating instances can be appealed to, but other 
practices such as offerings to spirits can also be 
resorted to. Our task, therefore, would be to identify 
whether we can find more information about the 
nature of the spiritual beings whose favours were 
apparently to be reached by means of the head 
hunting raids. It is here that we can expect to find 
the agent between the cause and the effects so pro 
foundly missed by Needham. 
In order to illustrate this, I shall dwell on one 
case in somewhat more detail. The case comes from 
some tribal groups on Sibemt, the northernmost 
and, with a size about the same as Bali, the largest 
island of the Mentawai Archipelago west of Suma 
tra. Sibemt is sparsely populated, with only about
	        
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