Heads, Women, and the Baubles of Prestige: Trophies of War in the Arctic and Subarctic

Abstract

Trophies are symbols of successes in interpersonal violence and warfare. Their visibility is critical to their power to give the holder greater access to the rewards of increased status. Thus, the acquisition of trophies is synonymous with striving for status and prestige. There are three types of highly visible trophies in the arctic and subarctic: body parts of victims, women, and material items of the victims. These three categories are perhaps interchangeable in relation to the status they confer on the victor, and the priority of any of these three appears to be related to individual social categories and the social nearness or distance of the combatants. Trophies of war and violence are reviewed for a suite of northern societies in the context of their relationship to the status of the victors and we find that the collection of body parts is common when there is great social distance between the combatants.