From Corporeality to Sanctity: Transforming Bodies into Trophy Heads in the Pre-Hispanic Andes

Abstract

The taking, transforming, and displaying of human heads and other body parts has a long tradition in the Andes, beginning at least as early as 1300 BC and extending in most areas up until the European invasion in the sixteenth century. In southern Ecuador, the Jivaro continued this practice until the mid-twentieth century or later (Harner 1972).