"They have a custom of
killing people in order to obtain human skulls, which they
suspend as trophies from the roofs of their huts. It is from
this custom these people have obtained the name of “Head
Hunters”. But, not withstanding the barbarous customs that
exist amongst them, they have many good qualities."
The Very Rev. Thomas Jackson, Perfect Apostolic of Labuan
and North Borneo, 1884:2 |
Borneo still lures with myths and legends, and most famous of all
stories are probably those about headhunting. Already in early
colonial days Borneo gained its reputation as a place where
‘head-hunters roam in wild and untamed jungles.’ Reports of daring
adventurers and explorers were chilling enough: long, communal
houses, and from the smoke blackened rafters hung endless rows of
human skulls, revered in song and deed. Some of the skulls made it
back to Europe, and inspired the imagination of early 20th century
citizens with awe.
the ruai, or communal gallery in an Iban longhouse in
Sarawak - where in olden days rows upon rows of human skulls
were displayed |
But what was really behind head-hunting? Was it the cruel and
barbarous custom as promoted by the invading ‘cultured’ colonisers,
and Christian missionaries?
The definition of cruel and gruesome is different in each culture.
Headhunting in Borneo served particular purposes, varying slightly
with the different tribes: defence, proof of manhood and spiritual.
It was always an aspect of their life, intrinsically linked to
cosmology, agriculture, human fertility and religious power.
To put it a bit sloppily: while in olden days people in Borneo lived
under the constant threat of head-hunting, most of us live today
with the constant danger of being run over by a car…
Colonial Accounts on Headhunting
“The barbarous practice of
head-hunting, as carried on by all the Dyaks tribes, not
only in the independent territories, but also in some part
of the tributary states, is part and parcel of their
religious rites. Births and “ naming,’’ marriages and
burials, not to mention less important events, cannot be
properly celebrated unless the heads of a few enemies, more
or less, have been secured to grace the festivities or
solemnities. Head-hunting is consequently the most difficult
feature in the relationship of the subject races to their
white masters, and the most delicate problem which
civilization has to solve in the future administration of
the as yet independent tribes in the interior of Borneo. The
Dutch have already done much by the double agency of their
arms and their trade to remove this plague-spot from the
character of the tribes more immediately under their
control…” (extract from Carl Bock’s ‘The Headhunters of
Borneo’ 1881). |
European colonial powers, and
Christian missionaries from the 1500s onwards were not used to the
ritualised violence associated with headhunting in Borneo, and other
parts of Southeast Asia. Indeed, the ‘old world’ ideal and morality
of a proper war to settle, primarily, territorial disputes was a
face-to-face combat. It was not immediately understood that
headhunting had other functions than the expansion of one’s
traditional territory and that thus the victims need not necessarily
only be men – warriors – but were more often women and innocent
children, unacceptable targets for the European patriarchal military
men. To fulfil the religious, emotional or vengeance goals in Borneo
there was no need to distinguish one kind of victim as more worthy
than another. Furthermore the Europeans had problems with the way in
which heads were ritually displayed in public; the dances in which
women would keep still bloody heads in their hands; and the songs
that glorified headhunting in general. This was an affront to
European sensitivities about the dead and only contributed to the
barbaric image the Victorian audience got from Borneo.
Iban
with a skull his ancestors collected |
two ancient
skulls in an Iban
longhouse, during a ceremony; note the offerings for the
spirits dwelling in the skulls |
How to Take a Head
Maybe you are now wondering how it was done? The taking of heads was
certainly a bloody affair, conform to the Victorian perception of a
barbarian Borneo! An official of the Sarawak Government Service*
describes the procedures as follows (readers’ discretion advised, this
text contains graphic language…):
“The way of cutting off
their heads varies with the different tribes. The Sea Dyaks
(Iban**), for instance, sever the head at the neck, and so
preserve both jaws. Among the Hill Dyaks (Kelabit, Kenyah
and other tribes**), on the other hand, heads are very
carelessly taken, being split open or slashed across with
parangs. Often it may be seen that quite large portions have
been hacked out of the heads. Others again cut off the head
so close to the trunk that great skill and a practised hand
must have been used.
“Many tribesmen habitually carry about their person a little
basket destined to receive a head. It is always very neatly
plaited, ornamented with a variety of shells, and hung about
with human hair. But only those Dyaks who have lawfully
obtained such a head, as opposed to those who steal, or
"find" them, may include this human hair ornamentation to
their macabre baskets.
“The Sea Dyaks scoop out the brains by way of the nostrils,
and then hang up the head to dry in the smoke of a wood fire
- usually the fire which is maintained anyway for the
cooking of all the food for the members of the tribe. Every
now and then they will leave their preoccupations, saunter
across to the fire, and tear or slash off a piece of the
skin and burnt flesh of the cheek or chin, and eat it. They
believe that by so doing they will add immediately to their
store of courage and fearlessness.
“The brains are not always extracted by way of the nostrils,
however. Sometimes a piece of bamboo, carved into the
semblance of a spoon, is thrust into the lowest part of the
skull, and the brains gradually extracted by the occipital
orifice...” |
Talking to various elderly Kadazan
here in Sabah it seems that they needed to sever the head of their
enemy while he was still alive, preferably in combat. The head of an
already dead man or woman was considered ‘useless’ because devoid of
any spirits: the Kadazan, and other Dusunic ethnic people believe
that our body is maintained by a number of specialised spirits that
inhabit our body, the Rungus call them 'hatod'. There are
spirits looking after our knees, others after our chest and so on.
The most important spirit is of course located in the head - the 'lugu'
in Rungus, or 'tandahau' in Kadazan. My friends have reasoned
with such – admittedly logical – arguments as: “if you lose a leg,
or an arm, you can still live, but when you lose your head, or got a
major injury to your head you die…!” “When someone dies,” the
stories continue, “our ‘maintenance spirits’ reassemble, go to Mt
Kinabalu and eventually find themselves back on the earthly plain in
the body of a newborn. If a human head is severed the body
maintenance spirits leave through the wound the decapitation
created, but without the head
spirit which has rolled away with the head and finds itself alone
and confused. It remains in the severed head hoping that someone will take
care of it.” And that is exactly what the Kadazan did: the head was
brought to the village, displayed in a bangkaha – a peculiar
bamboo contraption for sun drying enemy heads – and then welcomed in
a grand ceremony that aimed at making the spirit forget, forgive and
feel at home in its new place.
skulls Monsopiad collected some three
hundred years ago |
The Murut, though having a reputation as fierce headhunters, are
being considered less ‘noble’ by the Kadazan. Every young Murut man
would need a head to prove his manhood and in order to get married.
This is in stark contrast to the Kadazan who trained warriors to
defend their territories and who collected the heads of their
enemies as proof of victory. Mostly, that is! A head was still
prestigious and might win you that sweetheart you covet…
Young Murut men would go on headhunting raids, and any head would do
– an old lady collecting vegetables from the jungle, or an
unsupervised child near a rice field would do just as nicely as the
head of a young warrior. I fear that it was probably easier for many
young men to ‘hunt down’ an old lady – and thus not risk their own
lives – than to face another headhunter, hence the perception of
other tribes in Sabah that the Murut were maybe fierce headhunters,
but at heart cowards nevertheless.
Religious Motives
Anthropologists and scholar-colonial administrators working in
upland Burma and Assam, where head-hunting was practised just like
in Borneo, were among the first to recognize that this custom was
not just about violence, revenge, or savagery. Subsequent
ethnographers in Sarawak noted that head-hunting had a definitively
spiritual aspect to it. Victims’ heads were brought to the village
or house of the victorious headhunting party with much ceremony,
displayed in a place of honour and treated with much reference. The
victims’ souls were welcomed in their new home and ritually
purified. Thus the souls of the enemies were recruited as one’s
allies. Amongst the Kadazan in Sabah the spirits of such allies were
then considered part of the villages’ ancestral spirit group. They
would be called upon during major shamanistic ceremonies, or when
their aid and support was needed, just as that of one’s own
ancestors’ spirits.
The skulls also represented the most powerful magic in the world,
vital transfusions of energy. A “good head” – that is a skull that
was well looked after by an already powerful warrior or his
descendants – could save a village from plague, produce rain, ward
off evil spirits, or ensure copious rice yields.
Territorial Defence
Obviously not all headhunting was conducted ritually. There were
times when it was necessary to defend one’s ancestral territories.
The Kadazan in Sabah, and other tribes throughout Borneo trained
young men as warriors in order to secure their land. There were
times when it was necessary to act in defence, or even go after
one’s traditional enemies and vanquish them to secure a lasting
peace. A well documented legend in Sabah is that of a certain
Kadazan warrior Monsopiad, who lived in the 18th century and
throughout his lifetime “collected” 42 skulls: the enemy head
brought to the village was the ultimate proof that the enemy was
indeed dead – then they obviously did not have the benefit of
newspapers and TV broadcasts confirming the victory.
Subsequently the heads were, as described above, brought to their
new abode with much ceremony and there are customs (adat)
that punish anybody who is disrespectful towards a head or a skull.
Because the killing one’s enemy and taking his head not only means
“victory,” but acquiring the human head also confers mystical
benefits. To profit of the mystical benefits the head must be
treated with the proper ceremony, and rites ensuing the successful
victory (or head-hunting raid) enable the spirits dwelling in the
skull to become friend, guardian or benefactor not only to the
victorious warrior, but also to his (or her, in very rare cases)
ancestral spirits, and those of his family – and to a larger extent
even those of the village.
Prestige
Headhunting was in many cases a way of earning prestige and could
enable a man to gain fame as a hero amongst his people, and the
surrounding area. The number of skulls displayed in a house very
eloquently told every visitor of the prowess of its inhabitants –
and served as a warning not to mess with the host, neither on a
physical nor on a spiritual plane! As such, headhunting was amongst
certain tribes also a test to confirm their manhood. In Sabah, the
Murut were particularly feared head-hunters, not only because they
tended to fiercely defend their territories but also because they
conducted head-hunting raids in order to get married: not so long
ago, a young Murut man was considered worthless if he had not taken
at least two heads; he could not get married!
skull on display in an Iban longhouse |
The fiercest head-hunters in Borneo by far seem to have been the
Iban. Heads allowed a man to obtain prestige, fame, a bride from a
good family, and fresh heads were also necessary for many yearly
recurring rites, especially those in conjunction with the annual
rice planting cycle and to celebrate rites of passages (births,
deaths, weddings etc). The Iban did not only search out enemy
tribes, but would conduct inter-tribal warfare. This was clearly a
never ending vicious circle because any longhouse would feel sooner
or later the burnt of revenge from a longhouse that they had
attacked many years previously. Head-hunting was thus kept alive and
anthropologists speculate that Borneo has never known a population
explosion because of this ancient custom.
Head-Hunting in Present-Day Rites and Ceremonies
In many parts of contemporary Borneo headhunting is a part of the
past preserved in narrative form and in some areas headhunting
rituals continue. While in olden days fresh heads were required for
certain ceremonies ‘old’ skulls may now be used as replacement, or
the skulls of orang utan and even wooden substitutes or coconuts.
This is in areas where head-hunting rituals are needed for spiritual
benefits such as for agriculture (rice) and the building of a new
house (longhouse). In the case of the direct descendants of the
Kadazan warrior Monsopiad, yearly simple rites are conducted to
maintain and ensure the ‘happiness’ of his 42 skulls and the spirits
dwelling therein. The yearly rites were completed with a major
ceremony (momohizan) that recurred every five to seven years.
The ceremony lasted over several days and was very costly because
the whole family had to be gathered, plus of course many friends and
all had to be served foods and drinks. It was essentially a very
prestigious event for the ‘guardian of skulls’ and his family, where
the spiritual purpose outweighed the cost. In fact, the ritual was
necessary in order to maintain and renew the spiritual/magical bonds
with the otherworld. With the disappearance of the last Bobohizan
– the Kadazan ritual specialists – the present keeper of skulls and
6th direct descendant of Monsopiad is worried that the spirits
inhabiting the skulls will resort to mischief. The simple ceremonies
in order to keep the spirits ‘calm’ must still be conducted on a
yearly basis, and certain taboos must be observed by those wishing
to see the skulls.
Kadazan Bobohizan, or ritual specialists |
Gundohing Dousia, keeper of Monsopiad's skulls |
To-day, headhunting has officially disappeared. The last to give up
the old custom in Sabah were the Murut, because their main reason
for headhunting – initialisation into manhood – was more on a
spiritual level than the Kadazandusun headhunting which primarily
occurred during territorial disputes. The Kadazan passed their
ancestors’ skull collection on to new generations who maintained the
spirits in the skulls. Thus they had no need to add regularly to the
collection, whereas each Murut man needed to prove his manhood with
the killing of at least one person and show the skull for proof.
Headhunting was
reportedly revived during WWII when the Japanese occupied Borneo. In
fact, the English encouraged the locals on a guerrilla war against
the Japanese, and paid for every enemy head two shilling*. Rumours
persist of modern-day headhunting, of course. It is said that when a
new bridge is built, a head (or several, depending on the size of
the bridge) is needed in its fundaments. Prolonged draught and other
natural calamities also may require a human sacrifice to calm
nature and reinstall harmony between mankind, nature and the astral
world. When in a faraway village people advise you to lock all doors
and windows in the night, or if they insist that you sleep with them
in the same room as they do, simply don’t ask…
skull in a village near Kundasang,
Sabah; this one reputedly
belonged to a Japanese soldier, taken during a raid in
WWII when headhunting was revived |
* citation needed
** notes by the author
References
- Robert McKinley’s study
of ethnographic documents on headhunting in Southeast
Asia is the first major ‘regional’ synthesis: R
McKinley, 1976 "Human and Proud of It! A Structural
Treatment of Headhunting Rites and the Social Definition
of Enemies"
- Gundohing Dousia Dousia Moujing,
6th direct descendant of the famous Kadazan warrior and
head-hunter Monsopiad
- James Masandang,
descendant of Rungus warriors
- Interviews with Dusun in
various districts in Sabah
- Various Internet
resources
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