Headshrinking

[sassanik]

NatGeo had a special about headshrinking in the Amazon. It is interesting to see it because when I was in college and had a class about the region my professor who had been there many times had said it was really bad to ask about headshrinking. It was somewhat taboo, because in general it was not practiced anymore and that asking about it could bring up accusations of black magic and cause rumors in the area. There was also the possibility that the person could be approached with an offer to shrink the head. Which apparently is still being done and could result in a murder in the area to provide the skin for the headshrinking. Apparently shrunken heads run about 30k these days which is a lot of money for the locals. The special did note that heads were still occasionally being shrunk for money not because of any ceremonial reasons.

So basically it was better to not ask about headshrinking.