Does anyone know the date of the most recent death by headhunting in Taiwan? When, generally, did the practice die out?
Early 1920s, I recall reading.
Do you remember where you read it?
Not really. Possibly Cranky’s site, maybe Almas John’s book. The only Taiwan histories I have are Davidson, which predates the 1920s, and one in Dutch (which I can barely read), so it can’t have been from either of those sources. Cranky has all kinds of interesting nuggets, so I suggest you start there.
Okay, thanks. My intuition is that there was some headhunting in the 1930s and 1940s. I’ll check into it further…
There are mountains and mountains of data on the aborigines which was collected by the Japanese during their rule of Taiwan. It is all kept at Taida (NTU), the former Taihoku Imperial University. Apparently, it is the most comprehensive history and collection of statistics ever compiled on the aboriginal population here by far, but unfortunately it’s never been translated (it’s written in pretty old-style Japanese) or organized … it’s just been sitting there gathering dust for decades … a real shame.
I thought the head-hunting thing was a myth.
Can’t remember where I read it but I recall something about the only head-hunting and cannabilism going on here was done by the Chinese. The odd unscrupulous lao ban thickening up the niu rou mian with a slice of aborigine.
HG
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I thought the head-hunting thing was a myth.
Can’t remember where I read it but I recall something about the only head-hunting and cannabilism going on here was done by the Chinese. The odd unscrupulous lao ban thickening up the niu rou mian with a slice of aborigine.
HG[/quote]
Headhunting was practiced fairly extensively by some of the tribes, but the only documented cannibalism was by the Han, who could buy aboriginal cuts at their local wet markets.
[quote=“sandman”][quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I thought the head-hunting thing was a myth.
Can’t remember where I read it but I recall something about the only head-hunting and cannabilism going on here was done by the Chinese. The odd unscrupulous lao ban thickening up the niu rou mian with a slice of aborigine.
HG[/quote]
Headhunting was practiced fairly extensively by some of the tribes, but the only documented cannibalism was by the Han, who could buy aboriginal cuts at their local wet markets.[/quote]
According to some sources, headhunters used to make crackers that included the brains of their victims. I guess it was supposed to increase their bravery and allow them to get another head and more crackers and so on.
Yeah, I suppose making brain soup or crackers as part of the headhunting ritual could be considered cannibalism, but I don’t think it has quite the evil disgust factor as the Han using aborigines as butcher meat.
True. Then there were the Dutch who, in pacifying the Aborigines, roasted some of them, although I’ve never seen any sources that accused the Dutch of eating them.
I have, in Canada, a ceremonial outfit which was made for my fathers friend Eurau Bonai, by his mother when he was a child. It is made of Rami and dyed with natural vegetable dyes. It also is decorated with buttons and bits of bone. This was to be worn when he took his first head as a rite of manhood at about the age of twelve years. It was given to my father in the 1970’s sometime by Eurau and he told my father that he had been lucky that by that time most of the head hunting had died out within the Tyal and Amis tribes. At that time Eurau was in his 40’s or early 50’s. This would roughly place the time in the 1930’s or 40’s. Other than this bit of information, I don’t know a whole lot but I too, am interested! Please post any further information you find!
Reference:
English article with larger copy of the same photograph
The same article in the Taipei Times
More
[quote=“Juba”]
Wushe incident Autumn 1928 - Mass beheading carried out by loyalist aborigines against aborigine rebels on Japanese orders.[/quote]
Thanks for the photo and info. It also raises a lot of additional questions. My initial queries: Does anyone know the date of the most recent death by headhunting in Taiwan? When, generally, did the practice die out?
I guess it depends on what is meant by “headhunting.” I was thinking of the kind that I’ve read about in books about Taiwan’s Aborigines, i.e. members of one tribe sneak up on those of another (or on Chinese who are engaged deep in the woods in the camphor trade) and nip off a head or two, and this act brings them great honor / makes them eligible for marriage / etc. When did this practice generally die out?
I wonder how much the beheadings in the Wushe Incident fall into this category. Were the heads cut off because those doing it were acting on their headhunting beliefs of old or because it was a simple method of killing. After all, the Japanese executed plenty of people, up to the time they left in 1945, but no one calls them headhunters. True, the picture shows Aborigines posing with the heads, but I’ve seen photos of Japanese posing with the heads of executed people. (I’ve also seen photos of American WW2 soldiers posing with Japanese skulls, but that’s another story.)
In any case, great photo and great info…
Photo of a Bunun headhunter carrying a severed head, dated 1930s
Note the caption:
[quote]This was a photo on display at the Museum of Native Culture in Taichung. It displays a Bunun headhunter from the 1930’s.
Headhunting was a cultural practice of some of the indigenous tribes of Taiwan. The men of the Atayal tribes were required to bring back a head to earn their manhood and the ability to marry. headhunting struck fear in many settlers on the island, who gave the people the name, “savages.” The Japanese abolished the practice during their occupation from the 1890’s to the 1940’s.[/quote]
Clearly, Japanese efforts to abolish headhunting can’t have been too effective if this chap was willing to pose with a chopped-off head after 40 years of Japanese rule, and the Wushe incident shows that the Japanese were willing to encourage head-chopping when it suited them. I suspect that the Bunun fellow might also have been working for the Japanese.
The Japanese weren’t the only ones to do that. The British army rewarded tribesmen for cutting off Japanese soldiers’ heads in Burma and communists’ heads in Malaya. Beheading was also done by anti-communist militia in the Philippines in the 1980s and by moslem guerrillas in Bosnia in the 1990s. The R.O.C. used to reward frogmen for swimming from Jinmen to Fujian and coming back with severed ears.
If the Japanese didn’t manage to abolish headhunting in Taiwan, then who did? The answer must be either the KMT or Christian missionaries.
[quote=“Juba”]
Wushe incident, central Taiwan, Autumn-Winter 1928 - Mass beheading carried out by loyalist Atayal aborigines against Atayal rebels on Japanese orders.[/quote]
I’m outraged by this disgusting photo. And I don’t want to be eating my Raisin Bran and be subjected to [color=red]
racist
[/color] descriptions…not all Japanese were ordering aborigines to behead others!
MT, back me up on this!
Sorry. I couldn’t resist.
[quote=“Juba”]Photo of a Bunun headhunter carrying a severed head, dated 1930s
Note the caption:
[quote]This was a photo on display at the Museum of Native Culture in Taichung (Taizhong). It displays a Bunun headhunter from the 1930’s.
Headhunting was a cultural practice of some of the indigenous tribes of Taiwan. The men of the Atayal tribes were required to bring back a head to earn their manhood and the ability to marry. headhunting struck fear in many settlers on the island, who gave the people the name, “savages.” The Japanese abolished the practice during their occupation from the 1890’s to the 1940’s.[/quote]
Clearly, Japanese efforts to abolish headhunting can’t have been too effective if this chap was willing to pose with a chopped-off head after 40 years of Japanese rule, and the Wushe incident shows that the Japanese were willing to encourage head-chopping when it suited them. I suspect that the Bunun fellow might also have been working for the Japanese.
The Japanese weren’t the only ones to do that. The British army rewarded tribesmen for cutting off Japanese soldiers’ heads in Burma and communists’ heads in Malaya. Beheading was also done by anti-communist militia in the Philippines in the 1980s and by moslem guerrillas in Bosnia in the 1990s. The R.O.C. used to reward frogmen for swimming from Jinmen to Fujian and coming back with severed ears.
If the Japanese didn’t manage to abolish headhunting in Taiwan, then who did? The answer must be either the KMT or Christian missionaries.[/quote]
The line between headhunting being undertaken as a rite of manhood / to make a man worthy of marriage and as simply mercenary activity seems, based on this thread and what I’ve read, to have become fuzzy in the 1920s. Is this fair to say?
Censored by Forumosa’s self-appointed nanny.
According to Steven Crooks’ Keeping Up With the War God, headhunting continued into the 1920s.