ANTHROPOS 102.2007: 479–494 Ambivalent Blessings Head-Hunting on Siberut (Mentawai) in a Comparative Southeast Asian Perspective Reimar Schefold Abstract. – The practices of head-hunting in Southeast Asia encountered, irrespective of gender or age. More- share certain formal features but the indigenous explanations of over, the practice had always a ritual character. It the phenomenon are very diverse. The article explores a set of was influenced by the readings and observations of ideas behind this apparent heterogeneity. The case of Siberut in the Mentawai Archipelago is described in some detail and omens and oracles and ended in elaborate religious compared with occurrences in related cultures. The sacrificial celebrations in the community.1 character of head-hunting and its relationship to autochthonous On the other hand, precisely with regard to powers prove to be common key concepts. [Southeast Asia, this ritual dimension, the ethnographic descriptions Siberut, Mentawai, head-hunting, human sacrifice] on head-hunting are so heterogeneous that, in her Reimar Schefold, guest researcher of the Institute of Environ- reader on the topic, Hoskins (1996: 40) commented mental Sciences, Leiden University, is professor emeritus of that there is no single model of a “head-hunting Cultural Anthropology at Leiden University and ex-chairman of complex” to be found in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbe- there is a great variety of indigenous explanations an Studies. – He has conducted fieldwork among various indige- nous groups in Western Indonesia, notably Mentawai, Batak, at various levels which agree only in so far that and Toraja. – His publications include “Treasure Hunting. Col- generally speaking a beneficial influence on the lectors and Collections of Indonesian Artefacts” (coeditor with community is attributed to the practice of head- H. F. Vermeulen, Leiden 2002), “Indonesian Houses. Vol. 1: Tra- hunting.2 This leaves us with the question of how dition and Transformation in Vernacular Architecture” (coeditor with P. J. M. Nas and G. Domenig, Leiden 2003); see also Ref- erences Cited. 1 For a general survey on Southeast Asian head-hunting prac- tices, I refer to Schuster (1956), Stöhr (1965: 194–201), Schouten Patuleia (1992), and Hoskins (1996). The practice occurred in a vast region from northeastern India to Polyne- 1 Introduction sia among peoples belonging to different language families (Austronesian, Tibeto-Burman, and Austro-Asiatic) and ap- There is a strange inconsistency in the practice of pears to have existed in Proto-Austronesian times some 5000 head-hunting in Southeast Asia. On the one hand, years ago (Coiffier et Guerreiro 1999: 44f.). 2 Another frequent aspect in the taking of heads has in fact lit- there are certain formal characteristics which make tle to do with ritual at all: the personal renown an individual it possible to recognize a common pattern. In con- can attain through a successful headhunt. That this should be trast to warlike conflicts with neighbours, most the case is in itself a logical consequence of the extraordinary head-hunting raids were performed by small groups prestation and is similar to what might be expected from any spectacular undertaking. However, in nearly all Southeast of people and in the guise of surprise attacks out- Asian examples, it is the accompanying communal ritual side their own domain. They were aimed at obtain- rather than personal bravery which gives meaning to a head- ing one or a few heads of whatever individual was hunting raid. https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2007-2-479 Generiert durch IP '170.106.202.58', am 26.09.2021, 05:06:57. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. 480 Reimar Schefold are we to explain certain striking commonalities in heads being buried under the foundations of such the reports of head-hunting practices in premodern major constructions (see Schuster 1956: 70–82). times throughout the Southeast Asian region. In this This profusion of aims elicits a second question: article an attempt is made to explore an answer to What is the basis of this many-stranded ritual ef- this question. The past tense which is used through- ficacy attributed to head-hunting? In other words, out most of its arguments indicates that I am not what warrants the confidence that there is hope of aiming at an essentialist construction of a time- attaining whatever the headhunt is aimed to accom- less phenomenon, a phenomenon that in fact was plish? Why do Southeast Asians believe that the subject to local transformations everywhere it oc- capturing of a head from outside one’s own do- curred. What I am in search of is an understanding main induces propitious consequences of the ritual of the ideological backgrounds of various recurring at home? features reported to have been part of head-hunting In contrast to the second question, scantiness practices before they were suppressed by the colo- not diversity marks the answers to this question in nial governments. anthropological literature. Rodney Needham, in an Of course, there were also private rather than often quoted article of 1976, departs from Kruyt’s collective motives. There is a variety of statements (1906: 18; see also Nooy-Palm 1986: 318) well- that the soul of the person beheaded is supposed known explanation that the “soul-substance” (zie- to serve the successful headhunter or some promi- lestof ) of a slain enemy can be captured by tak- nent member of the community here and in the ing his head and can be used to effectuate fertility Hereafter.3 Local elaborations of this idea include and other beneficial influences. Against this general certain Southeast Asian construction rituals which theory, and taking the reports about the Kenyah alternatively involve the killing of a captive slave Dayak by Elshout (1926) as an example, Needham from outside the domain or the providing of a head- demonstrates that it has not proved possible to pro- hunting trophy. The souls of the victims are said duce direct evidence of indigenous notions pointing to become guardians; they are ritually prompted in the direction of such a general explanation (see to protect the structure and its inhabitants (see also Metcalf 1982: 113). Indeed, a closer reading of Wessing and Jordaan 1997). However, such ani- Elshout and other authors reveals that, according to mistic elaborations are too sporadic to shed light their informants and despite their own Kruytian in- on Southeast Asian head-hunting in general. terpretations, in most instances it is not the trophies themselves which are said to elicit the beneficial effects. 2 Reasons for Head-Hunting At this point, Needham’s argumentation takes a in Southeast Asia surprising turn. His failure to find an indigenous theory such as that of the soul-substance to explain Did there ever exist any specific aims and goals “just how the cause produced the effect” (1976: 78) which motivated people to embark on a head-hunt- brings him to the conclusion that what we are strug- ing raid? An ethnographical survey soon reveals gling with is in fact not a lack of sufficient field that there are no general answers to this question to information. It is instead an example of a situation be found. There are nearly always concrete reasons for which we have to accept the existence of a mode for taking a head, but these are so diverse that it of thought which is alien to European tradition. It is instead this phenomenon as such which needs represents an “alternative conception of causality” explanation. Fertility, for instance, is often men- (1976: 71) in which something can cause an effect tioned, in a marriage or for the crops; there is the without any intermediary element in between. It is death of a chief, there is the averting of disaster, nothing but the tacit preconceptions of the anthro- and, of course, there is retaliation. In more general pologist, triggered by a contemporaneous “scien- terms, the idea that new life requires the taking of tific idiom derived from physics” (1976: 82) which life recurs. However, one particular theme, to which inspires the researchers to assume the existence of I shall come back later, has a pervasive prominence: a quasi-physical mediating agent which realizes the The motivation of a headhunt being coincident with desired result. the completion of a communal building. From ev- Although Needham is probably right in pointing ery corner of the area there are reports of captured out the circumstantial tinges in Kruyt’s influential theory, his alternative assumption of associating head-hunting with an alien causality seems rather 3 See Stöhr (1965: 198) and for early sources Schuster (1956: odd to me. Firstly it should be said that Needham 64–69) and Downs (1977: 117). is somewhat categorical in denying any use of the Anthropos 102.2007 https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2007-2-479 Generiert durch IP '170.106.202.58', am 26.09.2021, 05:06:57. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. Ambivalent Blessings 481 heads in the sense Elshout generally takes as valid. Elshout. According to this author, a head-hunt- There are indeed reports of magical uses of a skull ing trophy was considered to be a proof of the or of parts of it to effectuate success in certain en- favourable disposition of the community of the deavors.4 Moreover, the same trophies can be used spirits associated with head-hunting, the “spirits of in several rituals for a few years, after which “they courage” (bali akang); the above-mentioned local- become malevolent” (Rousseau 1990: 276). Often ization of these favours in the trophy itself appears we are told that head trophies were treated in a to be Elshout’s own addition.