If you’ve ever watched a horror or adventure movie set in the South American Amazon, it’s likely you’ve seen a moment in the film where the unsuspecting adventurer comes upon an ancient burial site or an abandoned city decorated with shrunken human heads to scare off any who would dare encroach upon the sacred or forbidden areas. It’s become a cinematic cliché representing impending danger from uncivilized, native, Amazon people.

But is there a real-life basis for the cliché? Is it actually possible to shrink a human head, and was the Amazon region populated with cultures that did so on a regular basis?

Multiple Amazonian Tribes Linked To Head Shrinking

There was actually only one culture in human history that engaged in the practice of shrinking heads. They were called the Jivaro Indians and they lived in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian regions of the Amazon. The Jivaro Indians were a notoriously fierce bunch and had a reputation for brutal warfare against outside enemies as well neighboring Jivaroan tribes. Although it was mainly the Shuar sub-tribe that is credited for shrinking heads, the practice has also been linked to the three other sub-tribes, the Achuar, Huambisa, and Aguaruna.

Head-hunter.com, a website devoted to the infamous and brutal history of the Shuar, says, “The Jivaros are the only tribe known to have successfully revolted against the Spanish Empire and to have been able to thwart all subsequent attempts by the Spaniards to conquer them. They have withstood armies of gold-seeking Incas and defied the bravado of the early conquistadors.”

The authentic Jivaroan shrunken heads, or tsantsa, were indeed mainly made from actual human heads. But the entire head was not used in the process. After a Jivaro warrior killed his enemy and severed his head, the head was carried back to the warrior’s home camp. A slit was made from what remained of the neck up to the back of the head so the skull could be removed. Only the skin and hair were actually used in the shrinking process, since the head could not be shrunken with skull bone still inside of it. So, it could be argued that it is possible to shrink a human head, but only if it isn’t a complete head.

Once the skull is removed, the eyes were sewn shut and the lips pinned together, and then a wooden ball was placed inside the head. Then the head was boiled long enough for shrinkage to occur without loss of the hair. This first stage of shrinking reduces the head to about 1/3 of its original size and the wooden ball helps preserve its shape.

The second stage involves finishing the head with hot stones and sand to get it to shrink even further. Hot stones were also used on the outside of the head to seal facial openings and to shape the head in order to preserve the appearance of the victim. Once the head shrinks down to the desired size, it’s baked over an open fire to harden.

Jivaro Indian Tribe Believed Magic Was Cause Of Deaths

The Jivaro Indians were superstitious and believed that any death of a loved one was caused by the evil magic of a neighboring tribe. They believed that this placed blood-guilt upon the person blamed for using the magic, typically the rival tribe’s medicine man, and that the soul of the dead loved one required them to avenge his or her death. If the person being blamed couldn’t be murdered to avenge the blood-guilt, then a member of his family could be used as a stand-in.

According to Head-hunter, com, “following each death, a vicious cycle of retaliation ensues in which someone is always held accountable for the murder of another. … If the surviving members do not retaliate against the slayer, the anger of the vengeful spirit may in fact turn against themselves.”

The superstitious beliefs of the Jivaro are also what inspired the practice of shrinking heads. They believed that preparing the shrunken head neutralized the spirit of their enemy, trapping it in the head, and preventing it from coming after them for revenge.

“This also prevents the spirit or soul from continuing into the afterlife where it could harm dead ancestors,” says Head-hunter.com. “The power of the dead man’s soul is still considered dangerous to the victorious tribe and therefore the motive behind shrinking the head of the enemy is to conquer and destroy the spirit or soul… The head means to the warrior what the Medal of Honor means to an American soldier.”

In the mid-1800s, as the outside world began to learn about the Jivaro and their unusual head-shrinking practice, collectors ignited a trade for the tsantsa, which fueled rivalries between tribes because they would trade the shrunken heads of their enemies for guns and other modern weapons that they would then use in violent campaigns against each other.

The market for the heads was large enough to inspire of wave of counterfeit heads, which are considered to be those made from animal heads or any made by people other than the Jivaro tribes. As the demand grew, taxidermists, or others eager to cash in on the macabre fascination of collectors, began making heads from corpses stolen out of morgues, or from monkeys, sloths, or goats. Reportedly, close to 80% of the shrunken heads in existence today are counterfeit.

Head Shrinking Subsided Through Christian Missionaries

Partly due to the efforts of Christian missionaries, the inter-tribal violence and the practice of head shrinking began to subside. The Ecuadorian and Peruvian governments also passed strict laws in the 1930s prohibiting the trafficking of human heads. Many countries, including the United States, reportedly followed suit in the 1940s and made it illegal to import authentic human shrunken heads.

Although some museums, including Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, in Williamsburg, Virginia, claim to have shrunken heads on display, it is possible that these heads are actually counterfeits, which may help such facilities avoid potential legal issues surrounding the authentic heads. However, Ripley’s did not respond to requests for a comment on any legal loopholes that would allow such facilities to display items that would be illegal to import into the United States if they were authentic.