Post #343909 by ikitnrev on Wed, Nov 14, 2007 4:29 PM

A few more information about Maori heads was found in some other articles - condensed here for your pleasure.

"Tattooed, shrunken heads sparked a brisk, grotesque trade among European collectors until it was outlawed by the British in 1831. Some of the estimated 200 held around the world were stolen from burial caves. New Zealand launched a campaign to recover the heads from museums and private collections around the world in 1992, responding to Maori grievances at the treatment of the remains.

Dr Tapsell said that before the introduction of the musket moko was only worn by those who had killed in hand-to-hand combat. The moko represented the warrior's lineage but also was a testament to the vanquished person's whakapapa.

"It [the moko] wasn't worn lightly, it had great mana. There was also the pain of the whakapapa of those lives you'd taken." Once a warrior with a moko was killed in combat his head was removed by his enemy.

"The mana of that person was taken when the head was taken." At some point the preserved head could be offered back to the kin group, as utu - a rebalancing - for peace

It looks like Chicago's Field Museum has already returned their Maori heads to New Zealand.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2007/09/07/field-maori-bones.html