Post #344026 by bananabobs on Thu, Nov 15, 2007 7:15 AM

It is a fact that a single head displayed is a problem, everyone knows that two heads are better than one...sorry, I must have lost my head.
Imagine being a slave to the Maori's first of all then being forcefully tattooed knowing that you are going to be killed so it can be shrunk. Gives me a different outlook on the funny faces made during the performance of the Haka, these were some bad Hombres.

Quote Carmine Verandah;
Ripley's Believe or Not (headquartered in Florida) claims to have the world's largest collection of heads, shrunken...

Isn't that collection called Congress?

Quote ikitnrev;
"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's a relief to know that there was a protocol to wear a head and returning heads. Bad enough taking some poor slobs head but then letting the kids put lipstick and a pink dress on it to play "Tea"
Without a good Ginsu knife, it must have been a task to take off a head and imagine the nice aroma around camp as the head was "cured?"