- 2 days ago
Shrunken heads, or tsantsas, were created by the Shuar and other Jivaroan tribes in the northwestern Amazon rainforest of Ecuador and Peru. Warriors made them from the heads of defeated enemies to trap their souls and prevent revenge. In the 19th century, Western demand turned these sacred artifacts into a grim trade, leading to many animal-skin forgeries.
19世纪40年代，西方探险家进入亚马逊雨林，偶然发现了古老的 “缩头” 仪式。这一与世隔绝的仪式习俗……
19世纪40年代，西方探险家进入亚马逊雨林，偶然发现了古老的 “缩头” 仪式。这一与世隔绝的仪式习俗……
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TVTranscript
00:01Shrunken heads.
00:03What are these macabre curiosities?
00:06Where do they come from?
00:08How were they made?
00:12Now scientists are using advanced forensic technology
00:16and DNA analysis to find out who these people really were.
00:22The DNA analysis has revealed that they were definitely from the same family
00:27and they might have been brothers.
00:30Anthropologists are discovering the science of head shrinking.
00:34The ability to preserve a head for over a hundred years is really quite incredible.
00:39And putting their research into practice.
00:42Right now I'm actually removing the skin from the skull.
00:48That's the first stage of head shrinking.
00:51They're uncovering a dark tale of ancient ritual and Victorian obsession.
00:57Exploration and exploitation.
01:01Forgery and murder.
01:04To reveal the secrets of the shrunken heads.
01:18In the 19th century, a gruesome curiosity captured the public imagination.
01:25And created an obsession for these exotic novelties.
01:32Decapitated human heads shrunk to a fraction of their original size.
01:38Shrunken heads were sought after because they were really rare.
01:42They were really macabre.
01:43They were so far removed from our own culture.
01:47And therefore they were the height of the trophy in the oddity collection for a 19th century collector.
01:55Shrunken heads have long been viewed as almost like freak show ornaments that would be put in displays or in
02:02even private collections for people to stare at.
02:05Without anyone really acknowledging that this was once a living, breathing individual.
02:11There are thousands of shrunken heads in museums around the world.
02:16Some on display, others locked away.
02:20And the shocking truth is, most of these are real human heads.
02:25Where did they come from?
02:28How were they made?
02:29And what's the true story behind this strange and disturbing phenomenon?
02:35Now scientists can finally answer these questions.
02:39Using DNA, forensic science and advanced computer modelling.
02:44Among them is Dr. Tobias Holton, an anthropologist specialising in facial anatomy.
02:52The intention of our forensic investigation is that we can actually discover the identity of the individual.
02:59That it's not just the so-called specimen that's hidden behind a glass cabinet.
03:05But actually a living, breathing person that once existed.
03:08Who are they?
03:10Where did they reside?
03:12And how did they land up as a shrunken head?
03:17The story begins deep in the Amazon rainforest.
03:21And with a single tribe.
03:23The Shua.
03:28The tribe's ancestral homeland lies amongst the tributaries of the Amazon River.
03:34In the remote jungle of Ecuador.
03:39With a reputation as fearsome warriors,
03:41the Shua were the only South American indigenous people never to have been conquered by the Span Empire.
03:50Over thousands of years, they mastered the macabre art of head shrinking.
03:55Before it was banned in the 1960s.
03:58The Shua called these shrunken heads, Sansa.
04:03Felipe Sencus is a former president of the Shua Federation.
04:09The Shua that was opposed to our origin.
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04:26WITHIN HLAIasu
04:26These weren't trophies of war.
04:29They were more than simply symbolic.
04:31In a world in which the spirits of the dead were as real as the living,
04:35shrunken heads served an important practical purpose la practica de hacer
04:42la tanta era una manera de de exigir seguridad a la familia
04:49ese era el beneficio que traía la tanta it was not about the physical item it
04:56filled purely a practical spiritual function
05:03at philadelphia's muta museum curator and forensic anthropologist anna dodie studied sansa and the
05:11schwa belief system the schwa believe in spirits they believed that the enemy the spirit of their
05:18enemy could still harm them even after death and that they had to take preventative measures so by
05:24taking the head of their enemy and by creating these very special sansas they could actually
05:30effectively seal the spirit of their defeated enemy in the head each genuine shrunken head shares the
05:40same distinctive characteristics charcoal darkened skin and sealed eyes and mouth the careful and
05:48deliberate closure of the eyes and mouth provides a clue to the shrunken heads spiritual purpose the
05:56eyes can be sewn shot the nose is sometimes plug shot and most importantly it's the mouth the mouth is
06:02either pegged shot with very specific types of pegs or it's actually sewn shot and that's very important
06:09because you want to seal these orifices up so that the soul or the spirit of the defeated enemy cannot
06:16escape
06:19the head was strung on a cord and worn by the man who'd taken it the killer gradually absorbed the
06:27captured souls power
06:28when this was complete the head was thrown away shrunken heads were sacred items but not permanent ones
06:39the schwar weren't really interested in the actual physical head they were interested in the process
06:44which involved trapping a vengeful soul and using that power to bring good fortune to themselves and
06:51actually the heads had a shelf life of one to two years after which time the schwar would typically throw
06:57the heads out but there are hundreds of shrunken heads in museums and collections around the world
07:04so where did they come from are they genuine schwar shrunken heads or clever fakes medical historian Dr.
07:13Lindsay Fitzharris wants to discover their secrets a lot of people when they visit a museum and they see
07:19a shrunken head the first question they ask is how was it made but very few people ask how did
07:25it get
07:25there in the first place Fitzharris believes that finding out how and why these people ended up in
07:33museums will take investigators a step closer to discovering their identity she's traveled to the
07:41State Ethnological Museum in Warsaw Poland where the DNA of several shrunken heads has been analyzed
07:50Magdalena Gudjeko is the collections curator she's identified two heads that bear a striking similarity
07:58so the DNA analysis has revealed that they were leave from Ecuador they were from the same tribe it's
08:06most probably insane family they might have been fighting together with a common enemy and killed at the
08:14time traditionally the schwar discarded shrunken heads after a year but the fact that these two heads
08:22still here 150 later is a clue that around middle of the 19th century something stopped the schwar from
08:30to shreds and change their world forever since the Spanish conquest of Ecuador in the 16th century
08:42the schwar had successfully repelled invaders but in the 1840s western explorers and traders began to
08:51penetrate the schwar's remote territory in search of the rubber trees that grew in the jungle here they
08:59were captivated by the schwar's shrunken heads because these tiny human heads appealed to a gruesome
09:08Victorian mindset you have to remember that this is a very different culture from ours this is a time of
09:14public executions and this is a time when the criminal will be hanged and probably dissected and his skin will
09:20be used to bind a book about his crime so the shrunken heads very much fit into that macabre trinkets
09:28that
09:28people were trying to get their hands on the stranger the weirder the better for their collections from the mid
09:3519th century onwards the schwar
09:38bar stopped discarding the heads and began to sell them to travelers and traders this may have been
09:45the fate of the two warriors made as genuine ceremonial shrunken heads then sold on to traders news of these
09:55gruesome curios began to spread across Europe and North America collectors scientists circus
10:03impresarios and freak show entertainers all wanted a shrunken head people in the 19th century traveled
10:10all over the world at this time looking for strange and unusual objects for their curiosity cabinets by the
10:181850s an ancient ritual had become an international trade it was the beginning of a terrible new chapter in
10:27the long history of the schwar it's a better port provocation there's an heroes it isn't quiero tanta te pago
10:38and those this day I unmercado que compra nothing manda una oferta entonces eso un motivado
10:47buckle short ahora ya no como en guerra sino como todo un delincuente no longer simply selling
10:57discarded heads the schwar began killing to supply the western demand for shrunken heads their jungle
11:05homeland erupted into bloodshed nothing was sacred nobody was safe not even the dead
11:25shrunken heads macabre curiosities that were once living breathing people
11:34now scientists are using forensic technology and DNA to reveal the secrets of these shrunken heads
11:42whilst anthropologists are investigating the culture that made them
11:49in Warsaw Poland medical historian dr. Lindsay Fitzharris is investigating a collection of heads in the state
11:57ethnological museum and one has captured her attention as you can see the ear is a lot different it
12:08doesn't have as many details as they have it doesn't resemble as much as human ear
12:16this is not a human head it's a clever fake made of animal hide that was stretched and molded to
12:23appear
12:24human so we can be quite sure that it's made of an animal skin but the schwar tribe were head
12:32shrinkers
12:32not leather workers so if they didn't make this head who did in the mid-19th century the amazon's
12:42rubber trees and mineral riches brought traders miners and missionaries to the region settlements
12:49sprung up in or near schwar territory the fake head suggests some of these colonial settlers wanted a
12:57piece of the lucrative trade in shrunken heads making a fast buck selling fake heads to eager traders and
13:04explorers a lot of collectors were being duped and paying a lot of money for essentially what was a fake
13:11shrunken head at this time and they were being sold you know incredible stories that were attached these
13:15objects to go along with them another head in the museum's collection came with exactly this kind of tall
13:23tale could this be another fake head the head was acquired by the museum in 1950 the information
13:32that they gave us was that it was a male shaman who was trying to cure a child of one
13:39of his tribesmen
13:40but since he couldn't do it the father of the child killed the shaman and took his head that's what
13:47we
13:47thought during a very long time in 2016 the museum analyzed the head's DNA the analysis revealed this
13:58was not made of animal skin it was a real human head but something was wrong the DNA analysis said
14:07that
14:07this is a female head not a male it's a shocking revelation genuine ceremonial shrunken heads are always
14:17male because the schwa shrank heads to stop the soul of a slain warrior from taking revenge and in schwa
14:26society women were never warriors shrunken heads were traditionally made of male warriors women on the
14:37other hand were not expected to present the same threat at all so the only reason to shrink a woman's
14:45woman's head would be to satisfy the victorian demand for morbid curios she wasn't a victim of tribal
14:52conflict but of cold-blooded murder the killing started to increase in order to supply for the demand so it
15:02was most probably an innocent female this woman's death had nothing to do with ceremony and everything to
15:12do with money this is a commercial shrunken head commercial heads were created just for trade just as a
15:22commodity there was no spiritual aspect connected to it by the late 19th century in the quest for ever
15:32stranger curiosities human heads had become commodities and the schwa was central to this bloody trade as victims
15:43and perpetrators and perpetrators there's the care elsewhere super okay la tanta tiene valor yeah
15:53ahora se ha generado in las comunidades inseguridad amenaza the schwa prided themselves on their fearsome reputation
16:08they fought amongst themselves clan versus clan and against neighboring tribes using blow pipes and
16:15spears but the victorian fascination with shrunken heads turns these localized skirmishes into full-blown war
16:24because as the trade escalated in the late 19th century instead of buying shrunken heads with cash
16:31europeans began trading with a deadly new currency guns this allowed the schwar people to collect heads at
16:41a greater pace and a greater number and the schwar began killing people indiscriminately in order to meet
16:48european demand the guns triggered an explosion in violence
16:59as a vicious circle of supply and demand blame and retaliation spiraled out of control
17:10so it does seem that the more we dig deep into the history of the head shrinking trade it becomes
17:16more
17:16and more grim and macabre and unpleasant and removed from its original meaning
17:22two genuine ceremonial shrunken heads a fake made of animal skin and the shrunken head of a woman made for
17:30commercial purposes the foreheads in warsaw tell an increasingly disturbing story of a descent from ancient
17:39ritual to fakery and murder but this is just the beginning now anthropologist and facial anatomy expert
17:49dr tobias holton wants to delve deeper into the secrets of shrunken heads to retrace their journey from europe
18:00back to where the story began back to where the story began the heart of south america and the amazon
18:07basin
18:08his destination the historic colonial city of cuenca in ecuador here on the edge of schwar territory he wants to
18:17discover the secrets of shrunken heads
18:23i want to get to understand the whole custom the people behind it as well as the the victims of
18:29the head shrinking
18:32the city's museum is home to south america's largest collection of shrunken heads
18:40houlton hopes these heads so close to the schwar homeland will hold more clues about how they were made and
18:46who they were
18:48but he's about to discover they're not what he expects
18:53with specialist imaging technology used by crime scene investigators he examines the heads in forensic detail
19:03infrared reflectology captures infrared wavelengths beyond the range of visible light to reveal details
19:10invisible to the naked eye the benefit of using this is that it will give me a nice defined image
19:17of the skin
19:18and give me a detailed idea of any changes in the skin pattern which will help identify if this is
19:27a ceremonial
19:28sensor or commercial shrunken head
19:31it's the first time this technology has been used to examine the heads in the museum's collection
19:38revealing to curator tamara landivar details she's never seen before
19:46and almost immediately halton sees there's something strange about this shrunken head
19:52there's no doubt it's human
19:54but a genuine ceremonial shrunken head should have smooth hairless skin
20:00evidence that the head had been prepared using the traditional schwa technique
20:04of ironing the skin with a heated rock
20:07the images reveal the skin on this head is thicker and rougher than expected
20:14the individual that was processing this head didn't actually iron the skin in quite the same way as the schwa
20:22this subtle detail invisible to the naked eye suggests this is not a genuine ceremonial shrunken head
20:30no i think it's most probably a commercial shrunken head
20:35so if this head wasn't made by the schwa who did make it
20:42by the 1880s the western mania for shrunken heads had triggered a twisted gold rush
20:49and this treasure wasn't mined from the earth it was made from human flesh
20:55a single shrunken head could be exchanged for a gun or machete
20:59or sold for between five and twenty five dollars not much for a human life but a small fortune in
21:0719th century ecuador
21:10with serious money to be made the schwa began killing to meet western demand tribal warriors became commercial headhunters
21:20and it wasn't long before outsiders joined the deadly treasure hunt in the towns and settlements on
21:28the edge of the jungle colonial settlers soon learned the ancient art of head shrinking
21:43houses by the sunset tribal warriors
21:48by the late 19th century
21:50the schwa and colonial settlers were all making shrunken heads to sell.
21:56But Halton's infrared images reveal even this wasn't enough
22:00to satisfy the insatiable demand for these gruesome collectors' items.
22:05Because on the skin of another head in the museum's collection,
22:10he's discovered strange raised patches,
22:13evidence of an even darker chapter in the story of shrunken heads.
22:19As you can see, this area here looks like that might be a lesion
22:24that had developed during decomposition.
22:28After death, tissue begins to break down,
22:31causing skin to discolour and disintegrate.
22:35And that means this man wasn't killed in tribal warfare.
22:39He wasn't killed to fuel the trade in shrunken heads.
22:42He was already dead.
22:44It looks like the timescale between the person's death when the head was taken
22:51and then shrunk, you know, is probably a larger timescale
22:55than what you'd expect to see with a ceremonial sansa.
22:59The schwa shrunk their victims' heads immediately after death
23:03to prevent their vengeful spirit from escaping.
23:06But this head had started to decompose.
23:11The heads could have been allowed to decompose over a period of time.
23:16It can mean only one thing.
23:21This head was stolen from a body and shrunk for commercial purposes.
23:27By the late 19th century,
23:28it seems a new kind of criminal had joined the feeding frenzy.
23:33Body snatchers.
23:35But where did they snatch the bodies from?
23:39Halton thinks one head in the museum's collection holds a clue.
23:43This is an interesting one.
23:45The wavy hair and the thick beard,
23:48the full exposure of the upper eyelids,
23:50eyelashes, the very fine suturing,
23:53is probably produced from a European individual.
23:56This man was of European origin.
24:01Shockingly, it's not a unique discovery.
24:06Investigations into other collections across the globe
24:08have revealed similar, unsettling results.
24:13Reasonably certain that this one is a non-ceremonial shrunken head.
24:19It is made predominantly for the tourist trade.
24:22The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia has been carrying out a survey of shrunken heads
24:26held in collections across the United States.
24:30They've discovered that even genuine fake ceremonial heads
24:33from South America are not always what they seem.
24:37You can see the hair is shorter.
24:40If you look very closely,
24:42he's got a mustache.
24:44His hair is lighter in color.
24:46And also, the hair is falling out.
24:49This was made with a different technique
24:51than what the Shuar would have used.
24:53We think it's actually of a person of Western origin.
24:57The Western heads,
24:59discovered in Philadelphia and Ecuador,
25:02reveal Europeans living in South America
25:05were not immune from the trade
25:07fueled by their fellow Victorians.
25:10living in or near Shuar territory
25:13in the late 19th or early 20th century,
25:16these men may have been missionaries or traders.
25:20And that made them an ideal target
25:24for body snatchers.
25:26European heads would have likely been used
25:29because they were readily accessible
25:31within hospital mortuaries or in cemeteries.
25:34So they were easy to access
25:35by those living in colonial towns and villages,
25:39unlike the Shuar who were living out
25:41in the Amazon rainforest.
25:43A number of Europeans were actually purchasing heads
25:46that they thought were from the exotic Shuar culture
25:50deep in the Amazon,
25:51only to actually be holding onto a head
25:54that was actually shrunk of a European.
25:56The investigation is uncovering a sinister story
26:00of head hunting and body snatching.
26:02But just when Holton thought he'd seen it all,
26:06there's worse to come.
26:18The collection of shrunken heads
26:20in the Cuenca Museum in Ecuador
26:22has revealed many unsettling secrets.
26:25But in the vaults,
26:27kept well away from public view,
26:29is a truly disturbing item.
26:31that marks a terrible tipping point
26:34as the demand for shrunken heads
26:36drove people to commit ever more desperate acts.
26:41It's the head of a child.
26:43This is actually a rather shocking
26:46shrunken head look at.
26:47To satisfy collectors' appetites
26:57forevermore, ever stranger shrunken heads,
27:00this child was decapitated
27:02and turned into a commodity.
27:05It's really an absolute travesty
27:08that a child should be used this way
27:10to earn money and profits.
27:13It's really quite disgraceful
27:15that somebody should do this to a child.
27:20The fakes, the innocent men and women,
27:23even the dead,
27:25weren't enough to satisfy the Western appetite
27:27for these macabre collector's items.
27:31And so the headhunters broke the final taboo.
27:35They began killing children.
27:38When headhunting became particularly popular,
27:43especially referring to the 1880s,
27:46women, children, absolutely everyone
27:49would be killed in order to procure
27:52a sufficient number of heads to shrink,
27:54to sell in the markets.
27:57This indiscriminate slaughter
27:59was a world away from the original purpose
28:02of head shrinking,
28:03to prevent a warrior's soul
28:05from taking revenge on the killer.
28:08Para nosotros es muy indignante.
28:12Es muy indignante que por dinero del extranjero
28:22hayan muerto niños
28:25y niñas sobre todo lo que nos disgusta,
28:32nos ofende.
28:35For the Shua, as victims and perpetrators,
28:39the consequences of this twisted trade
28:41were catastrophic.
28:44The proud Shua tribe,
28:46the only indigenous South American people
28:49to remain unconquered by the Spanish conquistadors,
28:52was pushed
28:53to the brink of extinction.
28:57En las venganzas, no había límite.
29:00Si mataban uno,
29:03y si encontraban otros,
29:05igual le mataban.
29:07Así sean menores.
29:09Los mataban.
29:10Entonces, las familias había peligro
29:13que los Shua nos acabemos solos.
29:18But as extinction loomed,
29:21attitudes began to change.
29:23Because not all the westerners
29:25who ventured into the jungle
29:26came in search of shrunken heads.
29:30Some came to stop the bloodshed.
29:34Christian missionaries
29:35preached an end to violence
29:37and headhunting.
29:55Gradually, Victorian obsession
29:57turned to modern repulsion.
30:00From the 1930s onwards,
30:02the trade in shrunken heads declined
30:04until it was eventually banned
30:06by the Ecuadorian government
30:08in the 1960s.
30:10But those who didn't lose their lives
30:12lost their reputation.
30:24Now, Dr. Tobias Holton
30:26wants to set the record straight
30:27to help restore the Shua's reputation
30:31as a proud, ancient people
30:34by reassessing the science
30:36of head shrinking.
30:38Yes, it was a product of warfare,
30:41and warfare is never a positive thing.
30:44But the science that went
30:46behind the head shrinking practice
30:48was quite astonishing.
30:50And the ability to preserve a head
30:52for over 100 years
30:53within an Amazon rainforest condition
30:56is really quite incredible.
30:59How did the Shua shrink a human head
31:01to a fraction of its original size?
31:04And how have the heads
31:06that were made to be discarded
31:08after just a year
31:09survived for over 100?
31:11To find out,
31:13Holton needs to understand
31:14exactly what happens
31:15when a head is shrunk.
31:18And to do that,
31:19he must learn the ancient craft
31:21of head shrinking.
31:23For Holton,
31:24it will be the culmination
31:25of a decades-long fascination
31:27with this gruesome
31:28but frequently misunderstood custom.
31:31My earliest experience
31:33of witnessing a shrunken head
31:35must have been
31:36when I was in school age,
31:37near enough 9, 10 years old.
31:40And I remember walking
31:41into a museum
31:42and seeing this specimen
31:43on display,
31:45and immediately,
31:46questions were ringing
31:47in my head.
31:48Who produced
31:49these incredible specimens?
31:51How did they do it?
31:52Why did they do it?
31:54More recently,
31:56Holton has been captivated
31:57by one head
31:58above all others.
32:00The shrunken head of a man
32:02given to the McManus Museum
32:04in Dundee, Scotland
32:05in 1923.
32:08Now, Holton hopes to learn
32:10the ancient art
32:11of head shrinking
32:12and use his findings
32:14in a unique experiment.
32:16He wants to discover
32:18the effects
32:18of the shrinking process.
32:20Then,
32:21with this information,
32:23he will attempt
32:23to reverse-engineer
32:25the process
32:25that turned this man
32:27into a shrunken head
32:29to create
32:30a computer-generated
32:32reconstruction
32:33of the man's face
32:34as he looked in life.
32:35I want to go ahead
32:37and reconstruct
32:38a shrunken head
32:39to its original
32:40full human form.
32:43And this is essentially
32:44to raise the dignity
32:45of that individual
32:46and remind everyone
32:48that this was actually
32:49a human being.
32:50The trade in heads
32:51was banned
32:52over half a century ago.
32:54But the physical process
32:55of making a ceremonial head
32:57has been handed down
32:59by word of mouth
32:59to today's tribal elders.
33:02This is the information
33:03Holton needs
33:04to undertake
33:05his ambitious
33:06facial reconstruction.
33:08It's critical
33:09to actually identify
33:10how the head shrinks
33:11over this process
33:13so that I actually know
33:14when it comes to
33:15performing a reconstruction
33:16on a head
33:17what features
33:18change the most
33:19and why.
33:22Shwa tribal elder
33:23Nahuak Ensar Kayap Pedro
33:25is one of the few
33:26people alive today
33:27who know how to make
33:29a ceremonial sansa.
33:32For Holton,
33:33this meeting
33:34is a unique opportunity
33:36to discover
33:37the secrets
33:37of the sansa
33:38at first hand.
33:39The original purpose
33:53of the sansa
33:54was to break
33:55the cycle of violence
33:56between rival clans
33:57and tribes.
33:58The Shwa believed
34:00possessing their victim's head
34:01would prevent him
34:02from returning
34:03to seek revenge.
34:15Nahuak shares his ancient knowledge
34:17providing a blow-by-blow account
34:19of how to shrink
34:20a human head.
34:26As Holton listens,
34:28Nahuak explains
34:29the process in detail.
34:31How to remove the skull,
34:33eyes and tongue.
34:35How to treat the skin
34:37and how to dry it out.
34:47And throughout the entire process,
34:49the killer fasted
34:51to protect himself
34:52against his victim's
34:53malign influence.
34:55Once the head was shrunk,
34:57the warrior regained his power
34:59by drinking
34:59an hallucinogenic potion.
35:15This unique insight
35:17reveals the ritual
35:18and technical complexity
35:20of making a genuine
35:22ceremonial shrunken head.
35:24To actually preserve
35:25a human head
35:26within a hot
35:27and humid environment
35:28is something
35:29that doesn't come naturally.
35:30So the intelligence
35:31and sophistication
35:33that they had to practice
35:34in order to mummify
35:35these heads
35:36is quite astonishing.
35:39Holton's trip to Ecuador
35:40has given him
35:41step-by-step instructions
35:43on how to shrink a head.
35:46Now he must put
35:47his knowledge
35:47into practice.
35:50His goal?
35:52To create
35:53a shrunken head.
35:55With smooth,
35:56relatively hairless skin,
35:57a pig's head
35:58provides the closest analogy
36:00to a human head.
36:02So I'm just taking
36:03dimensions across the face
36:05and this will act
36:06as a means of comparison
36:07following head shrinking
36:08to get a general idea
36:10of how much
36:11the head's reduced.
36:12Using the techniques
36:13learned in Ecuador,
36:15Holton begins
36:16the gruesome process.
36:18First,
36:19he removes the one thing
36:20that won't shrink,
36:21the skull.
36:22What most people
36:24don't realise
36:24is that the schwa
36:25had to remove the skull
36:26in order to make
36:27shrinkage possible.
36:28So that's the reason
36:29for removing the skin
36:31from the head.
36:33This is pretty much
36:35what the schwa
36:36would have done
36:36when shrinking a head.
36:39Next,
36:40three wooden pins
36:41seal the mouth shut.
36:43Amongst the schwa,
36:45it was essential
36:46that the mouth
36:47was well and truly fastened
36:49because that was believed
36:50to be the central orifice
36:51that the enemy spirits
36:54would escape from.
36:56He uses thick twine
36:58to sew the eyes shut.
37:00So the significance
37:01of stitching
37:03the eyelids shut
37:04was that it was
37:05a means of trapping
37:06the enemy spirits
37:08within the head.
37:10With the mouth
37:11and eyes sealed,
37:12Holton places the head
37:14into boiling water
37:15and leaves it for an hour.
37:18Like human skin,
37:20the pig skin
37:21is made up
37:21of collagen fibres
37:22and when these fibres
37:24are exposed
37:24to temperatures
37:25above 145 degrees,
37:28they contract.
37:30Causing the skin
37:30to shrink.
37:37To dry the skin
37:38and shrink the head
37:40even further,
37:41Holton fills it
37:41with hot pebbles
37:42and sand.
37:44This absorbs
37:45any remaining moisture.
37:50Finally,
37:51he irons the skin.
37:53This is essentially
37:54the final touches
37:55of the head shrinking process.
37:57What I'm doing
37:58is taking a hot,
38:00flat pebble
38:01and ironing
38:02the outer face
38:03with it.
38:04And what this is doing
38:05is helping me
38:06mold the skin
38:06and dry it out
38:09entirely from the outside.
38:11By the end
38:12of the process,
38:13the pig's head
38:13has shrunk
38:14by a third.
38:17Now he's seen
38:18firsthand
38:19how the shrinking process
38:20changes ahead,
38:21Halton can embark
38:23on the final part
38:24of his quest.
38:25The next stage
38:26is to take
38:27all the information
38:28that I've got so far
38:29and actually go through
38:30the process
38:31of reconstructing
38:32the face
38:33of a shrunken head
38:34to revive the warrior
38:36that once existed.
38:38Using cutting-edge
38:39computer modeling technology,
38:41Halton will attempt
38:42something
38:42that's never been done before,
38:44to reverse
38:45the head shrinking process
38:47and discover the man
38:49behind the shrunken head.
39:02On a mission
39:03to reveal the secrets
39:05of shrunken heads,
39:07facial anatomy expert
39:08Dr. Tobias Halton
39:10has discovered
39:11how to shrink a head.
39:13Now he's ready
39:14to reverse it
39:15and reveal
39:16how one victim
39:17would have looked
39:18in life.
39:21It's not going to right
39:22the wrongs of the past,
39:23but at least
39:25we're bringing back
39:26the human being
39:27from what is essentially
39:29looked upon
39:29as a museum artifact
39:32or a cultural specimen.
39:38Halton has traveled
39:39to Liverpool John Moores
39:41University in the UK.
39:45Here,
39:45at the renowned
39:46Facelab,
39:47facial reconstruction expert
39:49Professor Caroline Wilkinson
39:51has given a face
39:52to thousands
39:53of John and Jane Doe's
39:55and helped solve
39:56hundreds of murders
39:57and archaeological mysteries.
40:00But this
40:01could be her toughest case yet.
40:04Usually,
40:05with the facial reconstruction
40:06process,
40:07what we're doing
40:07is we're looking
40:08at the structure
40:08of the skull
40:10and the details
40:11of the bones
40:12of the skull
40:13to tell us about
40:14the soft tissue features.
40:16But shrunken heads
40:17have no skulls.
40:19The skull is removed
40:20to allow the head
40:21to shrink.
40:22In this case,
40:23since we don't have a skull,
40:25we're going to use
40:26a template skull,
40:27which is a typical skull
40:29from that part of the world
40:30of a similar age
40:31and gender
40:32to our target individual.
40:34Using a template skull
40:36is standard practice
40:37in forensic
40:38and archaeological
40:39facial reconstructions,
40:41where part of the skull
40:42is missing
40:43or badly damaged.
40:46It won't provide
40:47a perfect likeness,
40:48but it's the best solution
40:50with the available evidence.
40:52We can use that template
40:54to unfold
40:56and inflate
40:57that shrunken head
40:58so that we can build
40:59the facial features
41:00and slowly build up
41:01the facial appearance
41:02of the individual.
41:04Halton's analysis
41:05has established
41:06shrunken heads
41:07are, on average,
41:08a fifth of their
41:09original size.
41:11So to reverse the process,
41:13the head must be scaled up
41:15to five times
41:16its current size.
41:18You need a bit of growth
41:19on this cranium,
41:20don't you?
41:21Yeah.
41:22The nose and mouth
41:24require careful attention.
41:26The mouth has become
41:28distorted by being
41:29pinned shut.
41:30And without a skull
41:31to hold it in place,
41:33the nose has retracted
41:34upwards as it shrunk.
41:36To correct these
41:37exaggerations,
41:39Halton turns to
41:40early photographs
41:41of Schwa tribesmen
41:42as a reference point.
41:44If we push the mouth
41:46back in,
41:47and then this is
41:48pretty much there
41:49around the top.
41:50Sure.
41:51Halton uses tissue
41:53depth markers
41:53based on data
41:55from average
41:55indigenous South Americans
41:57to digitally reinstate
41:59the tissue,
42:00fat,
42:00and muscle destroyed
42:02during the shrinking
42:03process
42:05and give the face
42:06back its shape.
42:10With the facial structure
42:11in place,
42:12skin texture
42:13and typical Schwa body
42:15ornamentation
42:16can be added.
42:17Bamboo tubes
42:18decorated with red
42:20and yellow toucan feathers
42:21pierce the ears.
42:22We can use
42:23cutting edge
42:24CGI techniques
42:26for adding
42:26the skin
42:27and the hair
42:27and the other
42:28realistic details
42:29of the face.
42:31Finally,
42:32the programme
42:32renders the fine details
42:34and the process
42:35is complete.
42:38At least
42:39a hundred years
42:40after his death,
42:425,000 miles
42:43from his birthplace,
42:44a Schwa warrior
42:46stares out
42:47from the screen.
42:49Is this the face
42:50you expected?
42:51Well,
42:52it suddenly looks
42:53like a Schwa warrior.
42:54It does?
42:55It looks amazing.
42:57It's impressive, yeah.
42:58From Amazonian warrior
43:00to Victorian collector's item
43:02and back.
43:21The more we can learn
43:23about their traditions
43:23and their way of life
43:25helps us to better
43:26understand them.
43:28They're more than
43:29just head shrinkers.
43:31That's one very small
43:33element of their identity.
43:36You know,
43:36they're botanists,
43:37they're horticulturalists,
43:38they understand
43:39their environments.
43:40They know how to survive
43:41in the Amazon rainforest.
43:45This moment,
43:47to be santa
43:47is a crime.
43:49We don't see
43:50as a ritual,
43:51it's not sacred,
43:53it's not of culture.
43:57It's
43:58that's
43:58been punished
43:58by the ecuatorian laws.
44:00We today
44:01want to live
44:02not in war.
44:04We want to grow
44:06like war.
44:07Not in war,
44:09in peace.
44:13The story
44:13of shrunken heads
44:15and of this man
44:16is more than
44:17the story
44:18of macabre
44:18museum pieces.
44:20It's the story
44:22of a society.
44:24Of victims
44:25who were also
44:26perpetrators.
44:29Of exploitation,
44:32devastation
44:33and survival.
44:46Next
44:47tonight,
44:47Jack the Ripper,
44:48the missing evidence.
44:49And next week,
44:50Bettany Hughes
44:51crosses the Rubicon
44:52as she continues
44:53to take on
44:54the Roman Empire.
44:55New
44:55Eight Days
44:56That Made Rome
44:57returns next Friday night
44:59at nine.
45:05nine.
45:06Two,
45:07five.
45:08Two,
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