Shrunken head artifact used as prop in John Huston film revealed to be human

A shrunken head, also known as a tsantsa, that was on display at a Georgia university is authentic and will be returned to Ecuador. Article tells the history of the cultural practice and how the school acquired this particular tsantsa.

It's thought the ceremonial process of making tsantsas may have originated as a way to overcome a tradition of blood feuds among some peoples of the Amazon jungle; it seems to have been intended to trap the spirit of the slain warrior within the shrunken head so its supernatural power could be transferred to the community of the victor.

made in a laborious ceremony of removing its skull and flesh, stitching shut its eyes and mouth, boiling it and then filling it with hot sand and stones.

Shrunken head artifact used a prop in John Huston film revelaed to be human

a reply to: tamusan

It used to be fairly commonplace back in the day for film studios to use real body parts instead as fake body parts, it was simply a lot cheaper to obtain them.

The best example of this is the movie Poltergeist; In the swimming pool scene where it's dark and raining, she falls in and finds herself surrounded by floating skeletons:



...Those were real human corpses, they didn't inform the actress before shooting the scene as they knew she wouldn't have gone through with it.

If you have a donor card, that's the sort of thing you're signing your body up for, the chances of your organs going on to help someone else to live are slim, but there's plenty of money to be made out of human bodies and body parts that go beyond emergency transplants.

Crazy world, man,

a reply to: tamusan

hollywood got alot of skeletons in their closet. I'm not surprised.

a reply to: tamusan

I watched a program not that long ago that was rather cool.

What they done was take a shrunken head, scan it, and then use computer software, to recreate a 3 dimensional facsimile of the victims face.

I tad on the grotesque, but i found the process in the creation and then recreation rather interesting.

Here, let me.

Those evil Democrats are for shrunkin' heads, and Biden has been drinking the blood of the victims. The evil Dems want to shrink all heads of Republicans to further their World Dominance aspirations. AOC and Omar have labs set up in their houses to do the process. And they are recruiting children to lure people into their plot.

Fear not, McCarthy and McConnell are setting up investigations into it, starting in Ukraine and with Hunter, "Head Hunter" Biden.

a reply to: tamusan

An Evil practice from an evil age of superstition, in Europe before the Romans the skulls of slain enemy's were often used as drinking vessels or displayed as trophy's.

They were the darkest ages of humanity and may they never return.

But south America while probably no less bloody than other places around the world - except for the time when they were committing these barbarous act's when similar practices would then only be found in parts of Africa and the jungles of Papua New Guinea it was common for the Aztecs and Incas to perform mass human sacrifice to appease there demonic deity's, Aztec warriors would wear the skin of sacrifice victims and dance in them celebrating there sacrifice, ritual cannibalism was also a very common practice at the time.

Some chapters of human history we can hope will never rise again though you know some primitive uncontacted tribes may still be both cannibal and human sacrificing.

As for that movie I was not aware of that and am truly horrified, if people had known it is likely movies like poltergeist would never have been shown in the UK as the board of censors used to actually do there job back then.

I also suspect that if she is still alive then this actress may have grounds to prosecute the studio, it is an outrage against human decency as well, we were always told it was prop's, fakes but if that is not the case then the makers of those movies should be strung up since that is only one step away from them being snuff movies in my book.

originally posted by: MiddleInsite
Here, let me.

Those evil Democrats are for shrunkin' heads, and Biden has been drinking the blood of the victims. The evil Dems want to shrink all heads of Republicans to further their World Dominance aspirations. AOC and Omar have labs set up in their houses to do the process. And they are recruiting children to lure people into their plot.

Fear not, McCarthy and McConnell are setting up investigations into it, starting in Ukraine and with Hunter, "Head Hunter" Biden.

seek help.

a reply to: LABTECH767


Whilst a bit horrendous, I am not as shocked by this as you seem. I knew back in the 80s that those skeletons were real but that didn't do anything bad to me either. I guessed those were people who had given their bodies probably for all sorts of reasons as grave robbery would have even then be illegal.
I can also see why people who live closer to nature display their victims and I even understand that with deep belief in gods commit sacrifices.

None of which is a holiday in the Bahamas but to be honest you must be totally removed from anything and kid yourself that we are all civilised and would never do this again.

What I find worse than using skeletons of already dead people for whatever is what humans are capable of doing to living beings. The way they treat women in some parts of the word, where rape is on the daily menu, where babies and mothers both end up in brothels and if they are 'used up' being harvested for organs. This is happening now and it isi happening to living, breathing humans.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that only a week of hunger and despair will render most humans back into animals and barbarians. Just because there is a veneer of civility on top means zilch. After all we are just stuck up monkeys.

I have my donation card filled out, but am planning also to be charred beyond recognition once they get out what is viable.
But as I head into the 3rd trimester of life, I'm guessing you don't put 63 year old engine in a 5 year old mustang.
If I didn't plan on making an ash of myself, I'd make sure that provisions be made that my estate would get compensated fairly for any performance I may have in a future film.

a reply to: MiddleInsite

Man as soon as we get some non-political posts it somehow devolves to sowing division along political lines.

a reply to: MiddleInsite

WTH is wrong with you?

originally posted by: MerkabaTribeEntity
a reply to: tamusan

If you have a donor card, that's the sort of thing you're signing your body up for, the chances of your organs going on to help someone else to live are slim, but there's plenty of money to be made out of human bodies and body parts that go beyond emergency transplants.

Massive citation needed.

a reply to: tamusan

Everybody has their 15 minutes of fame , even Shrunken heads.

a reply to: LABTECH767
War makes psychos out of normal people. Not to mention evil people. # was bad here in Europe but the rest of the world was never too far behind.
South America was even worse if you go even further into history. I've read about days when they sacrificed 100 000 people.
Some sources say even higher number.

originally posted by: Iconic

originally posted by: MerkabaTribeEntity
a reply to: tamusan

If you have a donor card, that's the sort of thing you're signing your body up for, the chances of your organs going on to help someone else to live are slim, but there's plenty of money to be made out of human bodies and body parts that go beyond emergency transplants.

Massive citation needed.

Human cadavers have been used and exploited for movie props, munitions testing, doctor training, and probably all sorts of other things I'm unaware of besides life-saving transplants.

The point I was trying to make, is that if you sign your body over to a third party, after your passing, your body won't be treated with any kind of dignity, you'll become even more of a commodity in death than you were in life, a liquid asset, if you will, and once they're done with you, you'll simply be unceremoniously trashed.

What are we waiting for?
CANCEL JOHN HUSTON!

Git 'im, fellers!

Harte

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

Ahem.


Citation..needed...for saying a donor card will end up having your body donated to a movie studio.

Pretty ridiculous thing to insinuate.

Ergo, citation please.

a reply to: Iconic

...In an episode centered around the Poltergeist franchise, Craig Reardon, the special effects and makeup supervisor of the first film, expresses frustration over the accusation that the film is cursed because he used real skeletons.

More importantly, Reardon points out that his film is far from unique in regards to using actual skeletons, establishing that many low-budget horror films before and since Poltergeist use them because it's more cost and time efficient to buy a cadaver than it is to ask an artist to sculpt a realistic skeleton. This pragmatic explanation demystifies the process and reasoning behind the skeletons, but it begs the question which films use skeletons and which do not.

Movies use real skeletons more often than you realise

Another use that they have for human remains, which I forgot to mention, are on the body farms, leaving them outside in various conditions to see how they affect decomposition.

Like I said, as important as that work is, I'd rather I didn't end up unceremoniously left to rot in the woods that way.

I don't know anything about your donor cards, but I do know that private enterprise is involved, and I do know that there's a lot of money in human bodies and body parts.