Scalping

Scalping is the act of cutting or tearing a part of the human scalp, with hair attached, from the head, and generally occurred in warfare with the scalp being a trophy.^[1] Scalp-taking is considered part of the broader cultural practice of the taking and display of human body parts as trophies, and may have developed as an alternative to the taking of human heads, for scalps were easier to take, transport, and preserve for subsequent display. Scalping independently developed in various cultures in both the Old and New Worlds.^[2]

Europe

One of the earliest examples of scalping dates back to the mesolithic period, found at a hunter-gatherer cemetery in Sweden.^[3] Several human remains from the stone-age Ertebølle culture in Denmark show evidence of scalping.^[4] A man found in a grave in the Alvastra pile-dwelling in Sweden had been scalped approximately 5,000 years ago.^[5]

Georg Frederici noted that “Herodotus provided the only clear and satisfactory portrayal of a scalping people in the old world” in his description of the Scythians, a nomadic people then located to the north and west of the Black Sea.^[6] Herodotus related that Scythian warriors would behead the enemies they defeated in battle and present the heads to their king to claim their share of the plunder. Then, the warrior would skin the head “by making a circular cut round the ears and shaking out the skull; he then scrapes the flesh off the skin with the rib of an ox, and when it is clean works it with his fingers until it is supple, and fit to be used as a sort of handkerchief. He hangs these handkerchiefs on the bridle of his horse, and is very proud of them. The best man is the man who has the greatest number.”^[7]

Occasional instances of scalping of dead Axis troops by Allied military personnel are known from World War II. While many of these instances took place in the Pacific Theater, along with more extreme forms of trophy-hunting (see American mutilation of Japanese war dead), occasional instances are reported in the European Theater as well. One particularly widely reported, although disputed, case involves that of German general Friedrich Kussin, the commandant of the town of Arnhem who was ambushed and killed by British paratroopers in the early stages of Operation Market Garden.^[14]

Asia

There is physical evidence that scalping was practiced during the Longshan and Erlitou periods in China's central plain.^[15]

A skull from an Iron Age cemetery in

Americas

Scalping in the Americas predominantly arose from the practices of Indian tribes, and was later copied by European colonists on the continent. ^[21]

Techniques

Specific scalping techniques varied somewhat from place to place, depending on the cultural patterns of the scalper regarding the desired shape, size, and intended use of the severed scalp, and on how the victims wore their hair, but the general process of scalping was quite uniform. The scalper firmly grasped the hair of a subdued adversary, made several quick semicircular cuts with a sharp instrument on either side of the area to be taken, and then vigorously yanked at the nearly-severed scalp. The scalp separated from the skull along the plane of the areolar connective tissue, the fourth (and least substantial) of the five layers of the human scalp. Scalping was not in itself fatal, though it was most commonly inflicted on the gravely wounded or the dead. The earliest instruments used in scalping were stone knives crafted of flint, chert, or obsidian, or other materials like reeds or oyster shells that could be worked to carry an edge equal to the task. Collectively, such tools were also used for a variety of everyday tasks like skinning and processing game, but were replaced by metal knives acquired in trade through European contact. The implement, often referred to as a "scalping knife" in popular American and European literature, was not known as such by Native Americans, a knife being for them just a simple and effective multi-purpose utility tool for which scalping was but one of many uses.^[22][23]

Intertribal conflict

There is substantial archaeological evidence of scalping in North America in the

Many tribes of Native Americans practiced scalping, in some instances up until the end of the 19th century. Of the approximately 500 bodies at the Crow Creek massacre site, 90 percent of the skulls show evidence of scalping. The event took place circa 1325 AD.^[27] European colonisation of the Americas increased the incidence of intertribal conflict, and consequently an increase in the prevalence of scalping.^[24]

Colonial wars

The

In the 1710s and 1720s, New France engaged in frontier warfare with the Natchez people and the Meskwaki people, during which both sides employed the practice.^{[citation needed]} In response to repeated massacres of British families by the French and their native allies during King George's War, Massachusetts governor William Shirley issued a bounty in 1746 to be paid to British-allied Indians for the scalps of French-allied Indian men, women, and children.^[37] New York passed a scalp act in 1747.^[38]

During

During the French and Indian War, as of June 12, 1755, Massachusetts governor William Shirley was offering a bounty of £40 for a male Indian scalp, and £20 for scalps of females or of children under 12 years old.^[34][42] In 1756, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Robert Morris, in his declaration of war against the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) people, offered "130 Pieces of Eight, for the Scalp of Every Male Indian Enemy, above the Age of Twelve Years," and "50 Pieces of Eight for the Scalp of Every Indian Woman, produced as evidence of their being killed."^[34][43]

Although much has been made of the existence of scalp bounties, generally because they have been easily accessible as statutes, little research exists on the numbers of bounties actually paid. Early frontier warfare in forested areas in the era of flintlock muzzle-loading rifles favored tomahawks and knives over firearms because of the long loading time after a shot was fired. Advantage was clearly held by bow, knife, and hatchet. Some states had a history of escalating the payout of bounties offered per scalp, presumably because lower bounties were ineffective and were not worth risking one's life in exchange for the payoff. Rising bounties were a measure of bounty system failure.^{[citation needed]}

American Revolution

In the

The September 13, 1779, journal entry of Lieutenant William Barton tells of patriots participating in scalping.[46]

Battle of Saratoga.^[47]

Mexico

In 1835, the government of the Mexican state of

Tarahumaras; and Seminole chief Coacoochee led a band of his own people who had fled from Indian Territory."^[50]

American Civil War

Some scalping incidents occurred during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. For example, Confederate guerrillas led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson were well known for decorating their saddles with the scalps of Union soldiers they had killed.^[51] Archie Clement had the reputation of being Anderson's “chief scalper”.

Continued Indian Wars

In 1851, the U.S. Army displayed Indian scalps in Stanislaus County, California.

In 1851, the Tehama Massacre occurred in Tehama County, California, wherein U.S. military and citizens razed villages and scalped hundreds of men, women, and children.^[52] This attack targeted Native communities specifically, in the villages of Yana, Konkow, Nisenan, Wintu, Nomlaki, Patwin, Yuki, and Maidu.^[53]

Scalping also occurred during the

Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864, during the American Indian Wars, when a 700-man force of U.S. Army volunteers destroyed the village of Cheyenne and Arapaho in southeastern Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating^[54][55] an estimated 70–163 Native American civilians.^[56][57][58] An 1867 New York Times article reported that "settlers in a small town in Colorado Territory had recently subscribed $5,000 to a fund ‘for the purpose of buying Indian scalps (with $25 each to be paid for scalps with the ears on)’ and that the market for Indian scalps ‘is not affected by age or sex’." The article noted this behavior was "sanctioned" by the U.S. federal government, and was modeled on patterns the U.S. had begun a century earlier in the "American East".^[59]

^: 206

From one writer's point of view, it was a "uniquely American" innovation that the use of scalp bounties in the wars against indigenous societies "became an indiscriminate killing process that deliberately targeted Indian non-combatants (including women, children, and infants), as well as warriors."[59]^: 204 Some American states such as Arizona paid bounty for enemy Native American scalps.^[60]

Image gallery

• 
  Scalped corpse of buffalo hunter Ralph Morrison found after an 1868 encounter with Cheyennes, near Fort Dodge, Kansas
• 
  Skull of a 20- to 30-year-old decapitated woman of the 3rd century AD. Cutting marks above the right eye hole show the head has been scalped.
• 
  Scalp
• 
  Sauvage matachez en Guerrier (1732), by Alexandre de Batz
• 
  Josiah P. Wilbarger being scalped by Comanche Indians, 1833
• 
  Lithograph depiction of scalping, circa 1850s
• 
  Modocs

  scalping and torturing prisoners, published in May 1873
• 
  The remains of dead

  Crow Indians

  killed and scalped by Piegan Blackfeet c. 1874
• 
  Survivor Robert McGee was scalped as a child in 1864 by

  Sioux

  —photo c. 1890.
• 
  1864 photo of Californian Seth Kinman displaying an Indian scalp (front left). He collected "Indian artifacts" including scalps.
• 
  Native American Big Mouth Spring with decorated scalp lock on right shoulder. 1910 photograph by Edward S. Curtis.
• 
  Modern roadside

  historical marker in Boscawen, New Hampshire, about the 1697 scalping incident involving Hannah Duston
• 
  Indian Warrior with Scalp (1789), by Barlow

See also

• Pitchcapping
• Shrunken head

References

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2. ^ Mensforth, Robert P.; Chacon, Richard J. Chacon; Dye, David H. (2007). "Human Trophy Taking in Eastern North America During the Archaic Period: The Relationship to Warfare and Social Complexity". The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians. Springer Science + Business Media. p. 225.
3. ^ Ahlström, Torbjörn (2008). "An early example of scalping from the Mesolithic cemetery Skateholm, Sweden". Archäologie und Geschichte im Ostseeraum. 3: 59–66.
4. ^ Rying, Bent (1981). Denmark: Introduction, Prehistory (1 ed.). Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. p. 30.
5. ^ Larsson, ÅM (2009). Breaking and Making Bodies in Pots. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala Universitet. p. 277.
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9. ^ Domenech, Abbe Emmanuel (1860). Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North America, Vol. 2. London: Longman Green. p. 358.
10. ^ Crouch, Jace. The Judicial Punishment of Delcavatio in Visigothic Spain: A Proposed Solution based on Isidore of Seville and the Lex Visigothorum. pp. 1–5. and Abstract.
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13. ^ Duncan, John (1847). Travels in Western Africa in 1845 & 1846, Comprising a Journey from Whydah, through the Kingdom of Dahomey, to Adofoodia, in the Interior, Vol. II. London: Richard Bentley. pp. 274–275.
14. ^ "Battledetective Case Files".
15. ^ Stark, Miriam (2008). Archaeology of Asia. Wiley. p. 157."Skeletons with traits of scalping have also been found at Jiangou in southern Hebei (Longshan culture) and Dasima in Henan (Erlitou culture), suggesting that violent behavior became widespread in the Central Plains during the Longshan and Erlitou periods (Chen 2000; Yan 1982)."
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33. ^ MacLellan, Louisbourg ("Appendix: Scalping"); John Grenier (2005). "The First Way of War: American War Making On the Frontier, 1607-1814". Cambridge University Press.
34. ^ ^{a b c} "Scalping, Torture, and Mutilation by Indians". Blue Corn Comics. Archived from the original on 2016-08-31. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
35. ^ Grenier, John. First Way of War. p. 39.
36. ^ Williamson, William. The History of the State of Maine, Vol 2. pp. 117–118.
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Bibliography

• Axtell, James. "Scalps and Scalping". Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Archived from the original on 2002-12-23. Retrieved 2005-04-12.
• Billard, Jules B. (1974). World of the American Indian (1st ed.). Washington DC: National Geographic Society.
• Burton, Richard F. (1864). "Notes on Scalping".
  Anthropological Review
  . II: 49–52.
• Arthur, Elizabeth (1979). "Hamilton, Henry". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. IV (1771–1800) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
• Grenier, John (2008). The Far Reaches of Empire. War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Norman: U of Oklahoma Press.
• Grenier, John (2005). The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier. Cambridge University Press.
• Griffin, Anastasia M. (2008). Georg Friederici's (1906) "Scalping and Similar Warfare Customs in America" with a Critical Introduction. p. 248.
  ISBN 9780549562092
  .
• Kelsey, Isabel (1984). Joseph Brant 1743–1807: Man of Two Worlds. Syracuse University Press.
  ISBN 0-8156-0182-4
  .
• Mensforth, Robert P.; Chacon, Richard J. (editor); Dye, David H. (editor) (2007). "Human Trophy Taking in Eastern North America During the Archaic Period: The Relationship to Warfare and Social Complexity". The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians. Springer Science + Business Media: 225.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scalping.

• Axtell, James; Sturtevant, William. "The Unkindest Cut, or Who Invented Scalping" (PDF). Amstudy.hku.hk.
• Cowan, Ross. "Head-Hunting Roman Cavalry". Academia.edu.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Lawrence, Charles, Governor (1756). "British Scalp Proclamation". We Were Not the Savages: First Nation History.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)