Editing Shuar (section)

== ''Tsantsa'', the shrunken heads ==
[[File:Cabeza reducida Jíbaro (M. América, Madrid) 01.jpg|thumb|A shrunken head exhibited at the [[Museum of the Americas (Madrid)|Museum of the Americas in Madrid]].]]
In the 19th century ''muraiya Shuar'' became famous among Europeans and Euro-Americans for their elaborate process of shrinking the heads of slain [[Achuar]]. Although non-Shuar characterized these [[shrunken heads]] (''tsantsa'') as [[war trophy|trophies of warfare]], Shuar insisted that they were not interested in the heads themselves and did not value them as trophies. Instead, they sought the ''muisak'', or [[soul]] of the victim, which was contained in and by the shrunken head. Shuar men believed that control of the ''muisak'' would enable them to pass the soul's power to their wives' and daughters' which would aid them in their labor.<ref name="ReferenceA">Bennett Ross, Jane. 1984  "Effects of Contact on Revenge Hostilities Among the Achuara Jívaro", in Warfare Culture, and Environment, ed. R.B. Ferguson, Orlando: Academic Press.</ref><ref name="Steel 1957">Steel, Daniel 1999 "Trade Goods and Jívaro Warfare: The Shuar 1850–1957, and the Achuar, 1940–1978," in Ethnohistory 46(4): 745-776.</ref>

Since women cultivated [[manioc]] and made ''[[chicha]]'' (manioc beer), which together provided the bulk of [[calories]] and [[carbohydrates]] in the Shuar diet, women's labor was crucial to Shuar biological and social life. In the late 19th century and early 20th century Europeans and Euro-Americans began trading manufactured goods, including shotguns, asking in return for shrunken heads. The result was an increase in local warfare, including [[head hunting]], that has contributed to the perception of the Shuar as violent.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="Steel 1957"/> In 1961 [[Edmundo Bielawski]] made the only footage showing what appears to be their head-shrinking process.