Alas, from this photos these are fake jibaro shruken heads. I had a year of physical anthropology courses, before specializing in cultural anthropology and have 2 observations. The hair looks brand new and also the amazon basin tribes do not use beards. They shave most of their body hair, and find beards repulsive. Also the skin is wrong, the shrinking process makes the skin wrinkled.
Perhaps the signs says that they are replicas, but i have seen better ones. The field museum in chicago, the british museum and the paris ethnology museum had real jibaro heads that i remember seeing but there are many in different places that have them though not all are authentic as is the case here.
Every reptile house should have some of these on display at the entrance with a sign that says "this is what happens when you tap on the glass". Now that I think about it, that might encourage idiots to tap on the glass even more to see if their heads really would shrink more...
Alas, from this photos these are fake jibaro shruken heads. I had a year of physical anthropology courses, before specializing in cultural anthropology and have 2 observations. The hair looks brand new and also the amazon basin tribes do not use beards. They shave most of their body hair, and find beards repulsive. Also the skin is wrong, the shrinking process makes the skin wrinkled.
Perhaps the signs says that they are replicas, but i have seen better ones. The field museum in chicago, the british museum and the paris ethnology museum had real jibaro heads that i remember seeing but there are many in different places that have them though not all are authentic as is the case here.
Yes, it is the same with emerald skulls (as you will well know). Many fakes abound. I cannot see what reason individuals would actually go to the extremes of producing fakes as these are easily recognizable (allthough strangely enough many an natural history of antropological museum fall into those traps .. and take the real for real for real granted)! Must be some strange peculiar fad of mankind for fetish(es)?
For the record: I find these anthropological treasures a real gem to behold and study. Same with the ancient Mayan and pre-Columbian cultures for a.o. royal burials, offerings to the Gods et cetera.
(well really we should start a thread in a completely different chat enviro for that, I am sure)
