Scalping

Scalping refers to the cranial mutilation, the peeling away of the scalp from the skull, not always posthumously. Scalp-taking was sometimes practiced for cultural, religious or even medical motifs, but was predominantly considered a trophy, a keepsake from a battle or punishment, a tool of defamation and dehumanization of the enemy.

History

One of the earliest examples of scalping dates back to the mesolithic period in North Germania, however, it is assumed that the Proto-Germanic people used a head of hair as a souvenir of the beloved deceased. Beheading was a well known practice in ancient history. The Scythians, an Iranic nomadic people then located to the north and west of the Black Sea, would behead the enemies they defeated in battle and present the heads to their king to claim their share of the plunder. The Alani and others are also known for this practice.

Emmanuel-Henri-Dieudonné Domenech, French abbé (clergyman), missionary and author, claimed capillos et cutem detrahere was a code of the Visigoths for scalping in early medieval Europe, academic interpretations of these terms establish them to shaving off the hair of the head as a legal punishment rather than scalping. When a Germanic warrior or a Germanic maiden dishonored themselves or their family, their hair, sacred in Germanic customs, was shaved and they were, depending on the severity of the deed, banished.

In medieval England in 1036, Godwin, Anglo-Saxon Earl of Wessex, father of Harold Godwinson, was reportedly responsible for scalping his enemies, among whom was Alfred Aetheling. According to the ancient Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

"But then Godwine stopped him, and set him in captivity, and drove off his companions, and some variously killed; some of them were sold for money, some cruelly destroyed, some of them were fettered, some of them were blinded, some maimed, some scalped. No more horrible deed was done in this country since the Danes came and made peace here".

Amerindians

While the human sacrifices of Amerindians among the Mesoamerican societies are somewhat known to the general public, the media typically gives an idealized image of the ones north of this as being peaceful, before being attacked by Europeans, essentially hippies. However, northern Amerindians engaged in extensive warfare and ritual violence long before the European contact. A 2004 article stated that

"The torture of prisoners was indeed routine practice for most Indian tribes, and was deeply ingrained in Indian culture. Valuing bravery above all things, the Indians had little sympathy for those who surrendered or were captured. Prisoners unable to withstand the rigor of wilderness travel were usually killed on the spot. Among those—Indian or European—taken back to the village, some would be adopted to replace slain warriors, the rest subjected to a ritual of torture designed to humiliate them and exact atonement for the tribe's losses. Afterward the Indians often consumed the body or parts of it in a ceremonial meal, and proudly displayed scalps and fingers as trophies of victory."

Amerindian scalping had a double purpose: the mutilation would cause harm to the defeated enemy in the after-life, and battle trophies were proof of work well done. There were many ways the Indians scalped their enemies. Usually the skin was cut in a circle down to the bone so that it could be easily removed from the cranial vault. Sometimes it was a simple scalping, other times it involved ears, eyes, face and neck. On some occasions multiple scalps were taken from the same victim, sometimes only the scalp lock or the small area on the skull plate was removed. Then again, and this is the way you usually see in old westerns, the victim would be violently grabbed by the hair and the skin would be cut off with a knife or sabered away. Victims have historically been predominantly other Indians, later also whites.

They seize the head of the disabled or dead enemy, and placing one of their feet on the neck, twist their left hand in the hair; by this means, having extended the skin that covers the top of the head, they draw out their scalping knives, which are always kept in good order for this cruel purpose, and with a few dextrous strokes take off the part that is termed the scalp. They are so expeditious in doing this, that the whole time required scarcely exceeds a minute.

Scalping, although comparatively rare, was adopted by allegedly civilised whites against native Americans. The Dutch, British, and French exploited tribal rivalry to deal with those who posed a threat to their expansion. So, they offered a cash sum for each scalp from an enemy tribe. In 1637, English colonists in New England fought a bitter war against the Pequot tribe. They enlisted the help of the Mohegans and Narragansetts offering money for Pequot scalps – or any other body parts.

The enemy flesh came in at such an alarming rate that the colonial administrators stopped bothering to keep detailed records. In the years immediately before American independence, Britain and France fought a bitter war across north America. As the war intensified, the two European superpowers paid handsomely for the scalps of enemy tribes.

Scalping predated the arrival of Columbus and Europeans into north America. Evidence from discovered skulls suggests the practice may date back to at least 2,000BC. Native American tribes had different practices. The River Yumans in Arizona took the whole skin off the head including the ears. As early as the 16th century, the French explorer Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), observed that the Sioux took all the skin off the head. The face was also removed by the Teton Dakota Plains Cree. It might even be stretched like parchment between two poles. [...] A white man’s head posed a challenge to the Cheyenne. Among the tribes, it was easy to know what to scalp. The Sioux, for example, taunted their Cheyenne rivals by growing a “scalplock” (a plait of hair on an otherwise bald head). It was a way of saying – if you’re so great, come and hack my scalplock off. But a white man had nothing so defined to excise. So, the Cheyenne took their scalping knife and “cut around just below the line of the hair on the forehead. Then the knife circled his head, taking in that portion of the scalp where the hair divides behind”. In other words, they took a lot more off the top of a white man than a Sioux. As a native American male, losing your scalplock was a grave matter. A dead warrior was lifted to the “happy hunting grounds” after death by his scalplock. But if it had gone, that wouldn’t happen.

In 1878, Cheyenne attacked a village populated by German Mennonites – a pacifist religious group – and wiped it out. When soldiers arrived, the men were lying dead in the street while the raped Mennonite women were “found stark mad wandering on the prairie”. Yet the Mennonite men weren’t scalped by the Cheyenne. They hadn’t fought back so there was no glorious trophy for the taking. Warriors on the enemy side were always scalped. But those who showed no resistance, like these Mennonites, were left albeit butchered, but with their skull intact.

WWII

One particularly widely reported case involves that of German Major General Friedrich Kussin, the commandant of the town of Arnhem, who was ambushed, killed and scalped on 17 September 1944 by British paratroopers (No. 5 Platoon, "B" Company, 3rd Parachute Battalion) in the early stages of Operation Market Garden. Kussin's driver, Corporal Josef Willeke, was also scalped.

External links

• Trail Dust: Scalping began as ancient Indian practice