Exhibition "In the Forests of Borneo"
Men
Research in the forest | Bornean orangutan | Birds | Mammals | Plants | Men (you're here)
video transcription
The expeditions of the Sea-Dyaks are less for the sake of glory or of booty than for the purpose of procuring heads (...) It has been said (...) that the title-deeds of nobility amongst the Dyaks consist of the number of heads a man and his ancestors have collected. To obtain a head is for these savages the acme of glory, and the rejoicings and festivities held on such occasions are considered by them harbingers of happiness.
Odoardo Beccari, 1902
The psychological motive that must have primarily contributed to the persistence of such a practice is probably very similar to that which sustains human sacrifices among certain populations. A Dayak’s desire to possess a human head is always accompanied by a superstitious sense of duty, driving him to obtain it—whether to appease a spirit, to propitiate one, or to render a service to the soul of some deceased person.
Odoardo Beccari, 1902
Earth Dayaks photograph from Margaret Brooke’s unpublished Album (1897), Museum of Natural History of Florence, Botany Collections.
Sea Dayaks photograph from Margaret Brooke’s unpublished Album (1897), Museum of Natural History of Florence, Botany Collections.