The Jivaro Indians of the Peru-Ecuador interior have long been renowned for their ferocity and cruelty in warfare; they are also shamanistic, communing with ancient spectres through the ingestion of poisonous hallucinogens. But above all, the Jivaro are known for their unique and macabre brand of death magic - the severing and shrinking of human heads. JIVARO is the true account of an expedition into the Amazon rain forest to locate and study the Jivaro Indians; their dialects, social structures, methods of survival, and - above all - the orgiastic witchcraft rites which culminate in the slaughter, decapitation and spell-binding of their enemies, whose souls are forever imprisoned and silenced by the ritual reduction of their heads.
Among the headshrinkers of the Amazon.
Published 1953. No dustcover