How to Get a Name

Head-hunting among the Marindese and Boetinese tribes of New Guinea is not mere wanton cruelty, but a "moral-religious necessity." The natives have the highest motives: they love their children and yearn for immortality, and headhunting is their way of satisfying both urges. This theory is expounded by Anthropologist Justus M. Van der Kroef of Michigan State College, in the current American Anthropologist.

Chief problem among the people on the south coast of New Guinea is how to name their children. No ordinary name will serve. Each child must have a name that has been taken--along with a head--from a living person. If a child lacks this sort of name, he is a miserable creature, derided by his playmates and a reproach to his parents.

The Attack. When too many unnamed children accumulate in a village, the conscience-stricken grownups must do something about it, to wit, launch a headhunting raid. With solemn care and deliberation, the warriors and elders work out a plan of campaign. Scouts are sent into the interior to select a victim-village. They explore its approaches, creep close to its huts, study the habits of its people. They try to eavesdrop on conversations to learn their victims' names.

Back at home the excitement grows. Food is collected; weapons are sharpened; canoes are repaired and made ready. The great drums roll.

At last the big day comes. Most of the able-bodied men and some of the young women crowd into war canoes and paddle stealthily up the Digoel River. They land at a prearranged point and are guided by scouts to the doomed village. That night the elders whisper incantations to make the attackers invisible, and to make their victims sleep deeply. Then the hunters creep close to the huts and wait for dawn.

When the first light shows faintly, the leader gives a shout: "I have come to take your heads!" and the attack begins. The hunters rush the village, shooting flaming arrows into the thatched roofs. If the maneuver is skillfully performed, there is usually little resistance. The sleepy victims, both men & women, are rounded up and urged to tell their names.

Then comes the beheading, performed with ceremony. The implement used is a bamboo knife. Small children are spared and adopted, in the hope that they will tell the names of the unidentified dead.

The Homecoming. Laden with heads and new names, the canoes start down the river. Now there is singing and laughing, for this is a joyous occasion. But the warriors begin to weep when they first see their homes and think of the sad little children who have not yet got names.

After prolonged ceremonies, a lavish celebration is prepared. The people cut bamboo to fence a dancing area, and build covered seats and sleeping couches all around its margin. An elaborate feast is made ready. The warriors braid their hair, at a sign from the elders, the drums roll and the warriors parade around the dance area showing to their fellow citizens the heads that they have taken.

High point of the ceremony starts with a dance by the elders. They form in a line representing a snake, the symbol of immortality. One by one, the warriors join in. The heads that are carried aloft are symbols, not only of death, but of future life,*for attached to them are precious names for the next generation: the ceremonial immortality of the tribe is assured.

Assured, too, is the happiness of the still unnamed. After the feast is over, names are distributed to all the children who need them. The jawbones of the persons who wore them last are hung around the little ones' necks in cotton bags. When children misbehave, their mothers can usually get them in line by threatening to take these most-prized possessions away.

* The shrunken heads collected by the Jivaro Indians of Ecuador are merely trophies which prove that an injury has been avenged.

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