TRADITIONAL HEADHUNTER CULTURE

Traditional headhunter culture

In the past, the Dayak were feared for their ancient tradition of headhunting practices. Among the Iban Dayaks, the origin of headhunting was believed to be meeting one of the mourning rules given by a spirit which is as follows:

• The sacred jar is not to be opened except by a warrior who has managed to obtain a head, or by a man who can present a human head, which he obtained in a fight; or by a man who has returned from a sojourn in enemy country.

The war (ngayau) regulations among the Iban Dayaks are listed below:

• If a warleader leads a party on an expedition, he must not allow his warriors to fight a guiltless tribe that has no quarrel with them.
• If the enemy surrenders, he may not take their lives, lest his army be unsuccessful in future warfare and risk fighting empty-handed war raids (balang kayau).
• The first time that a warrior takes a head or captures a prisoner, he must present the head or captive to the warleader in acknowledgement of the latter’s leadership.
• If a warrior takes two heads or captives, or more, one of each must be given to the warleader; the remainder belongs to the killer or captor.
• The warleader must be honest with his followers in order that in future wars he may not be defeated (alah bunoh).

There were various reasons for headhunting as listed below:

• For soil fertility so Dayaks hunted fresh heads before paddy harvesting seasons after which head festival would be held in honor of the new heads.
• To add supernatural strength which Dayaks believed to be centred in the soul and head of humans. Fresh heads can give magical powers for communinal protection, bountiful paddy harvesting and disease curing.
• To avenge revenge for murders based on "blood credit" principle unless "adat pati nyawa" (customary compensation token) is paid.
• To pay dowry for marriages e.g. "derian palit mata" (eye blocking dowry) for Ibans once blood has been splashed prior to agreeing to marriage and of course, new fresh heads show prowess, bravery, ability and capability to protect his family, community and land
• For foundation of new buildings to be stronger and meaningful than the normal practice of not putting in human heads.
• For protection against enemy attacks according to the principle of "attack first before being attacked".
• As a symbol of power and social status ranking where the more heads someone has, the respect and glory due to him. The war leader is called tuai serang (war leaer) or raja berani (king of the brave) while kayau anak (small raid) leader is only called tuai kayau (raid leader) whereby adat tebalu (widower rule) after their death would be paid according to their ranking status in the community.
• For territorial expansion where some brave Dayaks intentionally migrated into new areas such as Mujah "Buah Raya" migrated from Skrang to Paku to Kanowit  while infighting among Ibans themselves in Batang Ai caused the Ulu Ai Ibans to migrate to Batang Kanyau River in Kapuas, Kalimantan and then proceeded to Katibas and later on Ulu Rajang in Sarawak. The earlier migrations from Kapuas to Batang Ai, Batang Lupar, Batang Saribas and Batang Krian rivers were also made possible by fighting the local tribes like Bukitan.

Reasons for abandoning headhunting are:

• Peacemaking agreements at Tumbang Anoi, Kalimantan in 1894 and Kapit, Sarawak in 1924.
• Coming of Christianity with education where Dayaks are taught that headhunting or murder is against the Chirtian [?] Bible teachings for whatever reasons.
• Dayaks' own realization that headhunting was more to lose than to gain.

After mass conversions to Christianity and Islam, and anti-headhunting legislation by the colonial powers was passed, the practice was banned and appeared to have disappeared. However, the headhunting began to surface again in the mid-1940s, when the Allied Powers encouraged the practice against the Japanese. It also slightly surged in the late 1960s when the Indonesian government encouraged Dayaks to purge Chinese from interior Kalimantan who were suspected of supporting communism in mainland China and also in late 90s when the Dayak started to attackMadurese emigrants in an explosion of ethnic violence.

It should be noted headhunting or human sacrifice was also practiced by other tribes such as follows:

• Toraja community in Sulawesi used adat Ma’ Barata (human sacrifice) in Rambu Solo’ ritual which is still held until the arrival of the Hindi Dutch which is a custom to honour someone with a symbol of a great warrior and bravery in a war.
• In Gomo, Sumatra, there ware megalithic artifacts where one of them is "batu pancung" (beheading stone) on which to tie any captive or convicted criminals for beheading.
• One distinction was their ritual practice of head hunting, once prevalent among tribal warriors in Nagaland and among the Naga tribes in Myanmar. They used to take the heads of enemies to take on their power.

In short, would it be fair to say that any wars either in the Western world or in the eastern side would be equivalent to the practice of headhunting raids where deaths and war spoils are in inevitable? Headhunting raids are small in scale vis-a-vis the major wars in the past. Any wars on this Earth can be considered equivalent or similar to the headhunting raids by the fact that death and war spoils are consequential.