The Practice of Headhunting by the Wa People in China and Its Mythological Significance

YOONHEE Hong

doi:10.16874/jslckc.2016..42.022

The Wa people inhabiting the Awa Mountain area in southwest China practiced the headhunting ritual until the 1950s. They cut human heads twice a year, put them inside the wooden drums, which were placed in the wooden drum house, where the villagers came to hold a sacrificial ceremony. Such primitive custom of the Wa people could be preserved relatively well due to their closed geographical condition of being in the rugged mountain region located between the rivers. It was told in the creation epic named Siganglih that they had a nature worship and animistic religious belief, in which they believed that there are spirits dwelling in myriads of things. However, historically, the Wa people are never said to have accomplished a unification on a large scale, which means a strong tribal league never emerged among them. Hence, the versions of Siganglih that are handed down are also various. What this implies is that the myths involving the headhunting practice also display diverse aspects. This paper examines the procedure and method of the Wa people’s headhunting ritual and analyzes the types of myths pertainig to its origin. By doing so, the significance of the myth is illuminated in terms of its purpose and the objects of the worship. The primary purpose of the headhunting ritual is to ensure a good harvest, but it also serves the purpose of vengence, prosperity of the offsprings, prevention of natural disasters such as flood, eradication of disease, and the flourishing of livestocks. The object of worship is, prior to the god of crops, primarily,the hunted head itself. Secondary objects are the spirits of the myriad things that the Wa people worship. Wa people perceived that by offering the head that is the essence of human vitality to the nature and sacralizing it, they were renewing the vitality of the world in which they lived and helped promote the cycle and regeneration of nature.

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