Headhunting Thoughts

I found Rosaldo's article on headhunting an interesting one. The "cultural force of emotion" explored within the Ilongot community focused on rage through grief. At first, Rosaldo thought that Ilongots practiced headhunting due to "exchange theory"--canceling of rage through taking another's life. Rosaldo thought that when someone lost someone, their instinct is to set out and claim another life, a balance. However, this was not the case. The headhunting did not extinguish the grief and rage. Grief and rage were not emotions up for exchange. Instead, Rosaldo had to dig deeper into this ritual, and perhaps ask different questions, to find what he was looking for. He found that it was a way to cope with the emotions they felt, as individuals, then as a greater community after a tragedy occurred. When the practice was blocked from the community, the Ilongots were anxious and saddened, almost restless because of the loss of that cornerstone of their culture. They could not bear to listen to the headhunting song for it would call to their souls, their past grief, urging them to headhunt again.

I thought about the different ways different cultures let out their grief and any emotion that accompanies it. Though this was one of the more interesting ways of dealing with grief that I have found, I wonder at our Western practices--sometimes turning to religion with great zeal, our funerals and wakes and receptions, or even small rebellions against their current way of life. Our society does not condone violence but it makes excuses for it, especially with loss and rage.

Jennie Ziegler