M0014533: A tsantsa, or shrunken head, Jivaroan, Ecuador

Previous title, replaced January 2022: A shrunken head, Jivaro Indian, Ecuador, S.America

A tsantsa, also known as a shrunken head, with short hair, lips sewn together without any threads hanging and a necklace and ear pendants of coix seeds. It was acquired in Venezuela and sold to the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1936 and given accession number R3042/1936. It is not held by Wellcome Collection.

March 1956

1 photograph glass plate negative; 10.2 x 12.7 cm

Wellcome Collection holds the accession register which provides an entry for the item: acc. number R3042/1936

Catalogue data comes from a combination of entries in the original glass plate registers, metadata created when the glass plates were digitised in the early 2000s and enhancements made by the cataloguer in 2022.

This item has been digitised but is not available online. Email collections@wellcomecollection.org to request access.