Headhunting in Borneo

I just got back from a creepy visit to a natural history museum in Kushing. Inside, the tour guide showed us a life-size model of an original longhouse where Iban tribes people used to live. In the main entrance are over two dozen skulls hanging like trophies for visitors to see. Real skulls, not plastic or molds. We think of headhunting as a savage act but back in the time of witch doctors and shamans, headhunting was meant to "even the score" in combat and please the spirits. The tribesmen wrap the heads in rattan nets and smoke-cure them over fires. In time the dried skull would ward off evil spirits or save a village from plague. It's a ghastly image to walk under, made even more gruesome while the tour guide talks about sacrificial ceremonies using pigs and chickens. Thankfully, headhunting and sacrifice disappeared a long time ago leaving tattooing and piercing as one of the few rituals still practiced by the Iban.