The Amerindian (American Indian or Native American - reference to both North and South America) practice of taking and displaying various body parts as trophies has long intrigued both the research community as well as the public. As a subject that is both controversial and politically charged, it has also come under attack as a European colonists' perspective intended to denigrate native peoples.

"The Amerindian (American Indian or Native American - reference to both North and South America) practice of taking and displaying various body parts as trophies has long intrigued both the research community as well as the public. As a subject that is both controversial and politically charged, it has also come under attack as a European colonists' perspective intended to denigrate native peoples.

Part I: North America.- Preface William Woodworth (Mohawk Traditionalist).- Chapter 1 Richard Chacon (Winthrop University) and David H. Dye (University of Memphis) 'Introduction to Human Trophy Taking: An Ancient and Widespread Practice.'.- Chapter 2 Herb Maschner (Idaho State University) and Katherine Reedy-Maschner (Idaho State University) 'Heads, Women, and the Baubles of Prestige: Trophies of War in the Arctic and Subarctic.'.- Chapter 3 Joan Lovisek (Lovisek Research) 'Human Trophy Taking on the Northwest Coast: An Ethnohistorical Perspective.'.- Chapter 4 Patricia Lambert (Utah State) 'Ethnographic and Linguistic Evidence for the Origins of Human-Trophy Taking in California.'.- Chapter 5 Polly Schaafsma (Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology of the Museum of New Mexico) 'Head Trophies and Scalping: Images in Southwestern Rock Art.'.- Chapter 6 Douglas Owsley (Smithsonian), Karin Bruwelheide (Smithsonian), Laurie Burgess (Smithsonian) and William Billeck (Smithsonian) 'Human Finger and Hand Bone Neclaces from the Plains and Great Basin.' .- Chapter 7 Mark F. Seeman (Kent State University) 'Predatory War and Hopewell Trophy-Taking.'.- Chapter 8 Ron Williamson (Archaeological Services Inc., Canada) 'Otinontsiskiaj ondaon- 'the house of cut-off heads': The History and Archaeology of Northern Iroquoian Trophy-Taking.'.- Chapter 9 Robert Mensforth (Cleveland State University) 'Human Trophy Taking in Eastern North America During the Archaic Period: It's Relationship to Warfare and Social Complexity.'.- Chapter 10 James Brown (Northwestern) and David H. Dye (University of Memphis) 'Sacred Heads and sacred Scalplocks: Mississippian Iconographic Trophies.'.- Chapter 11 Keith Jacobi (U. Alabama) 'Disabling the Dead: Human Trophy Taking in thePrehistoric Southeast.'.- Chapter 12 Nancy Ross-Stallings (Cultural Horizons Inc.) 'Trophy Taking in the Central and Lower Mississippi Valley.' .- Part II: Latin America.- Preface Alberto Esquit-Choy(Ph.D candidate, Vanderbilt University): Kaqchikel Mayan indigenous leader.- Chapter 13 Carrie Anne Berryman (Ph.D candidate, Vanderbilt) 'Captive Sacrifice and Trophy Taking among the Ancient Maya: An Evaluation of the Bioarchaeological Evidence and its Sociopolitical Implications.'.- Chapter 14 Ruben Mendoza (CSUMB) 'The Divine Gourd Tree: Tzompanlti Skull Racks, Decapitation Rituals, and Human Trophies in Ancient Mesoamerica.'.- Chapter 15 John Hoopes (U. Kansas) 'Sorcery and Trophy Head Taking in Ancient Costa Rica.'.- Chapter 16 Tiffiny Tung (Vanderbilt) 'From Corporeality to Sanctity: Transforming Bodies into Trophy Heads in the Prehispanic Andes.'.- Chapter 17 Dennis Ogburn (UC Berkeley) 'Human Trophies in the Late Pre-Hispanic Andes: Display, Propaganda and Reinforcement of Power among the Incas and Other Societies.'.- Chapter 18 Richard J. Chacon (Winthrop University) 'Seeking the Headhunter's Power:The Quest for Arutam Among the Achuar of the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Evolution of Ranked Societies.'.- Chapter 19 James Petersen (U. Vermont) and John Crock (U. Vermont) 'Handsome Death: The Taking, Veneration, and Consumption of Human Remains in the Insular Caribbean and Greater Amazonia.'.- Chapter 20 Marcela Mendoza (University of Oregon) 'Human Trophy Taking in the South American Gran Chaco.' .- Chapter 21 Arthur Demarest (Vanderbilt) 'The Ethical Issues Surrounding Research on Amerindian Trophy Taking.'.- Chapter 22 Richard J. Chacon (Winthrop University) and David H. Dye (University of Memphis) 'Supplemental Data on Amerindian Trophy Taking.'.- Chapter 23Richard J. Chacon (Winthrop University) and David H. Dye (University of Memphis) 'Conclusions.'