Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found

by Frances Larson

  Western propaganda about, 1

  Java, 1

  John the Baptist, St, 1, 2

  Johnson, Paul, 1

  Jones, John, 1

  Jones, Ronald, 1

  Judith (biblical character), 1

  Junker, Wilhelm, 1

  Just of Beauvais, St, 1, 2, 3

  Kahn, Sy, 1

  Kasten, Jennifer, 1

  Kelly, Ned, 1

  Klimt, Gustav, 1

  Kolbe, George, 1

  Korean War (1950–53), 1

  Laborde, Jean Baptiste Vincent, 1

  Lacenaire, Pierre-Francois, 1

  Ladd, Dean, 1, 2, 3

  Lally, Comte de, 1

  language: beheading metaphors and similes, 1

  Lanney, William, 1

  Larson, Thomas J. ‘Horrible Swede’, 1

  Launay, Bernard René de, 1

  Leander, HMNZ, 1

  Lebrun, Théodore, 1

  Leiden, 1

  Lelut, Dr, 1

  Lenin, Vladimir, 1

  Leonardo da Vinci, 1

  Leyte Gulf, Battle of (1944), 1

  Lignières, Dr Dassy de, 1

  limber corpses, 1

  Lincoln, Abraham, 1

  Lindbergh, Charles, 1, 2, 3

  Lieberman, Daniel, 1

  Lim, Alfred, 1

  Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, 1

  Lombroso Museum, 1

  London: display of traitors’ heads, 1, 2;

  return of human remains to native countries, 1

  Louis XVI, King of France, 1

  Louis-Philippe, King of France, 1

  Lucy, St, 1

  McPherson, Lieutenant E.V., 1

  McVeigh, Timothy, 1

  Mainz, 1, 2

  Malaysia, 1, 2

  Malone, Michael, 1

  Malony, Evan, 1

  Manchester, 1

  Mao Zedong, 1

  Maori people, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Marat, Jean Paul, 1, 2, 3

  Mariana Islands, 1

  Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France, 1

  Mary, Queen of Scots, 1, 2

  medicine: clinical detachment, 1, 2, 3;

  criminals’ relics used in, 1;

  donating bodies to science, 1, 2;

  medical collections and museums, 1, 2;

  see also dissection

  Méduse (French ship), 1, 2

  Meigs, James Aitken, 1

  Michelangelo, 1

  miracles, 1

  missionaries, 1

  Montpellier, 1

  Montpelier, USS, 1

  Montross, Christine, 1, 2, 3

  More, Sir Thomas, 1

  Morriss, Mack, 1, 2, 3

  Morton, Samuel George: attitude to race, 1, 2;

  measuring devices used by, 1;

  mentors, 1;

  research results, 1;

  skull collection, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 1

  Msiri, Congolese king, 1

  ‘mummy’, 1

  Munch, Edvard, 1

  Musée de l’Homme, 1

  museums: human remains in, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  modern treatment of human remains, 1;

  responsibility to remains, 1;

  return of human remains, 1

  Mütter Museum, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Namibia, 1

  Native Americans, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Natural History Museum, London, 1

  Naxley, Richard, 1

  necks, 1; arteries, 2

  Netherlands, 1, 2, 3

  neuroscience, 1

  neurosuspension, 1

  New Britain, 1

  New England, 1

  New Guinea, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  New York Brain Bank, 1

  New Zealand, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Nicasius of Rheims, St, 1

  Nichols, George, 1

  Nickerson, Natalie, 1, 2

  Noemfoor island, 1

  Norfolk and Norwich Hospital Museum, 1, 2

  Oelsner, Charles Ernest, 1, 2

  Ó Fiaich, Tomás, 1

  Okinawa, 1

  Open Research Scan Archive, 1

  Operation Semut (1945), 1

  optic nerves, 1

  Orewin Bridge, Battle of (1282), 1

  organ transplantation, 1, 2

  Orpheus, 1

  ossuaries, 1

  Oxford, 1;

  see also Pitt Rivers Museum

  Oxford University: Department of Human Anatomy, 1

  Pacific campaign, Second World War, 1, 2, 3

  Paracelsus, 1, 2

  Paris: historical skull study, 1;

  morgue, 1;

  nineteenth-century atmosphere, 1

  Paris Mutual Autopsy Society, 1

  Parkinson’s disease, 1

  Paul, St, 1

  Paul VI, Pope, 1

  Paulson, Ronald, 1

  Pearl, Daniel, 1

  Peasants’ Revolt (1381), 1

  Peleliu, 1, 2, 3

  Pepys, Samuel, 1

  Perpich, Diane, 1

  personality: and the brain, 1;

  and heart transplantation, 1;

  and phrenology, 1

  Peru, 1, 2

  Peter, Johann, 1

  Peter, St, 1

  Petrie, Flinders, 1

  photography: head shots, 1

  Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, 1

  phrenology, 1;

  head readings, 1;

  and racism, 1, 2;

  situation of personality traits on the skull, 1

  Pit River Tribe, 1

  Pitt Rivers, General Augustus Henry Lane Fox, 1

  Pitt Rivers Museum: collection organization, 1;

  foundation, 1;

  other body parts at, 1;

  shrunken heads at, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  plastination, 1

  Platter, Felix, 1

  Plunkett, St Oliver, 1, 2, 3

  Pole, Thomas, 1, 2

  Pompeii, 1

  preserved heads, 1, 2, 3, 4

  ‘primitive’ peoples: exhibiting live, 1;

  historical Western attitude, 1;

  ‘them and us’, 1

  Pullman, Philip, 1

  Puy, Claudius du, 1

  Quattrocchi, Fabrizio, 1

  Quigley, Sister Cabrini, 1

  Quinn, Marc, 1, 2, 3

  racism: defining race, 1;

  as form of social detachment, 1;

  nineteenth-century beliefs, 1;

  and phrenology/craniology, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  and shrunken heads, 1;

  and sourcing body parts for science, 1;

  and wartime propaganda, 1

  Raffet, Auguste, 1

  Redding Rancheria, 1

  relics: heads as, 1;

  historical figures, 1;

  medicinal use, 1;

  potency, 1, 2;

  saints, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  religion: and autopsies, 1;

  see also Catholic Church

  reliquaries, 1, 2, 3

  Richardson, Ruth, 1

  Robespierre, Maximilien de, 1

  Robley, Horatio, 1, 2

  Rome, 1

  Roose, Elizabeth, 1

  Roosevelt, Franklin D., 1

  Roper, Margaret, 1

  Rosen, Jay, 1

  Rosenbaum, Joseph, 1, 2

  Rowland Ward (taxidermy firm), 1, 2

  Rowlandson, Thomas, engravings by, 1

  Royal College of Surgeons, 1, 2, 3;

  skull collection, 1

  Royal Society of Tasmania, 1

  Russell, Samuel, 1

  Saatchi, Charles, 1

  saints: heads as relics, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Salisbury, Margaret Pole, Countess of, 1

  Salome, 1

  Sanson, Charles-Henri (executioner), 1, 2, 3

  Sarawak, 1, 2

  Schroeder, Johann, 1

  Schubert, Franz, 1

  Sebastian, St, 1

  Second World War (1939–45), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Segrave, Sir John, 1
/>   Séguret, Dr, 1

  Seligman, Charles and Brenda, 1

  Shakespeare, William: Hamlet, 1

  Sheldon, Elizabeth, 1, 2

  shrunken heads: fake heads, 1;

  historical trade in, 1;

  at Pitt Rivers Museum, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  process, 1;

  and racism, 1

  Shuar people, 1, 2

  Siena, 1, 2, 3

  skulls: decorating, 1;

  as gifts, 1;

  medical uses, 1;

  as memento mori, 1;

  objects made from, 1;

  skull moss, 1;

  theologians’ attitude, 1;

  as trophies, 1;

  see also craniology and craniometry; phrenology

  Sledge, Eugene, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Smithsonian Institution, 1, 2

  Sochon, Captain Bill, 1

  Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, 1, 2

  Société de la Morale Chrétienne, 1

  Soemmerring, Samuel Thomas, 1, 2

  Solomon Islands, 1, 2, 3

  South America, 1, 2, 3

  Stanley, Henry, 1, 2, 3

  Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1

  strokes, 1

  Stuck, Franz, 1

  Sudan, 1

  Sudbury, Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1, 2

  Sue, Jean Joseph, 1

  Sumba, 1

  Swan, Joseph, 1

  Sweden, 1, 2

  Switzerland, 1

  Taliban, 1

  Tarlow, Sarah, 1

  Tasmania, 1, 2

  Tassi, Agostino, 1

  tattoos, 1

  Taylor, Edward, 1

  Te Papa Museum, 1

  Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1, 2, 3

  Thane, George, 1

  Thompson, Florence, 1

  toi moko, 1, 2, 3

  Torres Strait, 1, 2

  Towneley, Francis, 1

  Townsend, John Kirk, 1

  traitors’ heads, displaying of, 1, 2

  transplantation, 1, 2

  Treguier, 1

  Trier, 1

  trophy heads, 1, 2

  tsantsas, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Turin, 1

  Tussaud, Madame, 1

  University of California Museum of Anthropology, 1

  University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1, 2

  Up de Graff, Franz, 1, 2

  US Army Medical Museum, 1, 2, 3, 4

  USA: legality of desecration of casualties, 1;

  return of human remains to native countries, 1;

  sources of collectors’ skulls, 1, 2;

  state executions, 1;

  trophy-taking by US Army, 1

  Vanuatu, 1

  Vesalius, Andreas, 1

  videos, of beheadings, 1, 2

  Vietnam War (1954–75), 1, 2, 3, 4

  Vigée-Lebrun, Elisabeth, 1

  Ville, James de, 1, 2, 3

  Wallace, William, 1, 2, 3

  ‘war on terror’, 1

  warfare: battles as sources of collectors’ skulls, 1;

  legality of desecrating corpses, 1;

  rituals, 1;

  and social detachment, 1, 2;

  trophy-taking, 1;

  twentieth-century training in brutalization, 1

  waxworks, 1

  Weidmann, Eugen, 1, 2

  Wellington, New Zealand, 1

  Wendt, Dr, 1

  Westminster Hall, 1

  White, Robert, 1, 2

  Wilder, Burt Green, 1

  Wilkinson, Dr Horace, 1, 2

  Wilkinson, Josiah, 1, 2

  Wingate, Richard, 1

  Woodley, Arthur E. ‘Gene’, Jr., 1

  Wordsworth, William, 1

  World War II see Second World War

  York, 1

  Zande people, 1

  Zelizer, Barbie, 1

  Zulu wars, 1

  Copyright

  Granta Publications, 12 Addison Avenue, London W11 4QR

  First published in Great Britain by Granta Books, 2014

  Copyright © Frances Larson, 2014

  Frances Larson has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

  The list of illustrations on pp. ix–xi constitute an extension of this copyright page

  Chapter-opener illulstrations on pp. xiii, 1, 17, 47, 77, 109, 137, 165, 209, 239 and 269 copyright © Dan Mogford, 2014

  All rights reserved. This book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publisher, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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  ISBN 978 1 78378 055 6

  eISBN 978 1 84708 801 7

  Typeset by M Rules

  Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY