National Geographic has always been a staple for documentaries for me because of my deep love for learning about different cultures around the world. When I saw that Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers was airing, I was excited. I “knew” that National Geographic would not make this beautiful, disappearing culture seem like a freak act in a circus. However, I was disgusted that they seemed to focus more on the narrators adventures than on educating about the culture of the Shuar, which may very well completely disappear in the near future. It seems National Geographic, the very publishers that started my passion, have sold out by choosing to present the information from a western point of view with added shock value. SICK.
Nearly everyone has heard of shrunken heads; but not many know what they are or the symbolism behind them. Many do not believe they can possibly be real human heads and are instead made from monkey skin. Those that do believe they are real seem to have a bizarre fascination with them. The hunt has been on for the headshrinkers for decades. Finally, it looks as if they have been found. ……… again.
In the 1960’s, Polish explorer Edmundo Bielawski and his team were exploring and documenting the northwest Amazon rainforest. After three years, they got lost and learned all too intimately about malaria. The were forced to ditch much of their equipment and reels of film. Fortunately, some of his footage has survived and has a fascinating tale to tell. This legendary tale begins with a murder in the Amazon basin and ends on the mantle of a collector of curiosities. The only known film evidence of a head shrinking ceremony is on these old reels. Is this real or just a fabrication; a show put on by natives for tourist?
This is what Piers Gibbon set out to discover when he and the Nat Geo team headed to the Amazon. Who is Mr. Gibbon, first of all? Usually documentaries have narrators or speakers that are involved in the field they discuss. Come on National Geographic! This man is not an anthropologist! It is so clear by his sick fascination with how the heads are made and if they are still being made today. He could give a hoot about the people behind this mystery. He’s a professional TV, radio, and conference presenter. Give me a break!
Piers travels through the western Amazon with the help of some local guides and asks around about shrunken heads. He makes sure to show the footage to everyone he comes across. He seems to want everyone to be as appalled by the head shrinking ceremony as he is. Appalled and disgusted is not how any National Geographic presenter should act. He discovers that a group called the Shuar of Ecuador are the ones that may know about the film, as they are the Amazon headshrinkers. He seeks out the Shuar and proceeds to make a big presentation out of showing the film to them. He even expects them to be shocked by the video. Why would they be? Unlike our culture, theirs isn’t one to be embarrassed of. Just because he is an ignoramus doesn’t mean that everyone else needs to feed into his crap.
I believe that a good half of the show was focused on explaining head shrinking ceremonies. It was done in a way that was meant to shock and sicken viewers. When giving tidbits of information about the meaning of the ceremony, it is with a decidedly biased view, something one should never witness from National Geographic.
He came across a priest that tells him that the Catholic church worked very hard to end head shrinking by relating the old testament to native beliefs. The priest was very proud to say that the Shuar no longer practice head shrinking and practice an integrated form of Christianity. You can have no idea how nauseous this makes me. Missionaries have destroyed so many cultures around the world and are very proud of it. Of course people will never actually convert, they create an integrated religion. How can ‘god-loving’ people be so proud to beat another people into religious and cultural submission? What is even sicker is that this information was painted in a positive light by the show!!! OK Nat Geo, since when are you siding with the Pope and devaluing the mosaic of culture on this planet?
I don’t know that I’ll watch anything on National Geographic anytime soon unless I look into them online first. I assumed that the foundation for which every young anthropologist dreams to do as project for would produce a show about a virtually unknown culture in an unbiased and celebratory way. Well I know what happens when we assume. I have been taken for a fool and this jackass Gibbons has become rich from it. This documentary did teach a very important lesson about how closed minded and bigoted most of us truly are.
Not much valid information is available on the Shuar online that is not published by sources that are either questionable or missionary in origin. But, if you would like to read something simple without going to the ethnological studies, read this Shuar Information from the University of Wisconsin. Have an open mind and heart, something National Geographic seems to have lost.
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