"The shrunken heads were made from enemies' heads cut on the battlefield. Then, during spiritual ceremonies, enemies' heads were carefully reduced through boiling and heating, in the attempt to lock the enemy's spirit and protect the killers from spiritual revenge." —Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Gila Kahila Bar-Gal tells Discovery News' Jennifer Viegas about the results of her analysis of a particularly well-preserved head of an enemy of Ecuadorian Jivaro-Shuar warriors who was killed sometime between 1600-1898 in Ecuador. Bar-Gal and her colleagues are the first scientists ever to successfully map a shrunken head's genetic make-up, thus providing the most conclusive evidence yet that stories of headhunting and [...]