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Headhunting, Migration, and Ancient DNA in Iron Age Europe: Interview with Professor Ian Armit

Tides of History

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The History of Head Hunting in the Iron Age

Head hunting is particularly associated with the idea of assimilating and building a political group rather than fighting outside forces. It's not just a straightforward manifestation of Celtic warfare or anything of that kind. And actually, we see instances of that in the ethnographic record as well. There's an anthropologist, Janet Hoskins, who's written about the island of Somba,. which sees a very similar kind of polity-building process in the 18th and 19th centuries. Head hunting is very, very central to the construction of elite people. It's potent, I believe.

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