Human trophy collecting

The practice of human trophy collecting involves the acquisition of human body parts as trophy, usually as war trophy. The intent may be to demonstrate dominance over the deceased (such as scalp-taking or forming necklaces of severed ears or teeth), to humiliate or intimidate the enemy (such as shrunken heads or skull cups), or in some rare cases to commemorate the deceased (such as the veneration of the relics of saints). It can be done to prove one's body count in battle, to boast one's prowess and achievements to peers, or as a status symbol of superior masculinity. Serial killers' collection of their victims' body parts have also been described as a form of trophy-taking. While older customs generally included the burial of human war trophies along with the collector, such items have been sold in modern times. In the Old Testament, King Saul asked David to bring him one hundred Philistine foreskins as bride price for his daughter Michal. David and his men fought a battle, and he presented the king with 200. Headhunting has been practiced across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania for millennia. One analysis of the practice in early North American societies linked it to social distance from the victim. Groups such as the Scythians collected the skulls of the vanquished to make a skull cup. In the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), the noses and ears of slain Koreans and Chinese were collected and brought back to Japan, where they were placed in the Mimizuka monument in Kyoto. , it still stands. In North America, it was common practice before, during or after the lynching of African-Americans for the European Americans involved to take souvenirs such as body parts, skin, bones, genitalia, etc. In the United States, trophies were also acquired during conquest of indigenous lands by settlers and other Native American groups. The scalp, skull, and wrist-bones of Little Crow, the Mdewakanton leader during the Minnesota hostilities of 1862, were obtained and displayed for decades at the Minnesota Historical Society as war trophies from Minnesota's bounty on the Santee Sioux.