Earring or necklace made of seeds and beetle elytra

Earring or necklace made of seeds and beetle elytra, possibly Shuar, possibly from a tsantsa, Ecuador

This string of beeds and beetle wings may once have belonged to a tsantsa. Commonly referred to as ‘shrunken heads’, tsantsas were made by the Shuar, an indigenous group from the Chicham linguistic family – formally known by the pejorative colonial term ‘Jivaro’ or 'Jivaroan' – who live in the Amazon Basin between the borders of eastern Ecuador and northern Peru. Tsantsas can be made of human or animal skin (primarily sloth or monkey), and are often decorated with feathers, beads and beetle wings. No acquisition source was recorded in the accession register.