This is an extremely interesting book with a strong argument overall...It is extremely readable, makes anthropological analysis accessible and does not over-exoticize the topic. Most admirably, the author keeps a tight focus on cross-cultural analysis...The bibliography is comprehensive and will also be a very useful tool for interested readers and researchers. I can't think of anything like it in the extant literature; it bridges colonial North American and 20th century Pacific warfare, for instance. · Laura Peers, University of Oxford
This is a wonderful book, which I found quite compulsive reading, and this is due not only to the compelling and often indeed disturbing subject that it focuses on, but also to the accessible yet sophisticated writing style of its author. · Joost Fontein, University of Edinburgh
Many anthropological accounts of warfare in indigenous societies have described the taking of heads or other body parts as trophies. But almost nothing is known of the prevalence of trophy-taking of this sort in the armed forces of contemporary nation-states. This book is a history of this type of misconduct among military personnel over the past two centuries, exploring its close connections with colonialism, scientific collecting and concepts of race, and how it is a model for violent power relationships between groups.
Simon Harrison is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Ulster and has carried out ethnographic fieldwork among the people of Avatip in Papua New Guinea. He is the author of, among other works, The Mask of War (Manchester University Press, 1993) and Fracturing Resemblances: Identity and Mimetic Conflict in Melanesia and the West (Berghahn Books, 2005).