US Soldiers Killed Afghan Civilians for Sport and Collected Fingers as Trophies

[Jan Klimkowski]

For all Native Americans who practiced scalping, it was important for purposes of symbolism and retribution. Taking the hair of one who had murdered a member of the family or tribe was a symbolic way of replacing the lost. The lock of hair also symbolized victory over an enemy and often was used as a decoration in celebrations. A form of mutilation itself, scalping naturally became part of a wider range of practices by some tribes that ranged from simply cutting the skin of dead enemies to castration.

Among the Cherokees, before their removal to the Indian Territory, scalping was practiced for one of two reasons. First, scalping occurred as a means of exacting revenge for the killing of Cherokees by other Native Americans. It was done with a precise sense of justice. Cherokees took only enough lives and scalps to account for the number of slain Cherokees. In this way, a general war between neighboring tribes was avoided. Second, scalping occurred at the instigation of Europeans. During the French and Indian War, the British offered scalp bounties to the Cherokees, encouraging them to attack tribes allied with the French. Many young Cherokee men were so impressed by the lure of payment that they began to collect the scalps of any tribe that was available, even friendly peoples such as the Chickasaw. This not only threatened a war with the Chickasaw but represented a threat to the social values of the Cherokee Nation. A Cherokee leader named Little Carpenter, unable to punish the scalp-takers, finally asked the British to rescind their offer of scalp bounties.

So what is the psychological motivation for the slicing off and collection of fingers and other body parts of Afghans and other supposed Al Qaeda or Taliban fighters by American and European troops?

My sense is that it is not for money and it is not to count the revenge exacted.

I suspect that the motivation is closer to the trophy gathering of a big game hunter: hunter's boot planted on the corpse of the hunted as the camera snaps, the deer's horn cut and taken home to be mounted on the wall as evidence of the hunter's victory over the "beast".

I welcome other views.