scalping

a. & n. from Scalp.

Scalping iron (Surg.), an instrument used in scraping foul and carious bones; a raspatory. -- Scalping knife, a knife used by North American Indians in scalping.

For more information on scalping, visit Britannica.com.

A trading strategy that attempts to make many profits on small price changes. Traders who implement this strategy will place anywhere from 10 to a couple hundred trades in a single day in the belief that small moves in stock price are easier to catch than large ones.

Investopedia Says:
Traders who implement this strategy are known as scalpers. The main goal is to buy (or sell) a number of shares at the bid (or ask) price and then quickly sell them a few cents higher (or lower) for a profit. Many small profits can easily compound into large gains if a strict exit strategy is used to prevent large losses.

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The practice of removing the scalp, ‘the haire skinne of the head’, from a slain enemy as a trophy, originated in ancient headhunting. The English word ‘scalp’ is derived from the Danish skalp (shell, husk), which, like the Old Norse skalpr (sheathe), belongs to the Indo-European verb stem skel- (to cut), and is thus related to skelo (Danish: skaal, Swedish: skål), the Germanic term for ‘drinking vessel’. According to Paulus Diaconus, skelo was originally applied only to vessels made from skulls, out of which the blood of vanquished foes was drunk both in Germanic and classical antiquity. Corresponingly, in Middle English scalp still meant ‘skull’, and only after the seventeenth century did the word take on the more common and specific meaning of the ‘skin of the head’. From that point on the word ‘scalping’ was used to describe the ‘peeling’ of the skin from the head of dead and, on occasion, still living enemies, and above all to its practice among several Indian tribes of North and South America, where it served to satisfy a thirst for glory and honour or simply as a means of revenge.

Although American native peoples were all too often accused of being the sole practitioners of scalping, in reality they did nothing others had not done before. Herodotus found the practice among the Pontic Scythians, and, according to the Maccabees, the ancient Persians tore away the scalp of one of their prisoners. Orosius reports that Romans scalped during the battle on the Raudine plain. It is highly probable that Germanic tribes behaved similarly, for we know that they ascribed magical powers to a shock of human hair, regarding it as the symbol of the free man. In Germanic law, if a court demanded the guilty party's head to be shaved it was considered an especially grievous sentence — in very serious cases the court could decree that the hair be ripped out with the skin. The Vandals used this form of scalping (decalvatio) as a method of torture; several provisions of the Sachsenspiegel, the oldest and most influential legal code of medieval Germany, are tantamount to the same thing. The shaved, bald heads of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, as well as those of bochesses (German-lovers) after the defeat of the Wehrmacht in the zones occupied by Germany during World War II, are horrible reminders of that dreadful tradition.

Outside Europe, tribes in western Siberia practised scalping into recent times, as did the Naga peoples in the Indian state of Assam and various groups in the interior of Celebes. In 1845, the British traveller John Duncan watched the Apadomey regiment of the legendary black Amazonian army pass in parade before the king of Dahomey — bearing 700 scalps as trophies. Duncan's awe-struck description of the sight has been adapted many times, most recently in Richard Fleischer's Conan the Destroyer, where Grace Jones plays a warrior woman armed with a knife and draped, as it appears, with scalps. In the Caribbean, scalp hunts were organized by runaway slaves, especially the ‘bushmen’ of Surinam, who, following African custom, used scalps for ceremonial purposes inside their fortified asylums (palenques).

Among the native peoples of both Americas, scalping was originally not widespread and was practised only rarely and on a small scale. It was only after firearms and steel knives were introduced that the taking of scalps as booty became more frequent. Even then, scalping did not become extensive until the eighteenth century, when warring European groups adopted the custom of posting rewards for scalps in order to terrorize the foe of the moment. By that time, however, it was certainly no longer merely ‘reds’ scalping ‘whites’ and other ‘reds’, but also ‘whites’ scalping ‘reds’ and other ‘whites’. In the Kansas — Nebraska War of the 1850s, ‘damn'd abolitionists’ were scalped, as were some political opponents during the 1856 presidential election campaign between Buchanan and Fremont.

— Peter Martin

Bibliography

• Friederici, G. (1906). Skalpieren und ähnliche Kriegsgebräuche in Amerika. Braunschweig

The removal of particles larger than a specified size by screening.

Scalping is the removal of the skin and hair from atop the victim's skull, usually accomplished with a knife. While long believed to be a traditional Native American practice, modern apologists have argued that Europeans introduced the custom of taking scalps from slain or captive enemies in America. Nevertheless, references to Indians' scalping made by the earliest of European explorers, the elaborate methods and rituals often surrounding Indian scalping, and archaeological evidence in the form of telltale cut marks on pre-Columbian skulls indicate that scalping was a native practice prior to 1492. Various scalping traditions can be traced from Alaska to Mexico, and sporadically even into South America.

Following their entry into the New World, Europeans both adopted and encouraged scalping. During King Philip's War (1675–1676) in New England, the colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts offered bounties for the scalps of their Wampanoag enemies. Colonial authorities would pay ten shillings to Indians and thirty shillings to non-Indians for every enemy scalp. The French in Canada appear to have been the first to encourage the scalping of whites. In 1688 they offered ten beaver pelts for every scalp—Indian or Puritan—brought to them. While Indians had practiced scalping for centuries, these bounties probably did encourage the spread of scalping to tribes who had not previously done so, or who had scalped only infrequently in the past.

Scalping and scalp bounties continued through the colonial wars of the eighteenth century, with a noticeable increase in colonists' willingness to scalp Indian enemies. During the American Revolution, British Colonel Henry Hamilton at Detroit drew the derisive nickname "hair buyer" because he encouraged his Indian allies to attack the rebels and to exchange enemy scalps for bounties. But he was not alone in the practice. South Carolina's legislature offered seventy-five pounds for male scalps, and Pennsylvania's offered one thousand dollars for every Indian scalp. Kentuckians invading Shawnee villages in southern Ohio dug up graves to take scalps for trophies. Scalp bounties and scalp-taking also took place during the War of 1812 and in the American invasion of the West. Reports of scalping cease with the close of the Plains Wars at the end of the nineteenth century.

For the Indians of the North American Plains and their neighbors to the east, those of the Great Lakes, the Eastern Woodlands, and the Gulf Coast, war was a major social tradition. Combatants in all these areas took scalps in the course of warfare, although how a scalp was taken and handled varied according to local customs. Plains Indians generally took scalps from the center of the victim's head, pulling hair and a silver dollar-sized piece of skin away after a circular incision. There are numerous instances of survival after such treatment, a reflection of the point that Plains Indian warfare was less directed at killing the enemy and more toward touching him, that is, counting "coup." Engaging an enemy hand-to-hand and then touching him while he was down but still alive confirmed a warrior's courage. Only the Teton Dakota regarded killing and scalping as the coup of highest worth. The Chiricahua Apache saw the taking of an enemy's scalp as disgusting, and declined the practice.

Bibliography

Axtell, James, and William C. Sturtevant. "The Unkindest Cut, or Who Invented Scalping?" William and Mary Quarterly 37 (1980): 451–472.

Grinnell, George Bird. "Coup and Scalp Among the Plains Indians." American Anthropologist 12 (1910): 296–310.

Stockel, H. Henrietta. "Scalping." Military History of the West 27 (1997): 83–86.

For other uses, see Scalping (disambiguation).

Native American Big Mouth Spring with decorated scalp lock on right shoulder. 1910 photograph by Edward S. Curtis

Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp. It can be done to someone after death, or on someone alive, in which case it may or may not be deadly.

Scalping is applied to provide a portable proof or trophy of prowess in war.^{[citation needed]} Scalping is also associated with frontier warfare in North America, and was practiced by Native Americans, colonists, and frontiersmen over millenia of violent conflict. William Brandon and Keith Rosenberg, Native American specialists, have stated that some Mexican (e.g. Sonora and Chihuahua) and American states (e.g. Arizona) paid bounty for enemy Native American scalps.^[1] Contrary to formerly popular beliefs, scalping was far from universal amongst Native Americans.^[2]

Contents 1 Scythia 2 Western Europe 3 North America 4 In motion pictures, popular literature, and entertainment 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

Scythia

Scalping was practiced by the ancient Scythians of Eurasia. Herodotus, the Greek historian, wrote of the Scythians in 440 BC: "The Scythian soldier scrapes the scalp clean of flesh and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin. Scyths helped the scalper confess his love for her. The Scyth is proud of these scalps and hangs them from his bridle rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks by sewing a quantity of these scalps together."

Western Europe

Scalps were taken in wars between the Visigoths, the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons in the 9th century according to the writings of Abbé Emmanuel H. D. Domenech. His sources included the decalvare of the ancient Germans, the capillos et cutem detrahere of the code of the Visigoths, and the Annals of Flodoard.

North America

Indian Warrior with Scalp, 1789, by Barlow

19th century engraving of Wyoming Massacre of 1779. Scalping in foreground

1890 photograph of Robert McGee, scalped as a child by Sioux Chief Little Turtle, in 1864

"The Scalped Hunter" Buffalo Hunter Ralph Morrison who was killed and scalped December 7, 1868 near Fort Dodge Kansas by Cheyennes. A Lt Reade of the 3rd Infantry and Chief of Scouts John O. Austin in background. Photograph by William S. Soule. An Original print and Story can be found here at ^[3]

According to ethnohistorian James Axtell, there is abundant evidence that the Native American practice of scalping existed long before Europeans arrived. Axtell argues that there is no evidence that the early European explorers and settlers who came to the Americas were familiar with the ancient European practice of scalping, or that they ever taught scalping to Native Americans.

Axtell writes that the idea that Europeans taught scalping to Native Americans became popular recently, during the 1960s. This idea quickly became conventional wisdom because it fit the tenor of the times of the counter-cultural 1960s, writes Axtell, but he argues that archaeological, historical, pictorial, and linguistic evidence contradicts this notion.

Certain tribes of Native Americans practiced scalping, in some instances up until the 19th century.^{[citation needed]}

Archaeological evidence for such practices in North America dates to at least the early 14th century; a mass grave from that period, containing nearly 500 victims (some with evidence of scalping), was found in South Dakota.^[4]

The standard Native American technique for scalping was to place a knee between the shoulders while the body was on the ground, to cut a long arc in the front of the scalp, and then to pull back on the hair. If the person survived, the person's facial features drooped.^{[citation needed]} Women would sometimes make a tight braid to pull the skin back up.^{[citation needed]}

During "Dummer's War" (c. 1721-1725), British colonial authorities offered £100 per Indian scalp - which adjusted for inflation would be about US $20,000 (£10,000) in present-day money; explorer John Lovewell is known to have conducted scalp-hunting expeditions to gain this generous bounty. Other examples of the payment for scalps are those issued by the government of Massachusetts in 1744 for the scalps of Indian men, women, and children; Governor Edward Cornwallis' proclamation of 1749 to settlers of Halifax of payment for Indian scalps; and French colonists in 1749 offering payments to Indians for the scalps of British soldiers.^{[citation needed]}

In the Revolutionary War, Henry Hamilton, the British lieutenant-governor of Province of Quebec (1763-1791), was known by American Patriots as the "hair-buyer general" because they believed he encouraged and paid his Native American allies to scalp American settlers. When Hamilton was captured in the war by the colonists, he was treated as a war criminal instead of a prisoner of war because of this. However, American historians have conceded that there was no positive proof that he had ever offered rewards for scalps.^[5] It is now assumed^{[by whom?]} that during the American Revolution, no British officer paid for scalps.^[6]

Famously, General Custer supposedly was not scalped after the Battle of Little Big Horn because he was deemed filthy in the eyes of the Sioux - to lay hands on him would sully the hands of the warrior. But more likely Custer was not scalped due to his hair making a poor scalp, Custer having his famous locks shorn rather closely before the campaign, plus his receding hairline.

In Canada, a 1756 British proclamation issued by Governor Charles Lawrence offering a reward for scalps has yet to be officially repealed, although it is not in effect anymore.^[7]

In motion pictures, popular literature, and entertainment

The act of scalping featured prominently in some Westerns such as the 1966 Burt Reynolds spaghetti western Navajo Joe which opens with an Indian massacre in which a white profiteer scalps an Indian woman, and the 1990 film Dances with Wolves which shows Pawnee Indians with scalps hanging from their bow or lance. The Cormac McCarthy novel Blood Meridian is about a group of mercenaries making a living off Indian scalps and references the activity extensively, and in Karl May's novels the character Sam Hawkins had been scalped by Indian warriors and survives. The first work in the Lonesome Dove series, Dead Man's Walk features a scalping, and George Macdonald Fraser's antihero, Harry Flashman, observes scalping and is himself partially scalped in Flashman and the Redskins.

Stories that are not strictly Westerns but feature Native American characters or themes also deal with the practice. For example, the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper shows many acts of scalping throughout the film, notably in the battle-scenes between the Native Americans and European troops. In the 1994 film Legends of the Fall Tristan Ludlow (Brad Pitt) scalps many German soldiers in the First World War resulting in his discharge from army service.

The horror genre uses scalping as a violent and sensationalist act. Examples include the 2002 film Deathwatch where Pvt. Thomas Quinn (Andy Serkis) wears a vest made from German scalps and is seen scalping an executed prisoner in one scene, the 2009 World War II film Inglourious Basterds where American irregulars collect scalps of killed Wehrmacht servicemen, with orders from their commanding officer to collect 100 scalps each, the 2007 film Saw IV where a woman named Brenda is put into a scalping chair torture device, and the video game Gun where the player is able to scalp dying enemies after purchasing a special scalping knife.

See also

• Pitchcapping
• Shrunken head

Notes

1. ^ The American Heritage Book of Indians (1961), by William Brandon
2. ^ World of the American Indian, by Jules B. Billard, National Geographic Society; First Printing edition (1974), Washington DC
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ Crow Creek Massacre Paleopathology. The University of Iowa.
5. ^ Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: Henry Hamilton
6. ^ Kelsey pg. 303
7. ^ British Scalp Proclamation: 1756

References

• Kelsey, Isabel, Joseph Brant 1743-1807 Man of Two Worlds, 1984, ISBN 0-8156-0182-4
• Axtell, James. "Scalps and Scalping" from Encyclopedia of North American Indians
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: Henry Hamilton

External links

• British Scalp Proclamation of 1756

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