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.