Who Is Headhunting In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony was a fictional novel with the intent of healing the protagonist, Tayo, through a series of stories, where he would find answers in the characters from the stories as part of his journey. Renato Rosaldo’s ethnographical work on the Ilongot’s headhunting provided an insight on a ritual practice that serves as healing method to individuals that are dealing with rage and grief. With Ceremony, ritual is represented in old traditional events that always repeat themselves, which means the result for every main character is almost always the same. On the other hand, with Ilongot’s headhunting the ritual is being reported first hand and the conclusion is based on what evidence has been collected by Renato Rosaldo, which

Ceremony by Silko was a way of preserving the Native American Culture, but with the Ilongot’s headhunting, Rosaldo was more concerned with as to why they performed, such a gruesome ritual. For us to understand what Rosaldo wanted the audience to understand, we must find a procedure relatable to headhunting. A funeral is one act that is inevitable because we are human. Funeral’s are defined by most cultures as celebrations that are symbolic and memorable after losing a loved one. Memorable in the sense that we show pictures and talk about the good they did before they left and symbolic in the sense that we show some respect by dancing, crying or singing. The same concept with funerals is what Rosaldo is trying to put across with what the Ilongot’s did to deal with the same loss. He mentioned that, “Once the raiders kill their victim, they toss away the head rather than keep it as a trophy. In tossing away the head, they claim by analogy to cast away their life burdens, including the rage in their grief” (Ilongots 174). This quote represents the symbolic elements used by the Ilongots. Instead of drinking or dancing, they prefer headhunting. Rosaldo’s article tries to defend how cultural difference works in the sense that one person might think headhunting is unthinkable, but accept the act of committing suicide because of the loss of a loved one. Another example to consider would be after he was drafted to fight in the war. Rosaldo shows what the Ilongots think of fighting in the war. They were as scared of war the same way we fear headhunting. This shows the Ilongots own ignorance about his