Head-Hunting Panic in Malaysia and Indonesia (1937)

In remote Malaysian and Indonesian regions, a recurring belief in government-sanctioned bounty hunters searching for heads as construction cornerstones triggered panic during nearby construction projects. The phenomenon paralyzed villages, as seen in the 1937 account of Indonesia's first Prime Minister, Soetan Sjahrir, who described empty streets and barricaded homes due to head-hunting rumors. These head-hunting scares reflected the uneasy relationship between tribes and their governments.