Feature: A tribe that eats enemies' heads and uses skulls as bowls

A cannibalistic tribe in Southeast Asia has become infamous for its grisly ritual that involves killing an enemy for a community feast of their head.

The Asmat tribe, found in Indonesia, has 12 different sub-ethnic groups who are all known for their terrifying beliefs. Asmat men not only hunt and kill their enemies, but they also scrape off the skin from the heads to then roast and serve for the community's consumption.

There are about 65,000 people who are part of the Asmat tribe. They reside on a low-lying swampy region in southwestern Irian Jaya, per a report on Pulse Nigeria. The scary ritual stems from the belief that the human head is a sacred object. It is practiced as a show of their virility and tribal loyalty.

They believe that the skills and knowledge of their dead enemy can be transferred to the killer's body. The decapitated body is also used during coming-of-age ceremonies.

The tribe not only eats the heads of their victims, but they also use their lower jaws and parts of the spine to adorn themselves as a symbol of their masculinity. They split the skull in half and use it as a bowl to eat, and sometimes even use it as a pillow.

A book by Carl Hoffman, an American journalist and author, claimed that the Asmat tribe was also responsible for the death of Michael Rockefeller, the scion of one of America's wealthiest families.

The book titled, "Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art", says that Rockefeller was devoured by the Asmat tribesmen.

He was accompanied only by René Wassing, a Dutch anthropologist, and two local teenagers - but without an Asmat guide. His canoe capsized in November 1961, and he has long been presumed to have died while attempting to swim for the shore. He was declared legally dead in 1964.

But the book claims that the 23-year-old American was killed by an axe blow to the back of the head. He may also have been dismembered in what Hoffman calls an act of "sacred violence."