Bounty hunting was a common practice of Taiwanese aborigines in almost all tribes: as part of military rites, to intimidate Chinese settlers, medical magic (heads brought to their native village were supposed to protect residents from diseases and epidemics), as a means of resolving a dispute or as an act of blood feud. Also, the number of heads of killed enemies increased the status of their owners in the tribe and simplified marriage.
The hill tribes believed that the absence of a head prevented the soul from returning to the body or being reborn. The ritual depersonalization of an enemy, dead or alive, with the severance of limbs, castration and blinding, also did not allow the enemy to be reborn and take revenge in a new incarnation. Blood was considered to be the life force of man, the ceremonial shedding of blood on the ground weakened the enemy's soul.