A shrunken head is a mummified human head that was once a common practice among certain tribes in the Amazon rainforest. The term 'LAV' is an acronym for the process of creating a shrunken head, which stands for 'Limpia A Víctima, ' meaning 'clean the victim.' This process involves removing the skin from the skull and boiling it in water with herbs to shrink it. The end result is a small, leathery head with a face that has been preserved.