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Shrunken heads on display12/22/2023 The Shuar tsantsas were made in order to capture the power of one of the multiple souls that Shuar and Achuar people believed their men had. Shuar Indigenous leaders Miguel Puwáinchir and Felipe Tsenkush said their ancestors handed over the sacred objects to colonialists without realising the implications, in a statement provided by the museum: “We don’t want to be thought of as dead people to be exhibited in a museum, described in a book, or record on film.” Displays should always be accompanied by sufficient explanatory material… As a general principle, human remains should be displayed in such a way as to avoid people coming across them unawares.” The UK government’s Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums recommends that “Human remains should be displayed only if the museum believes that it makes a material contribution to a particular interpretation, and that contribution could not be made equally effectively in another way. The Museum is now working with Shuar partners to decide on the best way forward with regard to the care and display of the items.ĭirector Laura Van Broekhoven said: “The implementation of the review is part of the museum’s strategic plan to bring its public facing-spaces more in line with its contemporary ethos of actively working with communities and respecting different ways of being as we become a welcoming space for all.” The statement cites visitors talking about the people who had made them as ‘savage’ or ‘primitive’ and using words like ‘gory’, ‘gruesome’ or a ‘freakshow’. Shuar people have long argued against the public display of their ancestors’ remainsĪ statement by the Pitt Rivers Museum, which focuses on anthropology, ethnology and archaeology, says: “The decision was taken to remove the tsantsa from public display because it was felt that the way they were displayed did not sufficiently help visitors understand the cultural practices related to their making and instead led people to think in stereotypical and racist ways about Shuar culture.” The Shuar tsantsas or shrunken heads are from South America and were formed from human, sloth or monkey heads. Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum has indefinitely removed its controversial collection of shrunken heads from the public view as part of a “decolonisation” process.
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