'Shrunken heads' to be removed from Oxford museum over racism concerns

The museum said the famous shrunken heads depicted other cultures as ‘primitive’ and ‘savage’.

Pitt Rivers Museum will remove the famous shrunken heads exhibit as part of a 'decolonisation process'. (AP)

A University of Oxford museum has removed its famous collection of shrunken heads and other human remains because they “reinforced racist and stereotypical thinking”.

The Pitt Rivers Museum said 120 human remains had been removed as part of a “decolonisation process” over lockdown to address the museum’s problematic past.

Many of the items on display were stolen from Britain’s former colonies and depicted other cultures as being “primitive” and “savage”. 

Research on the artefacts at the time of their collection were underpinned by now-discredited theories that upheld “racist and sexist beliefs in the entitlement of white people". 

Visitors will now see a note in place of the artefacts explaining why they were removed.

The revamp comes after a three-year review into the ethical considerations of the museum’s collection.  

Pitt Rivers Museum director Laura van Broekhoven said it was important to “ensure we did not shy away from difficult conversations”.  

“Our audience research has shown that visitors often saw the museum’s displays of human remains as a testament to other cultures being ‘savage’, ‘primitive’ or ‘gruesome’,” she said.

“Rather than enabling our visitors to reach a deeper understanding of each other’s way of being, the displays reinforced racist and stereotypical thinking that goes against the museum’s values today.”

The Tsantsa or “shrunken heads” were made by the Shuar and Achuar peoples of South America to capture the power of one of the multiple souls they believed their men had.

Formed from human, sloths or monkey heads, they were traded on the basis of one gun for one head.

The demand led to a sharp increase in violence during the 19th and 20th centuries, the museum said.

Shuar Indigenous leaders Miguel Puwáinchir and Felipe Tsenkush said their ancestors did not understand the implications of handing over sacred objects to colonialists.

“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,” they said in a statement provided by the museum.

Other items removed ahead of the museum’s reopening on 22 September included decorated skulls, scalps and Egyptian mummies.

The museum will contact descendants of the artefacts to determine if they should be repatriated to their home country.