Auction house pulls controversial sale of indigenous remains
12:29 PM EDT, October 9, 2024
The British auction house was compelled to withdraw from sale human remains, including skulls and mummified heads of indigenous peoples from various parts of the world, the BBC reported on Wednesday.
The Swan auction house in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, initially listed for sale the mummified, shrunken heads of the Jivaro people from South America, the skulls of the Ekoi people from West Africa, and a 19th-century horned skull of the Naga people from India and Burma.
Sharp criticism of the skull sale idea
The auction house removed these items from the planned sale following condemnation from the Forum Naga Reconciliation (FNR), which called for their return. The director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford also criticized the sale.
Human remains, including mummified shrunken heads, were removed from display at the Pitt Rivers Museum in 2020 as part of a decolonization process. The museum, founded in 1884 and focused on anthropology, ethnology, and archaeology, is engaged in dialogue with many indigenous groups regarding the future of the items held in its collection.
Ethically problematic
The museum's director, Laura Van Broekhoven, told the BBC she was outraged by the planned auction, as the sale of human remains would be "ethically really problematic" for many communities around the world. However, she welcomes the decision to withdraw the items from sale.
"The fact these objects were taken is really painful, and the fact that they were being put on sale is really disrespectful and inconsiderate. We're conscious that the remains would have been collected in the 19th and 20th centuries, but for them to be on sale in 2024 was quite shocking," she assessed.
Jivaro is a group of indigenous tribes living in Ecuador and northeastern Peru. They are famous headhunters known for their technique of shrinking heads to the size of an orange (known as tsantsa, possession of which, according to Jivaro beliefs, grants supernatural strength). Currently, about 20,000 people live in these tribes.
On the other hand, Naga is a term for people living in northeastern India and at the border of Burma. These people speak as many as 25 languages. Among them are warlike tribes known for keeping the heads of enemies they have killed as souvenirs.
