Auction house pulls human remains amid ethical backlash
A British auction house was forced to withdraw human remains from sale, including skulls and mummified heads of Indigenous peoples from different parts of the world, BBC reported on Wednesday.
Among the items initially put up for sale by The Swan auction house from Tetsworth in Oxfordshire were mummified, shrunken Jivaro heads from South America, Ekoi skulls from West Africa, and a 19th-century horned skull from the Naga people of 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 for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), which called for their return. The director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford also criticized the proposed 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, engages in dialogue with many Indigenous groups about the future of items housed in its collection.
Ethically problematic
The museum's director, Laura Van Broekhoven, told the BBC that she was outraged by the planned auction, as selling 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 refers to a group of Indigenous tribes living in Ecuador and northeastern Peru. Known for their technique of shrinking heads to the size of an orange (known as tsantsa, possession of which is believed by the Jivaro to provide supernatural power). Approximately 20,000 people currently live in these tribes.
On the other hand, Naga refers to the peoples inhabiting northeastern India and the borderlands of Burma. These peoples speak up to 25 languages. Among them are warrior tribes known for keeping the heads of enemies they have killed as trophies.
