Throughout the 19th century, Europeans found it fashionable to travel the world in search of interesting objects to take back with them. The Pitt Rivers Museum and some other museums in Europe are now attempting to address the troubling history of many of its artifacts. Curators are working to identify which items should be returned to their countries of origin and are also working to decolonize the way they present the remaining objects.
One of the most controversial objects in the collection is the so-called shrunken heads. For decades, museums displayed these heads in a way that reinforced racist ideas about the superiority of white people. Visitors were encouraged to gawk at what they were led to believe were barbaric practices of indigenous cultures, without understanding the cultural significance behind the shrunken heads. These heads came from various parts of the world and were made from human, monkey, or sloth skulls. It was believed that one of the reasons for creating them was to capture the power of a person’s soul to ensure better future harvests. In 2020, the Pitt Rivers Museum decided to remove the shrunken heads, also known as Shuar tsantsas, from display because they felt the way they were being presented reinforced negative stereotypes about Indigenous communities.
The museum’s collection also includes Naga skulls and other artifacts of the Naga people. During the British colonization of India, the British also attempted to colonize the indigenous Naga people, who lived between India and Myanmar. The British even attempted to get the Naga people addicted to opium to gain control over them. It was during this time that ample Naga artifacts were carried to the museums which are still on display. It is uncomfortable to think of museums holding onto human remains that were never theirs in the first place. Beyond the ethical concerns, these remains are part of the heritage of the Naga people today, and the Nagas should be the ones to decide what to do with their ancestors’ remains.
When non-Western artifacts are displayed in museums in ways that inaccurately suggest their cultures were bloodthirsty or savage, it shapes the way we view those cultures, both in the past and present. It reinforces the false narrative of Western imperialism, implying that Europe was somehow superior to the countries it colonized and stole from. However, museums around the world are slowly waking up to the fact that taking and keeping items from other cultures is problematic. In 2015, the grandson of a British soldier who looted Benin City returned two Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. In October 2020, the French parliament voted to return 26 items, including the royal throne that had been seized from Benin in the 19th century. Museums across Europe are gradually realizing that exhibiting items taken by force from other countries hundreds of years ago is morally troubling. We cannot change the past, but we can change how we engage with it in the present.
Thsachoba TS