following the death of George Floyd in May after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes. The decision to remove items brought to Britain from conquered lands comes amid protests in the U.S. Naga trophy heads and an Egyptian mummy of a child were also removed from the museum. In the Shuar culture, shrunken heads are extremely important religious symbols. The heads would then be put in a big pot and boiled for a period of time, according to Smithsonian Magazine. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/GettyImages)Ī shrunken head is created by separating skin and hair from the skull, then sewing the eyelids shut and using a peg to close the mouth. The head is made with human tissue, hair, vegetal fiber and feathers. The event takes place until July 14, 2013. Part of the ethical review included discussions with Universidad de San Francisco in Quito, Peru, and representatives of the Shuar indigenous community about the shrunken heads, known as tsantsa by the Shuar.Ī picture taken on Septemat the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, shows a Shrunken head Tsantsa from the Shuar tribe in Equator (19th century)displayed during the exhibition entitled “The art of Hair frivolities and trophies” (Cheveux Chéris, frivolités et trophées). “Rather than enabling our visitors to reach a deeper understanding of each other’s ways of being, the displays reinforced racist and stereotypical thinking that goes against the museum’s values today.’’ “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’,’’ museum director Laura Van Broekhoven said according to the AP. The museum is known as one of the world’s leading institutions for anthropology, ethnography and archaeology. Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum decided to remove 120 human remains including the shrunken heads after it began an ethical review of the collection in 2017, and received charges of racism and cultural insensitivity for continuing to display the remains. has removed its famous collection of shrunken heads, along with other human remains like an Egyptian mummy, as part of its effort to “decolonize” its collection after accusations of racism, the AP reported.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |