“The future of some of Oxford’s most popular artefacts – the shrunken heads at the Pitt Rivers Museum – could be in doubt,” writes the Oxford Mail. The museum curator’s Laura Peers has begun a review of the heads, questioning the ethics of keeping and displaying them. She says, “I personally would like to know more what the communities in Ecuador and Peru feel. Philip Pullman has weighed in on the argument, saying that “I think the shrunken heads should stay”.
“The value of the shrunken heads is that they are real – you could replace them with plastic models but that would not be the same. It would be very hard to find the living relatives. I can understand the complexity of feeling about this, and we could be on the cusp of a cultural change regarding this kind of exhibit. The great value of the Pitt Rivers is the higgledy-piggledy nature of the displays, which itself is a window into the past, and the shrunken heads are part of that.” Read more.
The Pitt Rivers museum is featured in The Subtle Knife – it’s where Lyra examines the trepanned heads and meets Lord Boreal. On display at the museum in our Oxford are also the Samoyed furs and sledge Lyra recognises, plus several examples of circular Chinese artefacts that resemble the alethiometer.
I agree with Pullman on all accounts, especially about the Pitt Rivers itself; it's supposed to have those inasne sorts of displays, not just copies.
Whaaaat? Get rid of the shrunken heads?
Over my dead body.
:angry:
Is that an offer for a replacement?
Well the Pitt Rivers is an ethnographic museum. It's not <i>meant</i> to have insane sort displays, it's meant to exhibit interesting points of human social phenomena. The exchange of human artefacts is more greatly regulated these days because of the ethical issues that surround it. I don't think the matter of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian communities should matter too much, especially considering it was the Shuar and Jivaro communities themselves (the only groups that shrunk heads) that sold the tsantsa. Also, if one is to consider the repatriation of such human artefacts, there will have to be great review of the Egyptian (and other) mummies removed or sold in the 19th century to museums across the Western world.
Something the museum curators might want to think about is the nature of the dislay. I can't remember when I was there last but I don't remember much about the informative place cards. I went to a lecture on shrunken head fever recently and perhaps developing the disply demystify the nature of shrunken heads and the practise of headhunting might be better. It was also serve the educational purposes of a public museum. (But apparently the exhibit's been changed recently, so I don't know that they don't already address these concerns)
keep the shruken heads !! its some of the only stuff i ever feel intresting in museams !!!
You’ll find valid points on this page, however i are not aware basically if i really agrees to them. There may very well be some validity however I will maintain my estimation until i research it further. Good article, thanks and in addition we want more. I’ve placed on FeedBurner as apropriate.