The shrunken heads at Pitt Rivers museum (Oxford)

I notice the OP didn’t give a link - hummmm

And it’s a bit for complicated than that
Pitt Rivers: The museum that's returning the dead www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-45565784

And what about farmers in France unearthing dead British soldiers from WW1? Everything is done to identify and trace their relatives and a military funeral is held even if that's not possible. Why don’t the French just put the remains in a glass case in the local cafe so people can learn about the horrors and history of WW1?

sorry, I don't do shouting.

Pitt Rivers have put the exhibits out of sight in case they offend people.

Yes, stuffed animals. Some people are horrified that once living creatures are shown this way - and would like to see the procedure stopped

Completely agreed *trisher. Anyone remember the rightful outcry about the dead children’s organs kept without consent at a hospital by a rogue doctor? Remember the parents having funerals for the body parts when they where returned to them? Some opinions on this thread have a nasty odour of western exceptionalism as in ‘ they don't feel it like we do’.

OFGS - stuffed animals? And again no one is saying that anything should be hidden.

Out of sight, out of mind? There's speculation as to whether the heads are human or monkeys (not that that makes them any better).

I believe the majority of adult visitors to museums treat the remains of humans with respect.

Should natural history museums with all their stuffed animals should be closed?

The Human race has never been passive, we kill each other, do horrific things to each other, but I don't believe the answer is to hide these atrocities, it's what happened and should be recognised as such and maybe seen as a path towards learning from our mistakes. We've moved on from shrinking heads and mummyfying, but the truth is, whether we like it or not it happened and shouldn't be hidden (which is what's happened at Pitt Rivers).

Interesting isn't it, we consider it is OK to publicly display bodies, skeletons, mummies all sorts of human remains from other cultures but if skeletons are unearthed from Christian burial grounds they must be returned to consecrated areas. I asked about this when I was told about some skeletons excavated from the site of an Anglo Saxon church in Newcastle. I was told they are stored in a special consecrated storage area in Sheffield University.
So some remains can be gawped at but others are too special.

.bohem perhaps you could point out where anyone has said they should all be hidden or swept under the carpet etc? Its about returning them, treating them with respect as HUMN BEINGS no matter how or where or when they died. I can be taught for example about FGM and why it’s wrong without having to watch it performed or see a specimen of a butchered vulva.

Mummies, shrunken heads, body parts, etc, no not pleasant but part of history - life and death.

So, displays in museums should only show the 'nice, pretty' bits of the ascendancy of humans that we approve of? Homo sapiens are not a pleasant species, we unmercifully kill other animals and ourselves, by nuclear bombs, genocide, etc. Ancient civilisations tried to preserve their dead by means we now look down on from a great height and cringe at - but it was their culture, their history. Isn't this what museums are supposed to be about, looking back through the ages at all aspects of civilization - the gory and the splendid, it's all part of what we have become now.

So, hide the shrunken heads, mummies? sweep them under the carpet and pretend they never happened?

BlueBelle

Lemongrove so you think it’s acceptable because your children enjoyed seeing gruesome body parts
Surely it’s never right to use these as entertainment it’s about respect and care, not about being called iver sensitive
Of course they need to go back to the country of origin we cant make the excuse of looking after them ‘in case‘ they get destroyed in their own country
They shouldn’t be destroyed but they shouldn’t be on show there for kids to go ‘yuk’ over
I feel the same about John Merrick and other people with rare disabilities, think if it was your family member

All children enjoy seeing gruesome objects.....but there is an educational reason for the Pitt Rivers ( as well as all other museums with ethnic objects on display) to do this.
It showcases the religion/ superstition/ rituals of various tribes.The heads are not actual skulls, but do use the skin and hair from a dead ‘tribal enemy’ in the making of these artefacts.There are only a few there, large ethnic museums have many more, but the Pitt River family made their own collection. It’s a small-ish but amazingly well stocked museum and well worth a visit.
If everything was sent back from all the museums in the world to their country of origin, then we wouldn’t have learned much about other cultures.

I agree with other posters. I have always refused to gawp at long dead bodies and body parts. It is disrespectful to the dead and to those who laid them to rest. I wish all museums etc would remove mummies, shrunken heads and the like. It’s not erasing history, it’s showing proper respect to people who were once human beings like us.

I remember when several years ago we were in Cairo at the museum.

In a side room kept quite dark, was the mummy of Ramesse II, a great king of Egypt.

I clearly recall how uncomfortable I felt looking upon the face of the pharaoh.It seemed so wrong that I was doing this, I had no right to be able to view his body - he was not a sideshow exhibit.

Then to my horror a group of young people came in and started laughing and making fun of the body of the pharaoh.

This was wrong and I really think that these remains should not be on display.
It is disrespectful at the very least.

Lemongrove so you think it’s acceptable because your children enjoyed seeing gruesome body parts
Surely it’s never right to use these as entertainment it’s about respect and care, not about being called iver sensitive
Of course they need to go back to the country of origin we cant make the excuse of looking after them ‘in case‘ they get destroyed in their own country
They shouldn’t be destroyed but they shouldn’t be on show there for kids to go ‘yuk’ over
I feel the same about John Merrick and other people with rare disabilities, think if it was your family member

When I visited the wonderful Mary Rose museum a few years ago, they said that they had many bodies in store. They have of course reconstructed some of the skulls to reveal the features , which is fascinating. I felt maybe the rest of the skeletons need burial at Spithead, but maybe they are keeping them for research.

Still men who died in horrific circumstances.

Suedomin, as I said in my post, the Museum has had a 5 year renovation, re-opening just last year.
There are some of the old bronzes on display in a separate area which can be visited if you wish but the rest of the exhibits are sensitively displays, and whilst still fulfilling the ethos of the Museum, to explain African culture and diversity.
When you visited Tervuren did you go to the Churchyard to see the graves of the people who were taken from the Congo to be put on display in the park.
The conditions they lived in were horrendous, Belgium has a terrible reputation for the way it treated Congolese people.

Anyone been to the Catacombs of Paris?

Millions of skulls/bones. Dating back centuries

Filled with ancient graffiti as well.

Felice my visit to the Africa Museum in the early years of this millennium shocked me to the core. I found it hard to believe that such a museum was allowed to exist in that form in close proximity to the home of the EU parliament. It was horrific.

The friend who took me said that even the museum I saw had been toned down from how it was when she first visited after moving to the area.

As a child I was fascinated by the mummies in the British Museum so I would be sad if they were no longer available for today's children to look at.

Septimia

Having said what I did about archaeology - I've always felt that any human remains discovered during excavations should be recorded and studied in detail .... and then re-buried with dignity.

I always think that too - they may have been buried thousands of years ago but were buried with due reverence and often with their possessions with them. We have enough skill today to make replicas if we wish and return the originals to their burial place.

I just find it utterly unacceptable that anyone thinks part of a human should be on display in these ways.

Agreed. Artefacts are inanimate.

But I don’t think human remains are ever artefacts, no matter how old.

I agree Septima about how sad it is when things are destroyed by acts of war, revolution, carelessness, greed but I would put human remains in a quite separate category.

Having said what I did about archaeology - I've always felt that any human remains discovered during excavations should be recorded and studied in detail .... and then re-buried with dignity.