Proyecto Tsantsa

From 5-12 October 2025, a delegation of Shuar leaders, elders, students and professors from Ecuador will spend a week visiting the British Museum (BM), Wellcome Collection (WC), Science Museum Group (SMG) and Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) as part of Proyecto Tsantsa. This visit marks a unique moment in the multi-year project's history, bringing Shuar representatives into direct dialogue with UK curatorial teams to see and discuss collections first-hand, including tsantsas (also known as shrunken heads) and hundreds of Shuar objects identified across UK institutions. The programme includes collection viewings, workshops and reflection sessions designed to shape the future care and understanding of these cultural materials. As part of the visit, a special public event will take place at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford on Saturday 11 October 2025. This will feature talks, presentations and opportunities for reflections, and members of the press are warmly invited to attend. Selected delegates and museum partners will be available for interviews, making this a significant opportunity for the wider public and media to engage with Shuar perspectives and the collaborative work of the project.

Background

Proyecto Tsantsa is a partnership established in 2017 between the Pitt Rivers Museum (University of Oxford), the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and Shuar federations, including the Federación Interprovincial de Centros Shuar (FICSH) and the Federación Shuar de Zamora Chinchipe (FESH-ZC), who in 2023 signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to work towards sharing knowledge and expertise, identifying Shuar collections across continents and finding ways for Shuar expertise to be taken into account when discussing and describing Shuar cultural knowledge and heritage.

In 2022, as part of the project, the PRM identified over 100 tsantsas kept in the storage facilities of museums across the UK. Many are part of the Wellcome Collection, which acquired the tsantsas through the collecting activities of Henry Wellcome (1853-1936). These are cared for by the Science Museum Group (SMG) as part of a long-term loan agreement. Because of their important Shuar collections (and in particular tsantsas) the Wellcome Collection, the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research at the British Museum (SDCELAR) and Science Museums Group have now joined the partnership. During the visit, the British Museum (London), the Science Museum Group (Wiltshire) and the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) will be opening their collections for the delegates to visit and advise on the cultural care of the tsantsas and other Shuar collections. 

Project Timeline

2017 Partnership formed between the Universidad de San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador (USFQ), Pitt Rivers Museum, Museo Pumapungo, the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural (INPC), and the different Shuar federations of the Ecuadorian Amazon.  

2017-2019 The first meetings took place in Quito in April and August 2017, followed by a two-day workshop in Cuenca on 22 & 23 March 2018, bringing together all partners, with video conferencing participation from the Pitt Rivers Museum. The aim was to discuss political aspects of Shuar heritage, sensitivities around the presence and absence of tsantsas and other cultural objects from Shuar-led museums currently being established on Shuar land and the sensitivities, limitations and possibilities of cultural Entangled Entitlements and Shuar Tsantsa care and representation versus current museum displays (see also Van Broekhoven 2024).  

2020-2022 Visits to museums in the United Kingdom were planned for the academic year of 2019–2020 but had to be postponed due to the global pandemic. After a COVID-forced break, activities in Oxford and Ecuador intensified; in September 2020 and March 2022, the Pitt Rivers Museum held consultations with Jefferson Pullaguari and Maria Patricia Ordoñez. In 2021 and 2022 USFQ and INPC held multiple workshops and individual consultations with members of the FICSH and of the FESHZ. In Oxford, thanks to the support of PRM Assistant Curator Nicholas Crowe (now Wellcome Collection), and Leiden University intern Sterre Houtzager (2022), we were able to locate over 172 tsantsas in museum collections worldwide (over 120 in UK collections) and have established contact with the managers of the largest collections, who are keen to work with Shuar delegates in finding the best ways forward for caring for the tsantsas and working together on the complexities around potential returns in future years. 

At the March 2022 Zoom workshop, it was agreed that we needed to: 

  1. Have physical visits with Shuar and osteobiology specialists to identify the tsantsas. 

  1. Do detailed CT scanning of the tsantsas and ideally also ancient DNA research to find more clarity regarding which tsantsas were counterfeit and which were ceremonial.  

  1. Find Shuar experts to advise on current and future care of the tsantsas and other Shuar cultural heritage kept and/or on display in UK museums. 

In August 2022, ancient DNA samples were taken from the PRM tsantsas and analysed at USFQ in Ecuador. In September 2022, working with Dr Fiona Brock at the Cranfield University Forensic Institute (now at the Science Museum Group) and Jeremy Uden, PRM Head of Conservation, we were able to do CT scanning of three of the human tsantsas currently kept in the PRM collections (1874.115.2, 1936.53.42 and 1936.53.43). The XT H 225 scanner allowed for detailed capture and measurement of internal components and identification of making features and exceptional high X-ray and CT imaging resolutions.  

2023-2025 Following several years of working together, at a workshop organised by the USFQ in Quito in April 2023, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by representatives of five Shuar federations including David Tankamash,  President of the FICSH in Morona-Santiago; miembros del Directorio de la Federación Shuar - Zamora Chinchipe; and the sindico del Centro Shuar Tsuer Entsa, Guayas Naranjal and the president of the Asociación Shuar de Pastaza, representing over 180,000 Shuar community members. Alongside the work regarding the future care and return of the tsantsas, an important aspect identified by all partners was the need for Shuar-authored history writing and support for heritage infrastructure and education in Shuar communities.  

Several presentations were made (SAA presidential session) and academic publications were published. 

Since then, the project has focused on building trusting relationships and collaborative, multi-disciplinary networks of archaeologists, anthropologists, museum professionals, and biologists to work alongside Shuar delegates. In October 2025 a delegation of 7 Shuar and 2 professors from USFQ will be visiting the UK, with several other UK institutions, including the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research at the British Museum (SDCELAR), the Wellcome Collection and the Science Museums Group, joining the partnership for this unique visit, which has been generously funded by the Wellcome Trust and several philanthropic donors to the Pitt Rivers Museum (University of Oxford). Internationally, more museums in the UK, Europe, the United States and Canada have indicated they would be keen to join the partnership.  

October 2025 Visit Summary

As part of a unique collaboration between UK museums, the University of Oxford, the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and different Indigenous federations, a delegation of Shuar representatives from Ecuador visited Shuar collections held at:

  • British Museum, SDCelar Centre at the British Museum
  • Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
  • Science Museum Group (where the Shuar collections from the Wellcome Collection are held on long-term loan)

Throughout the week-long visit, the delegation worked with senior museum officials from all these institutions. They were accompanied by academics from USFQ as part of Proyecto Tsantsa, a collaboration dating back to 2017 between the PRM, USFQ, the Shuar Nation and in particular, the FICSH and FESHZ federations, which represent the Shuar nationality in Ecuador (approximately 250,000 Shuar). 

In a 2021 survey PRM researchers found that there are more than 80 tsantsas in UK collections, with at least 170 worldwide, whereas there are only 11 in the national collections of Ecuador and 9 in Shuar territory (returned by The Smithsonian in 1999). During the visit, the delegates engaged with 68 human and 7 animal tsantsa:

  • 45 human, 2 sloth tsantsa and 4 Shuar cultural objects at the Science Museum Group (from the Wellcome Collection)
  • 17 human, 1 sloth and 30 Shuar cultural objects at the British Museum
  • 6 human, 2 sloth, 2 monkey and 30 Shuar cultural objects at the Pitt Rivers Museum

The visit ensured the project participants were able to:

  •  Collect and provide information about the collections visited
  • Promote a better understanding of Shuar culture
  • Participate in discussions about potential future projects benefitting the Shuar people in relation to the shrunken heads and cultural objects in UK museums
  • Give press interviews and a public presentation

Among the future projects discussed were:

  • Shuar-led research on the histories related to the tsantsas
  • The need for Shuar self-representation in museums to ensure their cultural knowledge and lived experience is reflected correctly (all museums currently use incorrect terminology and misidentified collections in their representations of Shuar culture because they have not worked with local experts)
  • The need, possibilities and limitations of repatriation of all or some of the tsantsas currently in UK collections.

Professor Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, commented:

"The Shuar delegation expressed a wish for the repatriation of the ceremonial tsantsas to their territory and the wish for display of Shuar culture in UK museums through the lens of self-representation and Shuar co-curation of exhibitions. The different UK institutions exchanged information on respective processes and procedures in regard to respective approaches to repatriation of human remains. Given the particular cultural contexts of tsantsas (both making and taking), the need for further research and analysis have been agreed, including local cultural contextual research and procedural requirements at a regional, national and international level."

Media and Additional Research Resources

https://www.science.org/content/article/shrunken-heads-long-charged-ritual-meaning-finally-get-scientific-attention 

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2019/03/06/oxford-museum-rethinks-famed-display-of-shrunken-heads 

https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/shrunken-heads 

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:987a160f-4049-4dee-97b8-6e6ef407fb40 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34174769/ 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35921270/ 

Key Questions
  • How should tsantsas and Shuar cultural objects be cared for in the future?
  • Do they need to be returned to the community?
  • If they are on display, who should be involved in the curatorial process?
  • Given the fact that, as far as we know, over half of the tsantsas in museum collections are thought to be counterfeit and/or were made for commercial profit-making, and not originally by Shuar and/or from Shuar or Achuar ancestors, how do we find ways to better identify which tsantsas were Shuar-made?

In addition, further research is required to address:

  • the lack of institutional representation
  • the lack of financing for Shuar-run local museums
  • the involvement and co-optation by multinational destructive extractive mining companies.
Quotes

"We understand that in your museums you display the tsantsas behind glass in cases; we would never do that. We would need to undertake a spiritual ritual, so that its soul (tsantsas are spirits) gives us the permission for people to get to know it. Those are details that will enrich museums. We ask permissions of the spirits, with our own tools, in our own way of opening up and conversing with them." Jeffersson Pullaguari Acacho (Shuar Indigenous leader from Zamora, 2022 Oxford Workshop)

"We would like to have our own museum where we can represent ourselves and who we are, showcasing all aspects of our way of being, including music, food and dance and also the history of the tsantsas, but one that tells a fuller story. Now we have tourists who come here, and we do not have our own museum; they come with ideas that we are murderers, that we are violent. The Shuar aren't bad people. We want people to come here and learn through the stories that we tell about ourselves. A place where our grandparents can teach our children, and tourists can understand our world in a respectful way, now how it is being told now, as if we were murderers. Making tsantsas was a sacred practice. Now, foreigners will come and they say, 'We've been told you guys chopped off people's heads, didn't matter who they were, you were those murderers.'" Jeffersson Pullaguari Acacho (Shuar Indigenous leader from Zamora, 2020 personal communication)

"As Shuar, we don't have anything against the world knowing our world, and for museums to have our souvenirs and talk about our cosmovision, our ways of living here. What we ask is that museums involve us Shuar, so that it can be us who tell the stories, and we can show the world all our instruments and aspects of the attire, the tsantsas. What would be better for a museum than a Shuar to comment on all this, right? How we made tsantsas, how we worked then and how we live, what our way of seeing the world is. Who better than a Shuar who has lived experience, who has felt our world and knows our history from living it, telling the stories of our ancestors and sharing it with our world?" Jeffersson Pullaguari Acacho (Shuar Indigenous leader from Zamora, 2022 Oxford Workshop)

Frequently Asked Questions

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Shrunken heads, or tsantsas, were made by the Shuar, one of the so-called Jivaroan peoples who live on 7.5 million acres of land between the borders of eastern Ecuador and northern Peru in South America. Tsantsas can be made of human or animal (monkey or sloth) skin and, when ceremonial, are often decorated in specific ways. Tsantsas became trade items from the 1870s as part of the trade with white invaders, when they were traded in exchange for guns, becoming much sought-after collectors’ items by European and North American collectors and museums. Ultimately, this resulted in the introduction of great quantities of guns and violence among the Shuar. This is also the moment that many tsantsas came into Museum collections. The Shuar stopped making tsantsa around 1960 when missionaries made it a prohibited practice.  

Little is known about the reasons tsantsas were made or the method of making them. Most historical records that do exist were written by foreigners who did not speak Shuar. As far as is recorded, tsantsas were made by Shuar people of Ecuador and South America. The process of creating a shrunken head involved peeling the skin and hair off the skull, which was thrown away. Only the skin and hair were kept. This was soaked in hot water briefly, and then hot sand poured inside the skin cavity. The hot sand treatment was repeated several times, and the facial features were reshaped after each stage. Many tsantsas were not made from humans but from sloths and monkeys, and this was increasingly so as European demand for tsantsas grew. However, sloths were also used as they are considered sacred by Shuar communities. 

Genuine tsantsas were made in order to capture the power of one of the multiple souls that Shuar and Achuar people believed their men had. That power was used by the group to strengthen themselves and increase harvests. Tsantsas are thus different from other kinds of war trophies around the world made from the body parts of enemies. 

The decision was taken to remove the tsantsas from public display because it was felt that the way they were displayed did not sufficiently help visitors understand the cultural practices related to their making and instead led people to think in stereotypical and racist ways about Shuar culture. Standing in front of the case, people would talk about the people who had made them as ‘savage’ or ‘primitive’ and use words such as ‘gory’, ‘gruesome’ or a 'freakshow' when talking about the display. Shuar people have expressed dismay at their culture being represented in such ways, and the Museum is now working with Shuar partners to redress this situation. 

Globally, most museums took tsantsas off display in the 1990s or before, as it was felt to be unethical or inappropriate to keep human remains (other than mummies) on display. Two museums, the Pitt Rivers Museum (in 2020) and the Wellcome Collection (in 2022) only recently decided to no longer display tsantsas. It is important to note that not all communities feel their ancestral remains cannot be displayed (some communities we work with, such as those from Tibet, are comfortable with human remains on display), but we want to ensure that we are including the Indigenous Peoples in the decision-making processes on if and how human remains are put on display. Proyecto Tsantsa focuses on ensuring self-determination by Shuar representatives in the decision making of if and how Shuar ancestral remains are displayed (see quotes). 

The Shuar nationality groups in two big federations and several smaller associations that align with the federations. For this project we have met with the two big federations and most associations and have managed to get joint agreements to continue working together. The underrepresented provinces are Orellana and Sucumbios which have a very small number of Shuar people living in them and whose associations have aligned with FICSH.  

The discussions regarding possible returns of the tsantsas are held on a case-by-case basis and each institution has its own procedures and policies. The process is particularly complex, given the cultural context of the tsantsas and the lack of clarity regarding provenance, authenticity and cultural affiliation. Depending on the provenance, different approaches may be needed. 

Not yet. Nevertheless, the Achuar have twice been included informal conversations and have declared that they are not interested in the tsantsas, as reported in the Science feature article. 

 

Press Contacts

Pitt Rivers Museum: press@prm.ox.ac.uk

Science Museum Group: press.office@sciencemuseum.ac.uk

Wellcome Collection: mediaoffice@wellcome.org

Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research at the British Museum: sdcelar@britishmuseum.org