Why a 19th-century Naga human skull is more than just of human interest

The Naga skull features attached animal horns and is appealing to collectors interested in anthropology and tribal cultures

The listing of a 19th-century human skull originating from Nagaland for an auction sale by an art house in the United Kingdom recently sparked a series of protests from Nagas, scholars and experts in India and overseas, prompting the art house to withdraw the item from its catalogue.

The Naga ancestral human skull, attached with the horns of an animal, named “19th-century horned Naga human skull, Naga tribe” was in the catalogue for an auction scheduled for October 9 titled “The Curious Collector” sale by Swan Fine Art at Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, UK(X)

The Naga ancestral human skull, attached with the horns of an animal, named “19th-century horned Naga human skull, Naga tribe” was in the catalogue for an auction scheduled for October 9 titled “The Curious Collector” sale by Swan Fine Art at Tetsworth, Oxfordshire, UK. The catalogue included a variety of skulls, animal horns, and artefacts from around the world for sale. The auction was described as particularly appealing to collectors interested in anthropology and tribal cultures. The opening bid was set at £2,100 up to £4,000.

Public attention to the auction was initially drawn by the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), an organisation consisting of Naga Church leaders and representatives of civil society, which demanded a halt in the auctioning of the 19th century Naga ancestral human remains and advocated repatriation of the same.

The organisation wrote to the art house and also alerted the chief minister Neiphiu Rio-led state government. Rio then wrote to the external affairs ministry to intervene and repatriate the Naga human remains on October 8.

Wati Aier, FNR convenor, said the Naga human remains were taken away as prized items by the British colonial administrators and soldiers who occupied the Naga homeland in the 19th century. “These human remains symbolise the violence that the British colonial power unleashed on the Nagas. Throughout the period of British rule, the Naga people were defined as 'savages' and 'headhunters', which are insulting tropes that continue to be perpetuated today,” a statement from the FNR said.

“We are offended and deeply hurt. The auction highlights the impunity that descendants of European colonisers enjoy as they perpetuate a racist, colonial, and violent depiction of the Naga people. This is counterintuitive to the Naga search for dignity, healing and reconciliation; and for rehumanisation from the colonial project,” Aier said.

The Students’ Federation of India, United Kingdom (SFI-UK) has also condemned the auction of ancestral Naga human remains in the UK. Maintaining that the act of auctioning indigenous remains is an inhumane practice that continues to perpetrate colonial violence, the student body called for an immediate stop of the auction and that the remains be returned to the Naga community.

“Please stop the auction of ancestral remains and STOP the classification of human remains as ‘antique’ items. Stop the sale and auction of all human remains. This is a dehumanising act. Most of these remains being auctioned are stolen from Indigenous communities,” wrote Dolly Kikon, a Naga anthropologist who teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz (US), on the micro-blogging site X.

The director of Oxford University's Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) UK, Laura Van Broekhoven also called out the planned auction of ancestral human remains as “outrageous”. She also took to X to stop the sale of human remains of Naga, Shuar, Dayak, Solomon Islands and also Nigeria, Congo and Benin. The backlash led the art house to remove the skull from its catalogue just before bidding was set to begin.

“We had not realised the offence that the antique Naga tribe skull would cause. We are legally within our rights to include the item in our sale, however, as a mark of respect to the tribe and culture we have withdrawn the item from the sale,” states an excerpt of the response emailed by the UK art house to the FNR.

"We are grateful that the art house responded right away stating that they did not realise the offence that the antique item would cause and that they have removed it from the sale, respecting our tribe and culture," Rev. Dr Ellen Konyak, a member of FNR told HT.

The FNR has been in touch with the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) since 2020 on the repatriation of Naga ancestral remains that are part of a collection of approximately 6,500 Naga objects collected during the expansion of the British Empire and colonial rule, which have been in the museum for over a century.

"The art house did the right thing, and we are grateful to them for honouring the sentiments of the Naga people. Given that they took down all human remains from the auction shows how there was international pressure to stop the auction," said Kikon, who is also a part of the Recover Restore And Decolonise (RRaD) Nagaland working together with PRM on repatriation of Naga ancestral remains.

She said an inter-generational conversation has been taking place on the topic since 2021 and this newfound awareness led many people from the community to call out the auction. "The government of Nagaland took a strong stand and showed us how they will not tolerate the dehumanisation of Naga culture and history. For me, this is a historic moment. But we cannot stop here. We must continue our work to heal together as we stand up together and fight against any kind of dehumanising actions against Indigenous communities," Kikon told HT.

"Policymakers in the UK must see how laws that legalise sell of human remains must change. The auction for the Naga skull could be stopped because of the FNR’s commitment to have a community-centred initiative on the repatriation of Naga ancestral remains," the anthropologist added.

The Naga skull, which was put up for auction features attached animal horns, and was described as particularly appealing to collectors interested in anthropology and tribal cultures. The skull's history traces back to Francois Coppens, a 19th-century Belgian architect.

“We are relieved to hear that the auction house has now removed all human remains from today’s sale and hope that the widespread comments and criticism from communities around the world have demonstrated that the sale of ancestral remains is offensive and unacceptable,” Van Broekhoven later said in a statement.

She said as an institution that stewards many human remains, PRM is conscious of the hurt and pain the removal of human remains has caused to communities across the globe. “To see human remains being put on auction is extremely painful and disrespectful to Indigenous People who consider their ancestors should come home to rest,” she added.