A University of Oxford museum will not display an African mask because the culture which created it forbids women from seeing it, reports the Telegraph.
The decision by the Pitt Rivers Museum is part of new policies in the interest of “cultural safety”.
Masks are a central part of Igbo culture, and some masquerade rituals carried out by men wearing the ceremonial objects are entirely male-only and carried out in secret away from female spectators.
The new policy, a first for a major British collection, comes as part of a “decolonisation process” at the Pitt Rivers Museum, which is aiming to address a collection “closely tied to British Imperial expansion”.
A set of policies drafted in 2024 state that trigger warnings must be added to the museum database for objects which could be “culturally sensitive”, and particularly sensitive items should be hidden from view.
An online trigger warning on the museum’s collection database states that the Igbo mask “may be culturally sensitive” and “not normally be used in certain public or community contexts”.
The wooden mask has been given the label “must not be seen by women”, is not on display, and has no photographs available to view online.
A note on the museum website explains that, while photographs exist, curators “are unable to show the media publicly”.
This effort to ensure that women do not see the mask follows a suite of policies aiming to ensure “cultural safety” with regard to taboos around secret ceremonies, human remains, nudity and gender roles.
A warning for the collection overall states: “At the Pitt Rivers Museum, we take cultural safety seriously. We aim to keep everyone informed by providing a cultural advice notice.”
The Pitt Rivers’ once-popular collection of shrunken heads, or “tsantsa”, which were taken off display, also have a warning. They are believed to contain the souls of the Shuar and Achuar people of Ecuador that made them.
The decision to remove the heads from display was made in 2020 in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, when the museum operated by the University of Oxford announced a “comprehensive programme of work we are doing to deeply engage with the museum’s colonial legacy”.
Ruth Millington, an art critic and author, whose book Muse tackles the female subject, has raised concerns about the push for synergy creating a dangerous precedent.
She said: “To deny all women, of all cultures, sight of something because that is a taboo in one particular culture seems an extreme stance, particularly given that this country is a modern, liberal and enlightened society.
“Surely women should be given the right to decide, after reading about any cultural sensitivities, if they wish to look upon the artefact or not. When it comes to art, we should all have equal rights, regardless of sex, to view what we would like to.
“Does this position also imply that only male curators in the museum can handle, care for and interpret this object? This stance seems to imply that no woman has ever seen the mask, which I think is highly unlikely.
“As a feminist art historian, I now want to see it all the more.”
