the times | Tuesday September 15 2020 1GM 3
News
Shrunken heads and more than 100
other human body parts are being
removed from an Oxford museum over
concerns that they “reinforce racist and
stereotypical thinking”.
The heads, created by South
American tribes and acquired by the
Pitt Rivers Museum between 1884 and
1936, have been on display for 80 years.
Thousands of visitors have been
fascinated by their straggly long hair
and sewn-up lips and eye sockets.
T
he narrowest
house in London
is going on sale
today for
£950,
(Victoria Brzezinski
writes).
Only 5ft 5in wide in
places, it is tall and slim,
much like the modelswho would call when the
fashion photographer
Juergen Teller called it
home in the 1990s.
Painted a smart blue-
black with 1,034 sq ft
arranged over five floors,
the two-bedroom house
in Shepherd’s Bush, west
London, was originally a
hat shop and still features
a shop window with a
bowler hat-shaped lamp.
A light-filled lower
ground floor has a 24ft
long by 5ft 5in-wide
kitchen, complete with a
forest green Aga that
powers the centralheating system, and a
24ft 11in by 9ft 11in dining
area, with double-height
glazed doors leading to a
patio garden.
“Somehow the owner’s
plumber managed to
integrate the Aga with a
Nest heating app,
marrying witchcraft with
21st-century technology,”
Simon Waller, the agent
handling the sale at
Winkworth, said.
The ground floor
reception room is 11ft by
7ft. A spiral staircase
leads to the first floor,
which has a roof terrace
with views over west
London, and a bedroom
and study/third bedroom.
A bathroom, dressing
room and shower room
are on the second floor,
with the main 20ft by 6ft
bedroom on the third
floor, including a built-in
double bed almost as
wide as the house.
It has parquet floors
throughout, an original
art deco bathtub and
hoopoe-patterned
wallpaper and is
sandwiched between a
nail salon and pizza
restaurant.
Mr Waller said he
believed it to be the
narrowest in London:
“We did see a
contemporary one which
was five foot wide but mymanaging director isn’t
sure if it is deemed fit for
human habitation.”
He said that he
attended a New Year’s
Eve party hosted by a
casting director at the
house in 1994, which
went on for four days.
“It was terribly
bohemian — you could
get lost in the different
worlds over the five
floors. Back in those
days, there were no
divisions on the floor
with the toilet on it, so
you were just on an
open floor, with a spiral
staircase through it,”
he said.
The owner, a lawyer,
has lived there for a
decade but is moving
abroad.
“Each owner has
sprinkled their own fairy
dust on it,” Mr Waller
said. “The current owner
likens it to owning a
classic car — she’s
tinkering with it
constantly.”
The last time it was on
the market was in 2009,
when it sold for £595,000.
It was previously sold by
Mr Waller in 2006 for
£488,500, for Simon
Woods, the actor who is
married to Christopher
Bailey, Burberry’s former
chief creative officer and
president.5ft 5in-wide
house is a
stretch at
£950,
The house in west London was originally a hatter’s shop and
still has a bowler hat lampshade in the front. It has a garden
and five storeys but the dining area, top, is only 9ft 11in wided wasoriginallyahatter’sshop and d
Forget dogs looking like their owners
— they are now feeling, and suffering,
like them too.
Research by experts in veterinary
disease suggests that up to 20 per cent
of Britain’s eight million dogs suffer
from allergies and that their conditions
are being triggered by increasingly
comfortable lives.
Sitting on sofas, eating human food
and spending too much time indoors
are thought to be causing an increase in
dogs showing signs of allergic reactions.
Dan O’Neill, a senior lecturer in
companion animal epidemiology for
the Royal Veterinary College, said that
allergies were responsible for some of
the most commonly reported condi-
tions, including skin irritation and
problems with ears and eyes.
His research suggests that 2.56 mil-
lion of Britain’s dogs suffer from inflam-
mation as a disorder and that approxi-
mately 1.6 million of those cases would
have been linked to an allergic reaction.
Dr O’Neill’s research suggested that
labradors, which became the most pop-
ular breed in 2019, were especially sus-
ceptible to allergy, as were Yorkshire
terriers.
Another study, commissioned by the
Dogs Trust, compared skin conditions
in 2,445 labradors and found that “risk
factors included being reared in an
urban environment (not living cur-
rently in an urban environment), being
male, being neutered, receiving flea
control and being allowed on uphol-
stered furniture”. The study, published
last year in Veterinary Dermatology,
found that dogs fared better if they lived
with other dogs and went for walks in
woodlands, fields or beaches.
Dr O’Neill said that allergies
were well-documented and that
although there was little data to
suggest that they were be-
coming more common, risk
factors have increased.
He said allergies were often
inherited but could be triggered
by environmental factors such
as exposure to “the dead bodies
of dust mites” found in pillows
and quilts.
“The more
It’s a human’s
life... pampered
pooches pick
up our allergies
they live with humans, the more the
dogs are exposed to allergens. A lot of
domestic dogs are working breeds...
They are bred to be outside and in ken-
nels, but now we have them living in-
side. While that may be good for the dog
— it’s warm — it is an environment
more likely to trigger allergies.”
He said that owners increasingly use
shampoos or antihistamines to treat
their pets’ allergies. “They are becom-
ing more like us. They are living in our
environment, eating our food. Their
health is morphing into our health and
vice versa. Slowly, dogs are becoming
part of the human family.”
One theory is that dogs, like humans,
are more likely to have overly sensitive
immune systems if they are brought up
in sterile environments. Growing up in
a clean house without challenges to
their immune systems may cause im-
mune responses to overcompensate in
later life.
A recent article in The Wall Street
Journal found that vets reported that
between 10 and 15 per cent of dogs they
had treated were ill because of allergies.
US vets said that skin allergies, which
include being sensitive to feathers, dust
and certain types of grass, appeared to
be more commonplace but were unsure
whether this was a result of people
being more aware.
Jordan Beauchamp, medical director
at GoodVets in Chicago, told the Jour-
nal: “People used to leave their pets out-
side to fend for themselves. Now we see
them more as furry kids, and we’re
watching everything.”
Dogs may also display protein aller-
gies such as gluten intolerance. “Diet
comes in and out of fashion as to whe-
ther it’s a cause of allergy,’” Dr O’Neill
said. “Every dog [suspected of having
an allergic reaction] undergoes a
dietary trial and a reasonably
high proportion of dogs will
respond to that.
“That’s not necessa-
rily because they are
being fed human
food [but] there’s a
lot of protein aller-
gies. For gluten
intolerance, ex-
actly the same
process will
happen in dogs
as it does in
humans.”Living inside may be good for dogs
but can also be a trigger for allergies
Museum removes shrunken tribal heads over racism fear
However, the museum claims that
many misinterpret the remains as
evidence that other cultures are “sav-
age, primitive or gruesome”.
The Shuar and Achuar people of
Ecuador and Peru made the shrunken
heads, or “tsantas”, believing they could
capture souls and provide strength.
Indigenous peoples have long argued
against the public display of their
ancestors’ remains. Miguel Puwáinchir
and Felipe Tsenkush, Shuar indigenous
leaders, said: “We don’t want to be
thought of as dead people to beexhibited in a museum, described in a
book, or recorded on film... Our
ancestors handed over these sacred
objects without fully realising the
implications.”
The museum, which is part of Oxford
University and focuses on anthropolo-
gy, ethnology and archaeology, took
the decision following an internal
review of its “colonial legacy”.
The remains, including Naga trophy
heads and an Egyptian mummy of a
child, have been placed in storage.
Other objects including looted itemsconsidered sacred by indigenous peo-
ples were also taken down.
The museum had acquired the 12
shrunken heads between 1884, when it
first opened, and 1936. Seven of them
are human, while the others are the
heads of sloths and monkeys.
Until the late 19th century, the tribes
had kept the severed heads of male
enemies to acquire powers. They
peeled back the skin and hair of their
decapitated foes and shrank their faces
to the size of a large orange by soaking
them in hot water. The eye sockets andmouth were also sewn shut to prevent
the man’s soul from escaping.
Dr Laura Van Broekhoven, director
of the museum, said: “Rather than
enabling our visitors to reach a deeper
understanding of others’ ways of being,
the displays reinforced racist and ster-
eotypical thinking that goes against the
museum’s values today.”
She said she was open to whether the
tsantas would remain in storage, be put
back on show in a display co-curated
with the indigenous communities, or be
repatriated.Charlie Parker
Jack Malvern