Two skulls likely belonging to enslaved people returned to Brazil after Harvard used them in eugenics studies
Two skulls believed to belong to enslaved people have been repatriated to Brazil after being used in racist eugenics studies at Harvard University, ending a four-year campaign to recover the remains.
The remains had been outside Brazil since the 19th century, with one taken approximately 190 years ago from Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, and the other about 160 years ago from Rio de Janeiro. Each was brought back in a padded box inside a reinforced suitcase, carried on flights by Brazilian diplomats after a lengthy campaign to recover them from Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in the United States.
The skulls are believed to have belonged to Africans or Afro-Brazilians in a country that received more enslaved Africans than any other during the transatlantic slave trade. Brazilian researchers from local universities will now attempt to learn more about who these individuals were before they are properly buried with funeral rites.
It's very important to restore the dignity of these people, which was taken from them in life and in death.
Historical Context
The existence of the skulls was revealed in 2022, prompting Brazilian researchers to seek their repatriation from Harvard. They described a drawn-out process that only advanced after the Brazilian government became involved in late 2024. There were concerns that political tensions between US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva might derail the repatriation efforts, but the process ultimately succeeded.
Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, but nearly a century and a half later, Afro-Brazilians continue to face systemic inequality. They make up the majority of the population while occupying the bottom of every socioeconomic indicator, dominating statistics on hunger, poverty, gender-based violence, and victims of homicides committed by criminals or police.
Ceremonial Return
During the repatriation ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Ivanir dos Santos, a history professor and cleric of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, performed a ritual act by pouring a glass of water onto the ground as researchers received the suitcase containing the remains.
It was a ritual act because you cannot deal with the remains of our ancestors without paying reverence to them. This is not a research object … for us, that person is still alive in memory and as our ancestor.
Possible Identities
While the exact identities of the individuals remain unknown, one skull taken from Salvador is believed to have belonged to a man who participated in Brazil's most significant urban slave revolt in 1835. The Bahia Islamic Cultural Centre has named him Arakunrin, meaning 'brother' in Yoruba. The skull was reportedly taken by US diplomat Gideon T Snow after the man died in a hospital following the revolt.
Less is known about the second individual, initially described only as 'an individual … exhumed from the streets of Rio de Janeiro' in the 1860s. Harvard researchers suggested it may have belonged to a woman based on its size—smaller than an adult man's but larger than a child's. Historian Bruno Veras believes it may have been taken from a cemetery for newly arrived Africans who didn't survive the Atlantic crossing or died soon after disembarking, taken by Walter Hunnewell, a student from a wealthy Boston family who was part of a Harvard expedition led by Louis Agassiz.
To steal a skull and take it to another country was violent even in the context of racist research.
Next Steps
Researchers in forensic anthropology will now attempt to confirm the sex of the individuals and gather other information through measurements of the skulls—one in Salvador is complete, while the one in Rio is missing its jaw—and microscopic analyses. If necessary, they will seek authorization to conduct genetic or dating tests. The Brazilian government has pledged that the remains will be buried with funeral rites as soon as the identification process is complete.
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