The purpose of this communication is to present reflections on the practice of collecting Munduruku and Shuar heads from colonial contexts, their subsequent curation in global museum collections, and the importance of understanding the origins of this collecting practice considering both the existence of «forgeries» and the continued search for «authentic» examples by collectors today. Our research aims to contribute to the discussion on the importance of bioanthropological analysis of these Ancestral remains when allied to postcolonial criticism and provenance research regarding how and why they were collected, curated and kept in museums. Given that these heads are a sensitive reminder of the problematic circumstances of their collection, postcolonial criticism is paramount to rethinking their curation, display, and use as part of scientific investigations.

El artículo ofrece una visión detallada del desarrollo y estado actual de la antropología biológica en Sudamérica, una rama de la antropología que se enfoca en el estudio de la evolución y variabilidad humana a través de poblaciones antiguas y modernas. Entre los enfoques destacados se encuentran la bioarqueología, antropología forense, evolución humana, genética de poblaciones, biodemografía, epidemiología, estudios de crecimiento y desarrollo, primatología y estudios experimentales sobre la influencia ambiental en la expresión fenotípica.