Post #158570 by I dream of tiki on Fri, May 13, 2005 8:30 AM

First topic of the day: weapons and tools

"All from Irian jaya( referring to the above photo. From left to right, the tool with stone and a yellow strip (the yellow tone come from dried out dendrobium orchids which stems are yellow when dried) is used by women to chop one of their fingers off when a male member of their family has died, husband or son. I have seen women with only a few fingers left. The stones are sometimes 300 years old and were passed on from generation to the next as valuables as stones are hard to come by in Irian jaya and were obtained mostly by trade.

Dani women are as tough as tough can be. When they chop their finger off with the stone, they first hit their elbow hard to divert the pain. Unbelievable the pain they can take!

The next 3 weapons(2 shown with sheath, one without)are rare cassowary bone daggers from the femur of a large cassowary bird, hunted for food, for its feathers which are on many masks from the area and for its bones used as weapons when shaped in a point. The cassowary is a dangerous and evil tempered bird the size of an ostrich. It can disembowel a man in one kick of its powerful claws. All weapons are resting on a woven asmat bag from the region, with designs produced with natural pigments. Fascinating culture!"

"This is another tool, a stone axe from there as well."

"A very old sword from the dutch occupation of Sumatra. I believe it is 150 yrs or more."

[ Edited by: I dream of tiki 2009-02-20 23:55 ]