Scarifying Tool

Object Number: | 42-30-493 |
---|---|
Current Location: | Collections Storage |
Provenience: | Gilbert Islands |
Section: | Oceanian |
Materials: | Shark Teeth Wood Plant Fiber |
Length: | 18 cm |
Credit Line: | Gift of Mrs. Morgan Wing on behalf of the Estate of Florence C. Whitney, 1942 |
Description
Wooden tool consisting of a blade with flat raised sides set with parallel rows of five large sharks' teeth each. Median edge both faces. Teeth set in grooves, individually bound with fiber running through holes in wood and bases of teeth. Tips of teeth slant towards the handle, which is more or less square in cross-section, tapering to a pointed end, which is pierced with a hole for a braided fiber loop (knotted). Three teeth broken off. Similar example in the Torquay Museum, which describes it on its website as "a tool to modify skin by the scarification process."
Current & Past Exhibitions:
Year of Data - Living with the Sea: Charting the Pacific (28 Aug 2020) | View Objects in Exhibition |
Bibliography:
[Web Site] Torquay Museum.. Type Citation | View Objects related to this Type Citation |
You may also be interested in these objects:
Report problems and issues to digitalmedia@pennmuseum.org.