bone daggers and a couple questions

Matt Splatt · 30th September 2007, 08:30 PM

I'm going to do more work to ID the source of the bone, the more I look at them the less I think they are Cassowary. The bone is too thick and dense. Anyway I have a veterinarian friend who said she'll look at it and let me know what she thinks.
Don't worry Jim, ex-wives aren't allowed to use them!! In some Sepik communities if a married man broke taboo (primarily cheating on his wife) his wife could stab him in the heart while he slept. Divorce Court... Sepik style. The daggers used to do this were usually made from the femur of a deceased male relative. I wish I could cite this better but I'm in the middle of a move and all my books are boxed up. I found some ancient notes I made on a great article in the Metropolitan Museum Journal #24, pages 305-325, Mother Cassowary's Bones: Daggers of East Sepik Provence, Papua New Guinea. It has been five or six years since I've read the article but according to my cryptic and illegible notes it discusses, daggers, made of both cassowary and human bone, Sepik creation myth and the practice of Husband Killing. The journal is now licensed to JSTOR so I can't access it but maybe someone out there can help us out.

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30th September 2007, 08:30 PM	#5
Matt Splatt Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 31	I'm going to do more work to ID the source of the bone, the more I look at them the less I think they are Cassowary. The bone is too thick and dense. Anyway I have a veterinarian friend who said she'll look at it and let me know what she thinks. Don't worry Jim, ex-wives aren't allowed to use them!! In some Sepik communities if a married man broke taboo (primarily cheating on his wife) his wife could stab him in the heart while he slept. Divorce Court... Sepik style. The daggers used to do this were usually made from the femur of a deceased male relative. I wish I could cite this better but I'm in the middle of a move and all my books are boxed up. I found some ancient notes I made on a great article in the Metropolitan Museum Journal #24, pages 305-325, Mother Cassowary's Bones: Daggers of East Sepik Provence, Papua New Guinea. It has been five or six years since I've read the article but according to my cryptic and illegible notes it discusses, daggers, made of both cassowary and human bone, Sepik creation myth and the practice of Husband Killing. The journal is now licensed to JSTOR so I can't access it but maybe someone out there can help us out.