Sulawesi Armor

[David]

Originally Posted by asomotif

As for your example. the holes in the bone scales show no wear at all and to me they look like machine drilled.
The hennep wire use to fix them would probably not hold long when this is worn. I don't think this was made to be actually worn in a tribal context.

I would imagine that your examples from the museum are from a different island or culture since the materials and construction are somewhat different. Does the Leiden Collection get more specific about their origin?
I think you are no doubt correct that the holes where machine drilled. I would imagine that all of these (my examples) are post WWII. But if these were not made for a tribal context, then for what? This vest weighs a ton as i am sure the other Toraja bone examples do. Seems unlikely to be something the average tourist would want to add to their luggage weight. Since i am able to find numerous examples of this particular style of Toraja vest, what market were they aimed at?