shark tooth weapon.

[fearn]

Hi Chregu,

These have shown up previously (here and here among other places). I think they're still making these for tourists in Kiribati.

Name: Tetoanea. Te is the definite particle, like "the" in English (calling it "the tetoanea" is a duplication). Tebutje (Stone's name) isn't a word in I-Kiribati. I-Kiribati is similar to Polynesian languages, in that a consonants always followed by a vowel, and they don't have "j". No one's figured out where tebutje came from, to my knowledge.

As Vandoo noted, it's probably from Kiribati (which is an indigenous version of "Gilbert" from the old name, Gilbert Islands. They didn't have a collective name for the archipelago before, and adopted the English name). On the longer weapons (e.g. te unun), they usually brace the teeth with splints along the base, under the wrapping (look here to see what I'm talking about). The wood appears to be coconut, outside possibility of it being pandanus.

I agree with Vandoo on the teeth as well--they look like they're from a requiem shark which includes both bull and reef white tip.

Best,

F
Tetoanea