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Description: | A typical pointing bone, long and narrow and with both ends pointed. At one end is a lump of red resin and the bone is marked with groups of incised notches, ten on one side and thirteen on the other, which have been reddened. Used for pointing at enemies in other totem groups, 'notches show number of deaths bone has accomplished by pointing.'
"The Aboriginal people of Australia had a totemic system of social organisation. Although they belonged to tribal groups they also belonged to totemic groups. These originated from beliefs about a group of original beings, 'the Dreamtime Heroes', who possessed both human and animal characteristics. A human group and an animal group each traced its descent from one of them. So the totemic group had a relationship with the animal group, and each group had totemic rituals, enacted on a regular basis, to ensure the survival of both. Usually men belonged to these groups. This is a pointing bone, a phallic emblem of an ancestral totem, the dingo, and belonging to that totem group. It was used to point magic at other totem groups, who returned the evil magic with their own, similar, totem phallic emblems. The pointing was intended to bring about the death of the person pointed at. The bone is typical of a pointing bone, being long and narrow and with both ends pointed. At one end is a lump of red resin and the bone is marked with groups of incised notches, ten on one side and thirteen on the other, which have been reddened. They denote the people who have died through the action of this pointing bone. The action of pointing was feared and the collector of this bone notes that she was often presented with them because the owners were afraid of possessing them when their totem group had dwindled to only two or three people. This bone comes from Loond-dhana Water, South Australia. It was collected by Miss Daisy M. Bates, who was a well-known figure in South Australia, interested in Aboriginal culture and a collector of Aboriginal material from the 1930's to the 1970's."
Author: Feilden,Rosemary Date: 2000 Purpose: WS2001
Field collector: Bates, Miss Daisy | License: | http://www.abdn.ac.uk/historic/Copyright_terms_conditions.shtml | Publisher: | ABDUA University of Aberdeen, Marischal Museum | Rights holder: | 47718 | Temporal: | 1850-1922 | Source: | University of Aberdeen | Creator: | Aboriginal Australian | Identifier: | http://calms.abdn.ac.uk/Geology/dserve.e... | Go to resource |
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