Made of barracuda jawbone(*) and wrapped in red-dyed barkcloth, this scarifier was used by mourners to draw blood from themselves in honour of a dead chief. You can see the original here along with a second picture and some curator’s notes.
(*) The source contradicts itself by saying both barracuda and porpoise – googling for images suggests it’s a barracuda, but I could be wrong.
This image is used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license and requires this attribution: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Originally posted to Reddit by me in 2023.
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The conical teeth indicate that’s dolphin… But upon looking at cuda teeth, maybe!
Fun fact, barracudas have two sets of teeth. This is from the inner jaw.
Yep. I lived in the Florida Keys. Itd eerie how they follow your every move when diving with them.
Cool af, and also terrifying
