Marked human bones from a prehistoric Tarasco Indian burial place in the state of Michoacan, Mexico / by Carl Lumholtz and Aleš Hrdlička.

  • Carl Sofus Lumholtz
Date:
1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Marked human bones from a prehistoric Tarasco Indian burial place in the state of Michoacan, Mexico / by Carl Lumholtz and Aleš Hrdlička. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bones, scalps of fallen enemies, etc., have a deeper significance to the Indian than that of mere trophies. Nor should the fact that human bones are found with one end open, the marrow having been taken out, or the bones, maybe, even split, always be interpreted as indicative of cannibalism, par¬ ticularly when only certain of the bones found in an ossuary are thus treated, and when some of them, as is sometimes the case, give evidence besides of death by disease. There are two ways open for an explanation of the marking and cutting of these human bones. The first is, that it may have been an operation undertaken for the purpose of despatching the dead. Among the present tribes of Mexico known to me personally, there is a universal belief that the dead are troublesome to the survivors for at least one year ; and certain ceremonies and feasts in regard to them have to be observed in order to prevent them from doing harm, and to drive them away. The Tarahumares never neglect, when making beer, to put into the large jars in which the beer is kept a certain strong-smelling plant, called in Spanish estafiata, in order to keep the dead from spoiling the beer by urinating in it. The Cora Indians and others always take care, at their feasts for making rain, to have a special altar with food for the dead on it, since they would do harm if this were omitted. It is customary among most of the tribes in northern Mexico for a person, when drinking native brandy, to sacrifice a little to the dead, before drinking, by dipping the forefinger into it and throw¬ ing a few drops over his shoulder. Another consideration here is the relation which, as the Indians hold, exists between disease and pain and the bones of the de¬ ceased person. Their ideas on this point can be no better ex¬ pressed than in Cushing’s ‘ A Case of Primitive Surgery ’ (‘ Sci¬ ence,’ New York, Vol. V, No. 130) : “Such a sore [as the one described in the article], if malignant and deep, causes pain as of the bones. Its seed, then, must be deep-seated, or in the bones themselves : this seed must be removed, else it will grow and cause death.” In a general way, the Indians classify diseases as of two kinds,—those seated in the bones, and those seated in the flesh. There were not many diseases among aboriginal tribes. The most prevalent complaint was probably rheumatism in one
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