"
SCARIFICATION.
Dark races, like the Africans and Australians, do not practise
tattooing, because the marks would not show conspicuously on their
black skins. They therefore resort to the process of raising scars by
cutting the skin with flint or a shell and then rubbing in earth, or
the juice of certain plants, etc. The result is a permanent scar, and
these scars are arranged by the different tribes in different
patterns, on divers parts of the body. In Queensland the lines,
according to Lumholtz (177),
"always denote a certain order of rank, and here it depends
upon age. Boys under a certain age are not decorated; but in
time they receive a few cross-stripes upon their chests and
stomachs. The number of stripes is gradually increased, and
when the subjects have grown up, a half-moon-shaped line is
cut around each nipple."
The necessity for such distinctive marks on the body is particularly
great among the Australians, because they are subdivided in the most
complicated ways and have an elaborate code of sexual permissions and
prohibitions. Therefore, as Frazer suggests (38),
"a chief object of these initiation ceremonies was to teach
the youths with whom they might or might not have
connection, and to put them in possession of a visible
language, .
Pages:
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397