Photograph of Jaw-bone of man overgrown by wood - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 37758 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 39.01 RUTACEAE Citrus sp | Entry Book Number | ||
| Artefact Name | Photograph of Jaw-bone of man overgrown by wood | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Fiji | TDWG Region | Fiji | ||
| Parts Held | Photograph of Jaw-bone of man overgrown by wood | Geography Description | Fiji | ||
| Uses | Photograph of Jaw-bone of man overgrown by woodUse: User: Not defined | TDWG use | |||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | British Dental Association | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | 00/00/1932 | Donor Notes | |||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Photograph.x0Dx0ATaken from British Dental Association website:x0Dx0Ahttp://www.bda-dentistry.org.uk/museum/oral.cfm?ContentID=482x0Dx0AThe Fijian story - a dental detective at work.x0Dx0AThis unusual object is something of a mystery. It comes from an era when museum col, lecting of ethnography, or first nations heritage, was largely devoid of political or cultural considerations, unlike today. It is also a compelling document of a nation's past customs, and of course it has an element of dental interest.x0Dx0Ax0Dx0ALilian Lindsay, , the BDA's first librarian (and Britain's first qualified woman dentist) was given this item for the fledgling museum collection in the early 1920's. Determined to find out more about it's origins, she tirelessly sought out various specialist opinions fr, om some of England's most prestigious institutions.x0Dx0Ax0Dx0ASome of England's prominent anthropologists, botanists, scientists and curators pondered over the mysteries of this object. The indefatigable Mrs Lindsay even wrote to Sir James Frazer, renowned socia, l anthropologist and author of the pioneering text The Golden Bough (1890) - without success. x0Dx0Ax0Dx0AOral surgeon Edmund Rhodes 'z-rayed' the object in 1928 and discovered the front teeth had been knocked out before the tree grew around the jaw. This indicat, ed that the victim might have met with a violent end. Rhodes wondered 'how such a small tree could have exerted enough pressure to break the bone...a curious and interesting specimen'. Rhodes also believed that the tree had been split apart, and had subse, quently grown around the jaw over time.x0Dx0Ax0Dx0AIn the end it was a botanist who came up with the most likely theory. William Wallimore was the Keeper of the Museums at Kew. Ironically, he developed his theory from famous contemporaries of Sir James Frazer; Ho, rne (1881) and Seemann (1862).x0Dx0Ax0Dx0AIn his travels across Fiji, John Horne described 'finding caves, defended by lemon trees, into which the inhabitants had implanted human bones...exposing to view to show all what might be result of a quarrel with them'. T, he traveller Berthold Seeman noted similar rituals when visiting Fiji in 1862.x0Dx0Ax0Dx0AWallimore correctly identified the tree as a Shaddock - or grapefruit tree (Citrus decumana), and noted signs of the tree being split apart evident in the radiograph - in ke, eping with Horne's and Seeman's observations. | ||||