Symbols of rank, leadership, and power in traditional cultures

Abstract

Headmen, chiefs, kings, and emperors, the titled leaders of numerous traditional cultures in the Pacific Islands, sub-Saharan Africa and lowland South America, wear necklaces of large canines from the most powerful and ferocious animals in their respective environments. These formal badges of office symbolize their power, leadership, rank and authority in society. This generalized theme is predicated on the thesis that a leader's power is equivalent to that of the animal from which the teeth were extracted; that is, cultural man has borrowed a model from nature on which to base his power. The fact that humankind uses this same conceptual model in numerous places around the world indicates that the human mind functions in much the same way everywhere. Regarding the method used in this work, in each example presented, the presence of a visual image is considered fundamental to the overall process of gathering documentary evidence in support of this thesis. In each instance too, published data are used to confirm the title, culture, place, and, where possible, the name of the individual wearning the tooth necklace, and the circumstances under which it was worn. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.