Snake Bone Necklace ( Tsuli )
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Fabricated from the vertebrae of a snake and several conch shells, this necklace is threaded with a vegetable fiber string. The components were cleaned and dried, sometimes also smoked. This kind of adornment is widespread in the mountain provinces of northern Luzon. Most numerous it is among the Kalinga (termed duli) and among the Bontok (termed tsuli). This piece, according to the collector, originates from Sagada, where women wore it as a necklace. There is evidence, however, that such strings were also worn as head adornment. Worn by married women only, they were considered to be exceptionally powerful. Supposed to boost fertility, but also to protect against malevolent spirits, poison, or malicious magic, the necklaces were worn by women always when they were outside the village (Maramba 1998: 50). Wearing such adornments while working in the fields was supposed to protect against strokes of lightning; placed on the abdomen of a parturient, the string was said to safeguard an effortless and secure birth (Rodgers 1985: 303, 335, Fig. 190). (Ursula Brandl-Straka 2009: 42)
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