The boar-tusk ornament

A chief’s four tusks

The Horniman Museum in London holds a boar-tusk ornament from the Mekeo people of Central Province, Papua New Guinea. A. E. Pratt collected it among the Mekeo, and the museum bought it from him in 1905. Its four tusks form two loops, joined by a cane spiral set with seeds and white and blue trade glass beads, and two cuscus tails hang from one loop. The museum dates it to the late 19th century and says such tusk ornaments were important and prestigious: every Mekeo chief inherited two tusk breast ornaments from his father. It adds that the Mekeo told a peace-time chief from a war-time chief, and that war-time chiefs were expected to be fierce and unpredictable.

To verify: A Freiburg city museum record of a Papua New Guinea breast ornament set with boar tusks, said to be worn by men on ceremonial occasions as a sign of rank: its page would not open for us, so it is left out.

The strength of the boar

The Horniman Museum also catalogues a breast ornament from New Guinea as a charm: four boar tusks held symmetrically together with woven plant-fibre binding, with a woven fibre cord. Its record says it was worn to give the strength and bravery of a wild boar, and its label reads: “Boar’s Tusk breast ornament, worn to give the strength and bravery of the wild boar. New Guinea.”

To verify: When and where this charm was made and collected, and which community made it: the record says only “New Guinea”.; A Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) page on a Koiari warrior’s ornament edged with boar tusks, said to be held in the teeth in a fight: the page would not open for us, so it is left out.

How we tell it

These ornaments belong to the peoples of New Guinea who made and wore them, and they are made of real boar tusk. We show the four-tusk form as a drawing only, to tell its story. We do not make it as jewellery, and the page makes no promise to anyone who looks at it.