page_title: Bone
section_title: Society and culture
hierarchical_section_title: Bone / Society and culture
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Rinderknochen auf einer Farm in Namibia English: Bones of cattle on a farm in Namibia
context_page_description: A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the vertebrate skeleton in animals. Bones protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, and enable mobility. Bones come in a variety of shapes and sizes and have a complex internal and external structure. They are lightweight yet strong and hard, and serve multiple functions.
  Bone tissue is a hard tissue, a type of dense connective tissue. It has a honeycomb-like matrix internally, which helps to give the bone rigidity. Bone tissue is made up of different types of bone cells. Osteoblasts and osteocytes are involved in the formation and mineralization of bone; osteoclasts are involved in the resorption of bone tissue. Modified osteoblasts become the lining cells that form a protective layer on the bone surface. The mineralised matrix of bone tissue has an organic component of mainly collagen called ossein and an inorganic component of bone mineral made up of various salts. Bone tissue is a mineralized tissue of two types, cortical bone and cancellous bone.
context_section_description: Bones from slaughtered animals have a number of uses. In prehistoric times, they have been used for making bone tools. They have further been used in bone carving, already important in prehistoric art, and also in modern time as crafting materials for buttons, beads, handles, bobbins, calculation aids, head nuts, dice, poker chips, pick-up sticks, ornaments, etc. A special genre is scrimshaw.
  Bone glue can be made by prolonged boiling of ground or cracked bones, followed by filtering and evaporation to thicken the resulting fluid. Historically once important, bone glue and other animal glues today have only a few specialized uses, such as in antiques restoration. Essentially the same process, with further refinement, thickening and drying, is used to make gelatin.
  Broth is made by simmering several ingredients for a long time, traditionally including bones.
  Bone char, a porous, black, granular material primarily used for filtration and also as a black pigment, is produced by charring mammal bones.
  Oracle bone script was a writing system used in Ancient China based on inscriptions in bones. Its name originates from oracle bones, which were mainly ox clavicle. The Ancient Chinese (mainly in the Shang Dynasty), would write their questions on the Oracle Bone, and burn the bone, and where the bone cracked would be the answer for the questions. 
  To point the bone at someone is considered bad luck in some cultures, such as Australian aborigines, such as by the Kurdaitcha.
  The wishbones of fowl have been used for divination, and are still customarily used in a tradition to determine which one of two people pulling on either prong of the bone may make a wish.
  Various cultures throughout history have adopted the custom of shaping an infant's head by the practice of artificial cranial deformation.  A widely practised
  custom in China was that of foot binding to limit the normal growth of the foot.
caption: Bones of slaughtered cattle on a farm in Namibia
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