Initiation Device Symbolizing Python (Yermerlindi)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 2 May 1949
name: label: Donor Name
content: American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "This specimen is used as a climax in one of the most important initiation ceremonies. Ceremony is called Gunabibi, and the yermerlindi represents the sacred python in their mythology. We saw the natives make this specimen. Two saplings 1.25 in. in diameter were tied together with grass. This is then covered with paper bark, making a flattish cylinder blunt at both ends and expanded to a diameter of about 8 in. in the center. A vein on the inside of the arm below the elbow is then pierced and the human blood is permitted to flow into a cocoanut dish (see cat. #387554). A brush made from paper bark is used to smear this blood over the paper bark shell and tufts of wild cotton spread on, the blood serving as an adhesive. The entire form is thus covered with white cotton. On one side a broad zigzag band of red ocher is then painted on the cotton. Sometimes blood is used to paint this mythical serpent on the cotton. On the top, a bundle of emu feathers (l. 15 in.), fastened by means of wax to a pointed stick, is inserted. This gives the appearance of a cycad bush, but may represent the head of the python. // Loaned to Renwick 11/12/81, Returned 1983."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 28 Feb 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Milingimbi Island (Yurruwi), Arnhem Land / Crocodile Islands, Northern Territory, Australia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 178294
label: USNM Number
content: E387553-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Totemic Emblem
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 186.7 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 21.6 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 13.34 cm