"Strangling Cord"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1858
name: label: Donor Name
content: United States Exploring Expedition
notes: label: Notes
content: FOUND IN THE COLLECTIONS WITHOUT A MUSEUM CATALOGUE NUMBER. GIVEN # ET15295-0 FOR TRACKING PURPOSES. FROM LOGBOOK: "STRANGLING CORD." Formerly on exhibit in NHB Hall 8, case 40. Exhibit label text: "To honor and appease the dead, especially chiefs, and to give them company in the land of the dead, wives and other persons were strangled and placed on the floors of the graves." T15295 appears to be sennit cord plaited from natural brown and black strands. Though no visible numbers have been found on this object, it is possible that T15295 may be Peale # 1653 from the US Exploring Expedition/Wilkes collection? Peale # 1653 is listed in the Peale catalogue as: "Sinnet (a.k.a. sennit) made of cocoa nut husk, dyed black and used for strangulation by the Fijis. Principally in strangling the widows of deceased chiefs." - F. Pickering 2-28-2006
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Jul 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Fiji (not certain), Melanesia (not certain)
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: 66A00050
label: USNM Number
content: ET15295-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Cord