Page 49 - Shark

Fishing and worship
Early people often risked their lives trying to catch
sharks with primitive harpoons from small boats.
Such heroic deeds often became a test of manhood. Long spear for catching sharks, from the Nicobar Islands, India
In some South Pacific islands, boys would go out
in canoes to catch sharks
for the island kings. They
used rattles (right) to make
noises in the water to attract
sharks to their canoes. Then Rattle
the sharks would be lured into a made of
noose and killed with a club. The coconut shells,
Hawaiian islanders fished for sharks for attracting sharks,
and used both nooses and lines with
Shark- near Samoa in the
tooth hooks (below). They also believed that South Pacific
necklace their dead relatives came back to life
from New in the form of animals, such as sharks.
Zealand These shark spirits would protect
them while fishing. On other Pacific
islands, sharks were thought of as Small harpoon
gods and were never eaten. for catching sharks,
Gambia, West Africa
Sea spirit, with a
Two hooks sharklike head,
for catching from the
sharks—one from Hawaii Solomon
(right) is made of ivory, while the other Islands in the
(left) is carved in wood, from the Cook Islands southwest
in the southwest Pacific Pacific
Solomon Islanders
believed a shark-
shaped charm
would keep
large sharks Early 20th-
out of their century rattle,
fishing nets for attracting
(below) sharks, from
Papua New
Guinea, an
island to the
Turn upside north of
down to find a dolphin Australia
bark painting
Australian Aboriginals
painted designs on pieces of
bark cut from trees. In their
paintings, they often reveal
what is inside an animal.
In this 20th-century bark
painting (left), the painter
shows the shark’s liver,
which has two large lobes.

Shark tooth
Shark tooth
shark weapons
Sharp shark teeth were used by people
from the Pacific islands as weapons for
cutting and slashing their opponents. They
made knuckle dusters and gloves (right) as well
as swords, using rows of shark teeth as a cutting
edge, instead of metal. Shark skin was used in other
parts of the world, such as Africa and the
Middle East, to make scabbards Early
for protecting metal Hawaiians A warrior from Kiribati
swords (below). packed a would put his fingers into the loops of this
punch with this glove, to cover his forearm with rows of teeth
shark-tooth knuckle duster

Sword used by Gold-
the Ashanti tribe plated
from Ghana in West Africa Shark-skin-covered sheath, or scabbard handle

47