stage of manufacture (hunting, fishing & trapping); arrowhead (arrows (weapons: missiles & projectors))

Hadza Arrows

This display of Hazda Arrows in the James Woodburn section of the Collectors' Perspective case in the Horniman World Gallery shows the different stages of manufacturing the arrows of the Hadza community as well as a selection of items that are in the Horniman Museum’s collection of Hadza arrows, acquired in the field by James Woodburn. Several arrows are carried by hunters at one time and they can fall into three main categories: wooden points hik’o, metal heads kasama and poisoned arrows ‘anako or ‘ana. The metal-headed arrows were those least used by the hunters. Arrows with wooden points were used for hunting birds or other very small game, including small antelopes. The wood used was either the same as for the bow, the mutateko tree, or the kongoroko tree, and, like the bow, the arrow was straightened by heating the wood over hot ashes and bending it, using the mouth as a clamp. Some arrows carry evidence of teeth marks. Incisions could be added for decoration but carried no other significance.

To begin with, the arrows were very long but gradually, as they broke, were fixed and amended, they got shorter. When the arrow became too short to use, it was passed on to a child or discarded. Guinea fowl wing feathers were most commonly used for the fletching on wooden pointed arrows. Vulture wing feathers were used for metal-headed and poisoned arrows. The fletching and the barbs were attached to the arrows by using nuchal ligaments of an impala, which tends to be lighter than that used for the bow-strings, and compressing the ligament with the thumbnail whilst rolling the shaft on the thigh. The barbs served to embed the arrow in the animal once it was shot. The animal was not killed outright, but the weight of the arrow prevented a bird from flying off or could impede a small animal from escaping by getting caught in vegetation. Metal-headed arrows were used for shooting very small species of antelope. The metal itself is made of iron that was usually forged and traded with the neighbouring Isanzu people. The most important type of arrow used by the Hadza were the poisoned arrows, used for hunting large game. They have two types of arrowheads: the ‘female’ double-barbed and the ‘male’ single-barbed/ Unlike the former two types of arrows, the fletching was attached to the poisoned arrow by using glue (from a type of bulb) and threaded on using the nuchal ligament of an impala and a detachable fore-shaft that hit the animal on impact but then as the animal ran away, the shaft would fall to the ground. The Hadza hunter could generally tell which part of the animal had been hit by examining the blood on this fore-shaft, whether it left traces of stomach, spittle or excrement for example. This would help to determine how long it would take before the animal collapsed and also depended on how effective the poison had been. The black, sticky poison was carefully applied to the head and to the fore-shaft of the arrow. The poison itself was sourced by the Hadza from two types: from the seeds of a pod or the sap from a different tree, to which there was no known antidote. The Hadza normally ate all the meat of the killed animal except for the part surrounding the wound. The poison left a bitter taste which tended to be avoided, although not always, and there was apparently no evidence to suggest that the poison was harmful to them.

source Woodburn1970: 17)

fighting

Collection Information

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