Download Reference Resources for Ritual Tattooing and Scarification

RESOURCES FOR RITUAL TATTOOING AND SCARIFICATION 1
Reference Resources for Ritual Tattooing and Scarification
Elizabeth Miraglia
GSLIS 717-Humanities Resources and Digital Humanities
Professor Brody
12/22/14
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Abstract: This essay introduces several resources for those interested in ritual tattooing and
scarification. The sources provided cover a wide variety of geographical and religious traditions
and provide some introduction to the topic so as to focus the research areas in which these
resources may be helpful. It is focused on digital resources including citation and abstract
databases, online encyclopedias and resources available over the free web. The strengths and
limitations of each resource will be discussed, with the understanding that each of them is
ultimately considered worth consulting, just with varying degrees of ease-of-use and content
scope.
Key words: tattooing, scarification, digital resources, bibliographic essay
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Reference Resources for Ritual Tattooing and Scarification
Tattooing and scarification are among some of the oldest ritual traditions in human
history. They can be indications of the transition to adulthood, commemorations of personal or
historical events, markers of lineage, or even part of a transcendental practice. Every
geographical region has some history of marking skin, many with practices that go back
millennia. However, finding resources to conduct extensive research on these practices can be
difficult. This essay is an attempt to outline a number of digital resources available on this topic,
to highlight their strengths and weaknesses, and to make scholars more aware of the types of
resources that are available to them. It is important to define terms in any type of scholarly
endeavor, so it is important to explain what is meant by “ritual tattooing and scarification” and
the scopes of the various resources that will be presented. For the purposes of this essay
“tattooing” will refer to the permanent placement of ink and other pigment beneath the surface of
the skin. “Scarification” and “scarring” will refer to the intentional use of any instrument to cut
permanent marks into skin. Lastly, the term “ritual” here is meant to indicate any process with
some underlying meaning for those who perform it. This meaning is generally understood to be
culturally, spiritually, or religiously significant, although these terms may present more problems
than they solve. Ritual behavior can “establish[…] individual or social identity” (Boudewijnse,
2014), can act as “the means by which culture is passed from one generation to the next,”
(Boudewijnse, 2014), etc. For this essay “ritual” is intentionally left open, so that the scope of
the resources presented can remain as varied as possible.
There are any number of cultures in which some type of ritual tattooing and scarification
occur. In Thailand, people receive Sak Yant tattoos imbued with magic at Buddhist temples
(May, 2014, p 4). The scarification rituals of parts of Africa are relatively well known. It is
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important to note that while many of the rituals that produce these types of body markings may
appear to have some religious significance; researchers will have to explore fields outside of
religious studies to find information about non-Judeo-Christian religions. Often the traditions of
cultures that are either older or assumed to be more “primitive” than those of the Western JudeoChristian world are located elsewhere in the academic scheme. Researchers must always be
aware that the information they need might be found in anthropology, global/cultural studies or
other related fields.
This paper will introduce and describe a number of digital resources available for
research on this topic. The resources will be sorted by type, including encyclopedias, sites
available via the free web, and citation/abstract databases. This paper is focused on digital
reference resources, that is, sources “designed by the arrangement and treatment of its subject
matter to be consulted for definite items of information rather than to be read consecutively”
(Bopp & Smith, 1995, p 293). There is some flexibility in this definition that is important for
determining whether some digital resources fall within the scope of “reference.” The visual
resources provided in this essay are largely meant to be used in pieces, and are often
compilations of pieces and images from other places. This, combined with the visual nature of
tattooing and scarification, arguably supports their inclusion as reference material. In addition, a
significant amount of time will also be spent discussing free websites, since they are vital to
research in this area, often comprising some of the only available digital information. Attention
will be given to the presence or absence of features such as controlled vocabulary and
limiters/facets, along with the relevance of the content in order to evaluate and compare these
resources. The paper will conclude with an overview of the types of resources available and a
discussion of tips for conducting research in this area.
RESOURCES FOR RITUAL TATTOOING AND SCARIFICATION 5
Online encyclopedias and dictionaries
There are some strong encyclopedias on religion and anthropology, some of which have
useful entries on either tattooing or scarification. The most useful resources available online are:
Religion Past & Present, The Brill Dictionary of Religion, Encyclopedia Judaica, The Oxford
Companion to the Body, The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, and The International
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. Religion Past & Present has a wonderful entry titled
“[t]attoos,” (Braünlein, 2011) providing a brief history of the term, its various purposes across
cultures and some history of the practice across the world. As a rule, Religion Past & Present
provides bibliographies at the end of each entry, but since the work is a translation of a German
original, the sources are largely in German. This is not a huge disadvantage but is something
researchers should be aware of as a limitation. By comparison, The Brill Dictionary of Religion
has a similarly useful entry titled “[t]attoo” (Drexler, 2006) that includes an introduction to the
tradition of tattooing in what Drexler calls “tribal religions” and “book religions.” This work also
includes a useful bibliography with English sources, most of which are print resources. The
most detailed entries on the subject of tattooing and scarring are provided by The Oxford
Companion to the Body. Caplan’s entry titled “tattooing” and covers a brief history of ritual
tattooing across the globe, the emergence of tattoos among sailors and a small section on medical
approaches (Caplan, 2003). James Bradley has an entry, “body mutilation and markings,” that
also covers ritual and anthropological aspects, as well as the difficulties of defining these terms
(Bradley, 2003). Other entries on scars, stigmata and body decoration are equally useful. The
resource is part of the larger Oxford reference collection and so searches within a single work
such as this rely on a relatively simple search box, however, terms are well cross-referenced with
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other entries and so a search for “tattooing” provides suggestions for the other entries mentioned
above.
For anyone interested in specific Judeo-Christian perspectives there are three resources
worth noting. Encyclopedia Judaica provides an entry, “[t]attoo,” (“Tattoo,” 2007) that
discusses tattooing in the contexts of both the ancient Near East in general and of the specific
Levitical prohibition against it. The entry cites various Mishnah related to the prohibition that
are useful for anyone looking to do further research in that area. Additionally, International
Encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages has an entry for “tattooing” (Engelhardt, 1999) and its
history among Christians but all of the articles and accompanying bibliographies are in German.
It is still a highly useful resource for anyone with German competency, which is often the case
with researchers in religion and anthropology. Lastly, The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
provides two short, but important, entries on saints who had their foreheads tattooed, complete
with bibliographies for further reading (Kazhdan, 2005).
Citation and Abstract Indices
After using introductory sources such as encyclopedias and dictionaries to get an
overview of a topic, citation and abstract indices are often the next step for more serious
research. There are a number of excellent indices for tattooing and scarification that will be
outlined here. Anthropological Index Online (AIO) offers an advanced search that will return
various levels of detail, allows the user to specify document type (articles, films, or both), and
offers as many or as few search fields as the user desires. The index does run on a controlled
vocabulary, but this is not clear until a user begins to enter search terms (a separate thesaurus is
not visible on the site), at which point they will be prompted with a list to choose from. The
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index provides dozens of useful citations for both “tattooing” and “scarification” (Royal
Anthropological Institute, 2014). Index Religiosus covers theology, church history and religious
studies, providing citations and “e-link” connections to relevant journal articles (Brepols
Publishers, 2014). Like AIO, the search boxes will provide controlled terms once a user begins
typing. Unlike AIO, the various indices are visible to users. The index does not provide large
number of sources, but the ones it does retrieve are valuable for anyone doing research on
ancient Christian tattoos. Another great resource for journal articles is International
Bibliography of Periodical Literature (IBZ). As with AIO, users can add as many search terms
as they like to different rows and with different combinations of boolean operators and field
limiters, both before and after an initial search (de Gruyter, 2014). Here again, “tattoo” is a valid
subject heading and a number of useful citations are provided. IBZ is also beginning to offer fulltext articles in its search results but most results are still citation only. Finally, Arts &
Humanities Citation index and Book Citation index are both hosted by the Web of Science
platform and therefore have essentially the same search features, namely a buildable search that
is reliant on keywords at the outset (Thomson Reuters, 2014). The search is fairly forgiving, and
once initial results are displayed it can be faceted down. A search for “tattoos” yielded 256
results, at which point users are able to choose relevant fields of study such as religion and
anthropology and are also able to limit their search by document type.
Sites on the free web
The online resources above are largely provided by libraries and can generally be
assumed to be reliable and relatively stable. This is not the case with sites available over the free
web, which are subject to change at any time and live in an environment fraught with
misinformation. However, there are some useful resources for ritual tattooing and scarification.
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These are especially helpful for anyone looking for recent research, alternative perspectives, or
even just images, since many of the more traditional reference sources do not have them. For a
topic as visual as body modification, reference material in the form of images is vital. None of
the sites discussed below are necessarily intended to be read “in order” and the museum sites are
often guides to previous exhibits, collections, or other materials housed by the institution. These
sites can range anywhere from those hosted by museums to those run by individuals. For
information on Sak Yant, the sacred tattoos of Thailand, standard digital reference materials are
not enough. Ajarn Spencer Littlewood’s “Sak Yant Thai Temple Tattoos” (Littlewood, 2014)
provides ample information about the process of getting a Sak Yant tattoo, the temples that
provide them, images and descriptions of the designs that are used, etc. Littlewood is a practicing
“ajarn” or teacher in a Buddhist community in Thailand, making him a reasonable source of
information the subject.
Scarification is another area in which print descriptions are not adequate, even at the
initial research stages. Gallery Ezkwantu has a page specifically devoted to scarification. It is
one of the most comprehensive and detailed image galleries available on the subject (Gallery
Ezakwantu, 2014). The site is run by a collaborative partnership between merchants that
specialize in selling artifacts to museums and so many of the other objects on the site are actually
available for purchase. However, the site contains a number of image galleries and small
articles. There are details provided with the images wherever possible, but even as a set of
images, it functions as a reference resource in that the collection of images is not necessarily
meant to be viewed in order, they provide information for anyone looking to start research in this
area by clarifying what is meant by scarification and what the results of the process are.
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Another useful collection of images, along with slightly longer essays can be found at the
site for “Bodies of cultures,” an exhibit hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology. The site, developed by Liz Sands, is a collection of images and
essays surrounding body modification around the world, including tattooing, piercing, scarring
and painting (Sands, n.d.). There are links to galleries in the University of Pennsylvania museum
along with links to four essays, each of which also include specific items from the museum
collections. The site is most useful for its subject overview and its image galleries. The
University of Pennsylvania has an extensive catalog and this site pulls out the most relevant
items for those interested in ritual tattooing and other types of body modification.
Similarly, the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History
maintains an online catalog of items used in an exhibit titled “Body Art: Marks of Identity” that
ran from 1999 to 2000 (American Museum of Natural History, n.d.). The site provides images of
museum items with information about the date, country of origin, material and dimensions where
possible. It can be sorted by object type or catalog number. While this site does not provide
essays or other bibliographic information, it does serve as an important reference resource for
anyone looking for visual examples of the types of tools that are used in ritual tattooing and
scarification. Again, the items are not meant to be viewed in any particular order and can be
consulted for “definite items of information” as outlined by Bopp and Smith (1995, p 293).
Lastly, Lars Krutak hosts his own website dedicated to tattoos and body art in an
anthropological context (Krutak, n.d.). Krutak has a doctorate from Arizona State and has spent
years researching tattoos and body modification in different cultural contexts. The site is largely
a collection of his own articles and books, but since he is so prolifically published in this area
and since there are so few specialized bibliographies on this subject, his work is definitely
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relevant. The site serves as a starting point for anyone looking for a comprehensive bibliography
dedicated to tattooing, even if it is all the work of one author. A researcher could take any of
those works and use citations within them to discover new sources, thus building a wider
collection.
Conclusion
The notion of what is or is not a traditional reference resource is changing. Abstracting
and indexing services like IBZ, noted above, are beginning to add not only links to full text
articles, but embedding the articles themselves within the search results themselves. Works like
the Brill Dictionary of Religion are often part of a suite of resources hosted by a common
publisher and usually cross-searchable. While this saves researchers time, it can also limit the
capabilities of the search features. If different resources do not operate with the same controlled
vocabularies, then the use of controlled vocabularies drops off, deepening a reliance on
keywords. As noted above, some of the keyword search features are quite strong, and suffice in
getting the user close enough to what they need, especially in dictionaries and encyclopedias.
However, controlled vocabularies are still prominent in the citation and abstract databases, which
helps ensure the relevancy of results once a researcher has found the correct term. So long as the
thesaurus or subject index is made visible, this is still one of the most accurate search methods
available.
This is true of ritual tattooing and scarification, which can be difficult areas in which to
conduct research. Many of the most useful reference sources are found in different research
areas, including anthropology and religious studies. Research on tattoos from a specific region,
tradition, or time period can be even more difficult and so this essay has attempted to outline
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several sources that might be useful in conducting initial research on this subject. While
encyclopedias and dictionaries are still recommended as a starting point for users with little
familiarity or those looking for short bibliographies to work from, the citation and abstract
indices outlined here are more useful for the next stages of research. In addition, given the lack
of extensive research in this area and the visual nature of the topic, several image galleries and
sites available over the free web have been included to supplement the more traditional
resources.
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References
American Natural History Museum. (n.d.). Body art : marks of identity. Retrieved from
http://anthro.amnh.org/anthropology/databases/common/proj_catno.cfm?proj_id=44
Berenbaum, M., & Skolnik, F. (Eds.). (2007). Tattoo.In Encyclopedia Judaica. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2587519627&v=2.1&u=columbiau&it
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Bopp, R. E., & Smith, L. C. (Eds.) (1995). Reference and information services : an introduction.
Englewood, CO : Libraries Unlimited.
Boudewijnse, B. (2014). Ritual. In The Brill dictionary of religion. Retrieved from
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-dictionary-of-religion/ritualCOM_00395
Bradley, J. (2003). Body mutilation and markings. In The Oxford companion to the body. doi:
10.1093/acref/9780198524038.001.0001
Braünlein, P. (2011). Tattoos. In Religion past & present. Retrieved from
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Brepols Publishers. (2014). Index religiousus. Retrieved from
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Caplan, J. (2003). Tattooing. In The Oxford companion to the body. doi:
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Engelhardt, D. V. (1999). Tätoweirung. In Lexikon des Mittelalters Online. Retrieved from
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Gallery Ezakwantu. (2014). African body scarification. Retrieved from
http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%20Scarification.htm.
Kazhdan, A. P. (Ed.). (2005). The Oxford dictionary of Byzantium. Retrieved from
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Krutak, L. (n.d.) Lars Krutak : tattoo anthropologist. Retrieved from http://larskrutak.com/
Littlewood, S. (2014). Sak Yant Thai temple tattoos. Retrieved from: http://sak-yant.com/
May, A. M. (2014). Sak yant: The transition from Indic yantras to Thai "magical" Buddhist
tattoos. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text. (1613239810)
RESOURCES FOR RITUAL TATTOOING AND SCARIFICATION 13
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Sands, L. (n.d.). Bodies of cultures. Retrieved from
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