In New Guinea, human thigh bone daggers were hot property: study
(Artdaily.org)

New Guinea warriors harvested thigh bones from their dead fathers to fashion into ornamental but deadly daggers used to kill and maim enemies, sometimes to eat them. But why use human bone when equally lethal daggers were made from the shin bones of large, flightless birds called cassowaries -- abundant, and easier to catch and kill? Experts have long hesitated between inherent bone ruggedness and symbolism as the reason for the proclivity. On Wednesday, an unusual study concluded that human thigh bone did not make for better dagger material, but was rather a symbol of prestige. This can be deduced from the fact that daggers made from human bone were designed differently to bird ones, said Nathaniel Dominy of Dartmouth College in the United States, who co-authored a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Dominy and a team compared the strength of cassowary shin