Why were animal teeth and claws worn as amulets?

Sympathetic reasoning: the animal has a quality the wearer wants, and a piece of it carries that quality. A wolf's tooth for ferocity, a bear's claw for strength, a hare's foot for speed. There is a second layer too, since obtaining the piece is itself proof of capability.

Is it legal to buy antique ivory or claw jewellery?

It depends entirely on the species and your country. Ivory, rhino horn, big cat and bear parts and sea turtle shell are covered by international restrictions and by domestic law that varies widely, and antique status is not automatically a defence. Check your jurisdiction before buying.

What is the story behind the rabbit's foot?

It is a British folk luck charm that travelled to North America, where hoodoo tradition attached detailed conditions to it: which foot, taken in a graveyard, at a particular moon. The dyed keyring version sold from the mid twentieth century is a commercial residue of that.

What can I use instead?

Antler, which deer shed annually and which is collected rather than taken. Bone and teeth from farmed animals or documented roadkill, sold by makers who will tell you the source. Cast resin replicas, which several traditions accept without difficulty.

Talismans · Materials

Bone and tooth

Also called: Ivory, claw, horn, hide

A piece of the animal's advantage, worn by the person who wants it.

At a glance

Forms: Teeth, claws, tusks, horn, ivory, worked bone
Logic: Sympathetic; the wearer takes on the animal's quality
Oldest examples: Pierced animal teeth, over 40,000 years old
Common species: Wolf, boar, bear, badger, hare, shark
Now restricted: Ivory, big cat, bear and many others
Modern substitutes: Bone, antler, resin casts

The oldest amulets we have

Pierced animal teeth are among the earliest personal ornaments in the archaeological record, going back more than forty thousand years in European Upper Palaeolithic sites and appearing independently across the world. A tooth with a hole bored in it is one of the first things humans made that was clearly not a tool.

Whether those were amulets in the sense this library uses is unknowable; they may have been ornaments, markers of skill, records of a hunt, or all three at once. What is certain is that the practice never stopped. Wolf teeth in Iron Age graves, boar tusks on Bronze Age helmets, bear claws in Native North American regalia, shark teeth in Pacific work, badger and hare feet in English rural pockets.

The reasoning

It is sympathetic magic in its clearest form. The animal has a quality you want, and the piece of it carries that quality.

A wolf's tooth gives ferocity and endurance. A boar's tusk gives obstinate courage. A bear's claw gives strength. A hare's foot gives speed and, in the English tradition, luck, which is how the rabbit's foot ended up on a keyring. A horse's tooth was carried for teeth. A badger's tooth was carried by gamblers in parts of England, and a mole's foot for cramp.

There is a second logic running alongside: possession as proof. Wearing the claw of a bear says you or your people were in a position to obtain it, and in many societies the amulet is also a credential. That double function makes animal amulets unusually socially visible compared with, say, a written charm folded into a case.

Where it gets uncomfortable

This is the material in the library that most often collides with modern law and modern ethics, and it does so in two distinct ways.

Legally, ivory, rhino horn, big cat teeth and claws, bear parts, sea turtle shell and a long list of other species are covered by international trade restrictions and by domestic law that varies country to country. Antique status is not automatically a defence, and certification requirements differ. Anyone buying old jewellery containing these materials needs to know their own jurisdiction's position before, not after.

Culturally, eagle feathers and certain animal parts in Native North American regalia are protected by specific laws and by community rules about who may possess them. That is a separate question from conservation and it does not go away by buying an antique.

What is straightforwardly available: bone, antler, which is shed annually, and teeth from farmed or roadkill sources sold by makers who document them.

The rabbit's foot

Worth its own paragraph because it is the one everyone has met. The hare or rabbit's foot as a luck charm is documented in British folk practice and travelled to North America, where it acquired an elaborate set of conditions in African American hoodoo tradition: which foot, taken at what phase of the moon, in a graveyard, from a rabbit shot with a silver bullet.

Those stipulations tell you the charm was taken seriously. The mass-produced dyed rabbit's feet sold on keyrings from the mid twentieth century onward are a commercial residue of that, and most were not from rabbits at all in the later decades of the trade.

It is also the charm most likely to make a modern reader uncomfortable, which is a useful reminder that the whole category rests on an animal having died.

How animal materials are used

The traditional handling, and the modern constraints on it.

Pierce or drill the tooth, claw or bone at the root end and string it, which is how the oldest examples were worn.
Mount in metal for durability, which is standard in European and Central Asian work.
Wear it visibly. Unlike written charms, animal amulets are meant to be seen.
Check the species and the law before buying anything old that might be ivory, big cat, bear or turtle.
Prefer antler, which is shed, or documented farmed and roadkill sources, both of which are widely available.
Leave regalia materials alone. Eagle feathers and certain Native North American items are legally and culturally restricted.

Antique dealers do not always know what they are selling, and mislabelled ivory is common. If a piece matters to you, get the material identified before money changes hands.

What bone and tooth belong with

The purposes they served and the questions they raise.

Questions for reflection

Wearing a piece of an animal is both a claim and a credential. Which of those interests you more?
The oldest ornaments we have are pierced teeth. Does that change what you think amulets are for?
A charm that required something to die: does that make it more serious or simply less usable now?

Frequently asked questions

: Sympathetic reasoning: the animal has a quality the wearer wants, and a piece of it carries that quality. A wolf's tooth for ferocity, a bear's claw for strength, a hare's foot for speed. There is a second layer too, since obtaining the piece is itself proof of capability.
: Pierced animal teeth are among the earliest personal ornaments known, over forty thousand years old in European Upper Palaeolithic sites and appearing independently worldwide. They are some of the first objects humans made that were clearly not tools.
: It depends entirely on the species and your country. Ivory, rhino horn, big cat and bear parts and sea turtle shell are covered by international restrictions and by domestic law that varies widely, and antique status is not automatically a defence. Check your jurisdiction before buying.
: It is a British folk luck charm that travelled to North America, where hoodoo tradition attached detailed conditions to it: which foot, taken in a graveyard, at a particular moon. The dyed keyring version sold from the mid twentieth century is a commercial residue of that.
: Antler, which deer shed annually and which is collected rather than taken. Bone and teeth from farmed animals or documented roadkill, sold by makers who will tell you the source. Cast resin replicas, which several traditions accept without difficulty.

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