Pointing the bone is a magic ritual traditionally used by Aboriginal peoples of Australia with the intention of injuring or killing their enemies. In this ritual, a person points or jerks a bone or stick at an enemy and chants a prescribed song. The practitioner stands in a special position and exercises extreme care while performing the ritual. Aboriginal people of Australia believed that, if the person should make a mistake, the practitioner and not the intended victim might die.
Many Aboriginal people believed firmly in the magic power of the ritual. The intended victim might even die. Anthropologists theorize that such deaths are actually caused by stress, fear, or the power of suggestion. They consider the ritual to be a form of contagious magic. See Magic (Contagious magic). The power of this magic comes from the belief that certain objects wielded by a skilled practitioner can influence another person, even at great distance.
