From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally elephants') and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine,
one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical
structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is the same, regardless of
the species of origin. The trade in certain teeth and tusks other than
elephant is well established and widespread; therefore, "ivory" can
correctly be used to describe any mammalian teeth or tusks of commercial
interest which are large enough to be carved or scrimshawed.
Ivory has been valued since ancient times in art or manufacturing for making a range of items from ivory carvings to false teeth, piano keys, fans, dominoes and joint tubes. Elephant ivory is the most important source, but ivory from mammoth, walrus, hippopotamus, sperm whale, killer whale, narwhal and warthog are used as well. Elk also have two ivory teeth, which are believed to be the remnants of tusks from their ancestors.
The national and international trade in ivory of threatened species such as African and Asian elephants is illegal. The word ivory ultimately derives from the ancient Egyptian âb, âbu ("elephant"), through the Latin ebor- or ebur.
Uses
A depiction of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus crafted in elephant ivory
An ivory tabernacle featuring the Madonna of Caress, France
Both the Greek and Roman
civilizations practiced ivory carving to make large quantities of high
value works of art, precious religious objects, and decorative boxes for
costly objects. Ivory was often used to form the white of the eyes of
statues.
There is some evidence of either whale or walrus ivory used by the ancient Irish. Solinus,
a Roman writer in the 3rd century claimed that the Celtic peoples in
Ireland would decorate their sword-hilts with the 'teeth of beasts that
swim in the sea'. Adomnan of Iona wrote a story about St Columba
giving a sword decorated with carved ivory as a gift that a penitent
would bring to his master so he could redeem himself from slavery.
The Syrian and North African elephant populations were reduced to extinction, probably due to the demand for ivory in the Classical world.
The Chinese have long valued ivory for both art and utilitarian
objects. Early reference to the Chinese export of ivory is recorded
after the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian
ventured to the west to form alliances to enable the eventual free
movement of Chinese goods to the west; as early as the first century BC,
ivory was moved along the Northern Silk Road for consumption by western nations. Southeast Asian kingdoms included tusks of the Indian elephant in their
annual tribute caravans to China. Chinese craftsmen carved ivory to
make everything from images of deities to the pipe stems and end pieces
of opium pipes.
The Buddhist cultures of Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia,
traditionally harvested ivory from their domesticated elephants. Ivory
was prized for containers due to its ability to keep an airtight seal.
It was also commonly carved into elaborate seals utilized by officials
to "sign" documents and decrees by stamping them with their unique
official seal.
In Southeast Asian countries, where Muslim Malay peoples live, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, ivory was the material of choice for making the handles of kris daggers.
In the Philippines, ivory was also used to craft the faces and hands of Catholic icons and images of saints prevalent in the Santero culture.
Tooth and tusk ivory can be carved into a vast variety of shapes and objects. Examples of modern carved ivory objects are okimono, netsukes, jewelry, flatware handles, furniture inlays, and piano keys. Additionally, warthog tusks, and teeth from sperm whales, orcas and hippos can also be scrimshawed or superficially carved, thus retaining their morphologically recognizable shapes.
Ivory usage in the last thirty years has moved towards mass
production of souvenirs and jewelry. In Japan, the increase in wealth
sparked consumption of solid ivory hanko – name seals – which before this time had been made of wood. These hanko
can be carved out in a matter of seconds using machinery and were
partly responsible for massive African elephant decline in the 1980s,
when the African elephant population went from 1.3 million to around
600,000 in ten years.
Consumption before plastics
An elaborately carved ivory tusk in Sa'dabad Palace, Iran
Prior to the introduction of plastics,
ivory had many ornamental and practical uses, mainly because of the
white color it presents when processed. It was formerly used to make
cutlery handles, billiard balls, piano keys, Scottish bagpipes, buttons and a wide range of ornamental items.
Synthetic substitutes for ivory in the use of most of these items
have been developed since 1800: the billiard industry challenged
inventors to come up with an alternative material that could be manufactured;[16]:17 the piano industry abandoned ivory as a key covering material in the 1970s.
Ivory can be taken from dead animals – however, most ivory came
from elephants that were killed for their tusks. For example, in 1930 to
acquire 40 tons of ivory required the killing of approximately 700
elephants.[17]
Other animals which are now endangered were also preyed upon, for
example, hippos, which have very hard white ivory prized for making
artificial teeth.[18]
In the first half of the 20th century, Kenyan elephant herds were
devastated because of demand for ivory, to be used for piano keys.[19]
During the Art Deco era from 1912 to 1940, dozens (if not hundreds) of European artists used ivory in the production of chryselephantine statues. Two of the most frequent users of ivory in their sculptured artworks were Ferdinand Preiss and Claire Colinet.[20]
Availability
Men with ivory tusks, Dar es Salaam, c. 1900
Owing to the rapid decline in the populations of the animals that
produce it, the importation and sale of ivory in many countries is
banned or severely restricted. In the ten years preceding a decision in
1989 by CITES
to ban international trade in African elephant ivory, the population of
African elephants declined from 1.3 million to around 600,000. It was
found by investigators from the Environmental Investigation Agency
(EIA) that CITES sales of stockpiles from Singapore and Burundi (270
tonnes and 89.5 tonnes respectively) had created a system that increased
the value of ivory on the international market, thus rewarding
international smugglers and giving them the ability to control the trade
and continue smuggling new ivory.[14][15]
Since the ivory ban, some Southern African
countries have claimed their elephant populations are stable or
increasing, and argued that ivory sales would support their conservation
efforts. Other African countries oppose this position, stating that
renewed ivory trading puts their own elephant populations under greater
threat from poachers reacting to demand. CITES allowed the sale of 49 tonnes of ivory from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana in 1997 to Japan.[21][22]
In 2007, under pressure from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, eBay
banned all international sales of elephant-ivory products. The decision
came after several mass slaughters of African elephants, most notably
the 2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter in Chad.
The IFAW found that up to 90% of the elephant-ivory transactions on
eBay violated their own wildlife policies and could potentially be
illegal. In October 2008, eBay expanded the ban, disallowing any sales
of ivory on eBay.
A more recent sale in 2008 of 108 tonnes from the three countries and South Africa took place to Japan and China.[23][24] The inclusion of China as an "approved" importing country created enormous controversy, despite being supported by CITES, the World Wide Fund for Nature and Traffic.[25]
They argued that China had controls in place and the sale might depress
prices. However, the price of ivory in China has skyrocketed.[26]
Some believe this may be due to deliberate price fixing by those who
bought the stockpile, echoing the warnings from the Japan Wildlife
Conservation Society on price-fixing after sales to Japan in 1997,[27] and monopoly given to traders who bought stockpiles from Burundi and Singapore in the 1980s.
A 2019 peer-reviewed study reported that the rate of African
elephant poaching was in decline, with the annual poaching mortality
rate peaking at over 10% in 2011 and falling to below 4% by 2017.[28]
The study found that the "annual poaching rates in 53 sites strongly
correlate with proxies of ivory demand in the main Chinese markets,
whereas between-country and between-site variation is strongly
associated with indicators of corruption and poverty."[28]
Based on these findings, the study authors recommended action to both
reduce demand for ivory in China and other main markets and to decrease
corruption and poverty in Africa.[28]
In 2006, 19 African countries signed the "Accra Declaration"
calling for a total ivory trade ban, and 20 range states attended a
meeting in Kenya calling for a 20-year moratorium in 2007.[29]
Controversy and conservation issues
The use and trade of elephant ivory
have become controversial because they have contributed to seriously
declining elephant populations in many countries. It is estimated that
consumption in Great Britain alone in 1831 amounted to the deaths of
nearly 4,000 elephants. In 1975, the Asian elephant was placed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prevents international trade between member states of species that are threatened by trade. The African elephant
was placed on Appendix I in January 1990. Since then, some southern
African countries have had their populations of elephants "downlisted"
to Appendix II, allowing the domestic trade of non-ivory items; there
have also been two "one off" sales of ivory stockpiles.[14][30][31][32][33]
In June 2015, more than a ton of confiscated ivory was crushed in New York's Times Square by the Wildlife Conservation Society to send a message that the illegal trade
will not be tolerated. The ivory, confiscated in New York and
Philadelphia, was sent up a conveyor belt into a rock crusher. The
Wildlife Conservation Society has pointed out that the global ivory
trade leads to the slaughter of up to 35,000 elephants a year in Africa.
In June 2018, Conservative MEPs’ Deputy Leader Jacqueline Foster MEP
urged the EU to follow the UK's lead and introduce a tougher ivory ban
across Europe.[34]
China was the biggest market for poached ivory but announced they
would phase out the legal domestic manufacture and sale of ivory
products in May 2015. In September of the same year, China and the U.S.
announced they would "enact a nearly complete ban on the import and
export of ivory."[35] The Chinese market has a high degree of influence on the elephant population.[36][37]
Alternative sources
Trade in the ivory from the tusks of dead woolly mammoths frozen in the tundra
has occurred for 300 years and continues to be legal. Mammoth ivory is
used today to make handcrafted knives and similar implements. Mammoth
ivory is rare and costly because mammoths have been extinct for
millennia, and scientists are hesitant to sell museum-worthy specimens
in pieces.[38] Some estimates suggest that 10 million mammoths are still buried in Siberia.[39]
A species of hard nut is gaining popularity as a replacement for
ivory, although its size limits its usability. It is sometimes called vegetable ivory, or tagua, and is the seed endosperm of the ivory nut palm commonly found in coastal rainforests of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.[40]
Fossil walrus ivory from animals that died before 1972 is legal to buy and sell or possess in the United States, unlike many other types of ivory.[41]
