EL TUMI

Tumi

In frigid dawn first light rays cresting the Cordillera Oriental the valley below was a set stage of warriors converging, clubs and slings ready, a mighty roar, and the stones hailed down upon the opposing Incas while their chief directed his raid from the left flank, spears lashed out and death screams curdled the air, the blows came between the clashing armies with skull crushing impacts. They bludgeoned one another until one side weakened, some fleeing the carnage, others succumbing to battle fatigue surrendered in hopes of mercy only to find none, and then it was over, the sun god had moved towards midday as they retrieved their wounded, many senseless with head wounds bulging, they were examined and those with appearance of a slim chance of survival were laid flat upon the earth as their comrades held their arms and legs, the shamans went down the line wielding the metallic Tumi, its sharp blade chiselling through bone to open a disc-shaped hole in the injured men’s heads, a process called trepanation, a bloody procedure in the desperate attempt to relieve the swelling from blunt trauma injured brains. Most did not make it. A lucky few would survive this moment of terror under the blade of the Tumi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Most representations of the Tumi today in the Peruvian souvenir markets and marketing uses follow the more ornate ceremonial golden varieties found in burial tombs. Of course, gold is a malleable metal, and would not make a useful thin blade with which to shear open people’s braincases. These elaborate Tumi’s are also characterized by an Inca figurine on the handle, which would be an awkward shape to manipulate during a surgical procedure. The more commonplace Tumi’s are made of bronze, simple narrow handle leading down to a broad curved cutting blade. In either case, the Tumi form has been used as icon or company logos for pharmacies and medical schools where in Peru it is recognized as an emblem of healthcare. Although we suspect that the application of this handy cutting blade was not only for benign purposes. For example, such an instrument would be useful in the taking of trophy heads, a practice found in many pre-Inca Peruvian tribes, and particularly in the Nazca and Moche cultures. Furthermore, the suggestion of the Tumi being a form of high medicine while treating what amounts to Stone Age types of injuries is similar as if the Diabetes Association used for their emblem a blood sucking leach. The Tumi treatment was a crude desperate attempt to save lives that otherwise were certain to fail. Its success rate has never been scientifically documented, and thus its reputation is probably overrepresented in Peruvian cultural explanations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         When one see the displayed cranium in the Peru museums showing the chipped out circular hole marking the use of the Tumi on the patient, in some cases new bone had grown to partially heal the intrusion, attesting that some lucky victims made it through this grisly exercise, the thought of advanced medicine does not come to mind. But more than anything, when looking at the Tumi can you image feeling and hearing the loud tapping sound as they struck this instrument against your skull?! Tap! Tap! Tap! Man, that is just gnarly!

 

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