bonesa

Bonesa is a term used in speculative anthropology and worldbuilding to describe a traditional craft and belief system attributed to an imagined culture, the Karun. The practice centers on bone artifacts—carved objects, musical instruments, and ritual tools believed to embody ancestral presence. Etymology in-world traces bonesa to a root meaning bone in the Karun language and a suffix indicating practice or art.

Practices include careful selection of bone material, typically sourced from naturally shed bones or legally hunted species, followed by carving, engraving, and inlays with pigments and shell. Musical components such as bone flutes and percussion instruments accompany ceremonies where participants recount lineage histories, perform healing rites, and mark rites of passage. The objects created through bonesa are often used in altars and communal spaces, and some pieces are preserved as family or clan heirlooms.

Historically, bonesa rituals are described in in-world accounts as both protective and divisive, helping to reinforce group identity while occasionally triggering disputes over access to material resources. In contemporary scholarship within the fictional setting, bonesa is studied as a form of material culture, cosmology, and social practice. Debates commonly address representation, ethics of animal material use, and the interpretation of ritual meaning. Bonesa thus functions as a focal point for discussions of memory, community cohesion, and the relationship between people and the artifacts they craft.