{"id":"ALPHER1991-001","label":"Yir-Yoront yoq-par-muw initiation board","people_or_site":"Yir-Yoront","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Lower Mitchell River / Kowanyama (Mitchell River Mission), Cape York Peninsula","macroregion":"Australia","local_name":"yoq-par-muw","source_term":"bullroarer, sacred board","source_language":"Yir-Yoront / English","object_description":"Shaped like a small smoothing-board (thopm), then tied with a length of string before being swung.","function_summary":"Used in the two compulsory male initiations; made for temporary use.","attestation_type":"lexical_attestation","source_key":"alpher_1991_yiryoront_yoqparmuw","source_type":"academic_language_description","source_url":"https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1552637M/Yir-Yoront_lexicon","page_or_plate":"printed p. 818; Sharp1934 pp.28–29, Plate II A","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Kowanyama (Mitchell River Mission) township anchor on the lower Mitchell River in Yir-Yoront country, Cape York Peninsula; not a named performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Before a boy became a man, he had to pass through two Yir-Yoront initiations. Bullroarers were used in both. Men acted ancestral history before the novices: in one scene, a great snake made from grass came down a tree above the ancestors it had killed. Women and children stayed outside the secret portions. The boards were made for temporary use. Yir-Yoront speakers called the instrument yoq-par-muw, sacred board, and shaped it like a small smoothing-board before tying on the string and swinging it.","pull_quote":"The bullroarer. The one they tie with string. They make it like a small smoothing-board. Then they swing that one.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Alpher 1991:818","term_gloss":"yoq-par-muw: Yir-Yoront term glossed \"bullroarer, sacred board\"","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["snake","initiation","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"Barry Alpher, Yir-Yoront Lexicon: Sketch and Dictionary of an Australian Language (Mouton de Gruyter, 1991), p. 818, s.v. yoq-par-muw; Lauriston Sharp, 'Ritual Life and Economics of the Yir-Yoront of Cape York Peninsula,' Oceania 5(1) (1934), pp. 28-29 and pl. II A","url":"https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1552637M/Yir-Yoront_lexicon","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260119170034/https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1552637M/Yir-Yoront_lexicon"}],"source_citations":"Barry Alpher, Yir-Yoront Lexicon: Sketch and Dictionary of an Australian Language (Mouton de Gruyter, 1991), p. 818, s.v. yoq-par-muw; Lauriston Sharp, 'Ritual Life and Economics of the Yir-Yoront of Cape York Peninsula,' Oceania 5(1) (1934), pp. 28-29 and pl. II A","source_display":"Barry Alpher, Yir-Yoront Lexicon: Sketch and Dictionary of an Australian Language (Mouton de Gruyter, 1991), p. 818, s.v. yoq-par-muw; Lauriston Sharp, 'Ritual Life and Economics of the Yir-Yoront of Cape York Peninsula,' Oceania 5(1) (1934), pp. 28-29 and pl. II A","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Shaped like a small smoothing-board (thopm), then tied with a length of string before being swung.","function_display":"Used in the two compulsory male initiations; made for temporary use.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"lexical attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"yir yoront","display_name":"Yir-Yoront yoq-par-muw initiation board","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/wmmissed_2.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/wmmissed_2_thumb.jpg","alt":"A reddish wooden blade with four large incised circular designs, each filled with concentric rings.","credit":"Wereldmuseum / NMVW (acc. RV-2087-5)","license":"CC-BY-SA","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/733997","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A carved Australian bullroarer board."},"slug":"alpher1991-001-yir-yoront"}