{"id":"ARCTIC-001","label":"Sanikiluaq Belcher Islands ROM bullroarer sculpture","people_or_site":"Qikiqtani / Belcher Islands Inuit / Sanikiluaq","country_current":"Canada","historic_region":"Nunavut / Belcher Islands","macroregion":"North America / Arctic","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer sculpture","source_language":"English","object_description":"Ivory skin and sinew bullroarer sculpture dated 1936-1939","function_summary":"Inuit bullroarer (ROM sculpture from Sanikiluaq); ethnographically reckoned a toy/noisemaker, not a ritual or musical object","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"ROM_SANIKILUAQ_506446","source_type":"museum_object_lead","source_url":"https://collections.rom.on.ca/objects/506446/sculpture-bullroarer","page_or_plate":"ROM object 2010.86.32","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Sanikiluaq source locality not ROM Toronto","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A sculpture of a bullroarer, worked in ivory with skin and sinew, made by a Qikiqtani (Belcher Islands Inuit) artist at Sanikiluaq in Hudson Bay and dated to 1936-1939, now in the Royal Ontario Museum and catalogued simply as \"Sculpture, bullroarer.\" Among the Inuit the bullroarer was a lozenge-shaped plate of bone or wood, roughly 15 to 20 centimetres long, pierced at one end and hung from a sinew cord that could be tied to a wooden handle; spun rapidly, it gave off a loud whirring. The anthropological literature counts it a toy or noisemaker rather than a musical instrument, the skin drum being regarded as the only true Inuit instrument.","pull_quote":"The Inuit bullroarer was a lozenge-shaped plate of bone or wood about 15-20 cm long, pierced at one end and suspended on a sinew cord which might in turn be attached to a wooden handle. When spun rapidly it made a loud whirring sound.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Whitridge 2015:19 (The sound of contact: Historic Inuit music-making in northern Labrador; citing Jenness 1946:143, Mathiassen 1927b:120, Murdoch 1988[1892]:378-379)","term_gloss":"","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Royal Ontario Museum, “Sculpture, bullroarer,” object 2010.86.32","url":"https://collections.rom.on.ca/objects/506446/sculpture-bullroarer"},{"citation":"Peter Whitridge, “The Sound of Contact: Historic Inuit Music-Making in Northern Labrador,” North Atlantic Archaeology 4 (2015):17–42, pp. 19–20","url":"https://mun.ca/archaeology/media/production/memorial/academic/faculty-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/archaeology/media-library/people/faculty/whitridge/Whitridge_2015_sound_of_contact.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260515223437/https://mun.ca/archaeology/media/production/memorial/academic/faculty-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/archaeology/media-library/people/faculty/whitridge/Whitridge_2015_sound_of_contact.pdf"},{"citation":"Diamond Jenness, Material Culture of the Copper Eskimo, Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–18, XVI (Ottawa, 1946), p. 143, via Whitridge (2015), p. 20"},{"citation":"Therkel Mathiassen, Archaeology of the Central Eskimo, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921–24, vol. 4, part 2 (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1927b), p. 120, via Whitridge (2015), p. 20"},{"citation":"John Murdoch, Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988 [1892]), pp. 378–379, via Whitridge (2015), p. 20"}],"source_citations":"Royal Ontario Museum, “Sculpture, bullroarer,” object 2010.86.32; Peter Whitridge, “The Sound of Contact: Historic Inuit Music-Making in Northern Labrador,” North Atlantic Archaeology 4 (2015):17–42, pp. 19–20; Diamond Jenness, Material Culture of the Copper Eskimo, Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–18, XVI (Ottawa, 1946), p. 143, via Whitridge (2015), p. 20; Therkel Mathiassen, Archaeology of the Central Eskimo, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921–24, vol. 4, part 2 (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1927b), p. 120, via Whitridge (2015), p. 20; John Murdoch, Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988 [1892]), pp. 378–379, via Whitridge (2015), p. 20","source_display":"Royal Ontario Museum, “Sculpture, bullroarer,” object 2010.86.32; Peter Whitridge, “The Sound of Contact: Historic Inuit Music-Making in Northern Labrador,” North Atlantic Archaeology 4 (2015):17–42, pp. 19–20; Diamond Jenness, Material Culture of the Copper Eskimo, Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–18, XVI (Ottawa, 1946), p. 143, via Whitridge…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Ivory skin and sinew bullroarer sculpture dated 1936-1939","function_display":"Inuit bullroarer (ROM sculpture from Sanikiluaq); ethnographically reckoned a toy/noisemaker, not a ritual or musical object","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"qikiqtani","display_name":"Sanikiluaq Belcher Islands ROM bullroarer sculpture","image":{"full":"assets/objects/ARCTIC-001_cmh_iv_b_602.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/ARCTIC-001_cmh_iv_b_602_thumb.jpg","credit":"Canadian Museum of History, IV-B-602","license":"© Canadian Museum of History — rehosted low-res for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://www.historymuseum.ca/collections/artifact/44637/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Belcher Islands sculpture itself — pale ivory, forked tail, its cord through the one hole.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/ARCTIC-001_rom_2010-86-32_sanikiluaq.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/ARCTIC-001_rom_2010-86-32_sanikiluaq_thumb.jpg","alt":"Sanikiluaq carving of a bullroarer, shown as a long pale blade with serrated edges and a short cord.","credit":"Royal Ontario Museum (2010.86.32)","license":"No open licence stated (ROM online collection) — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.rom.on.ca/en/objects/506446/sculpture-bullroarer","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A Sanikiluaq sculpture of a bullroarer at play, carved at Belcher Islands (ROM 2010.86.32)."}]},"slug":"arctic-001-qikiqtani-belcher-islands-inuit-sanikiluaq"}