{"id":"ARCTIC-003","label":"Northern Labrador Inuit bullroarers Whitridge","people_or_site":"Northern Labrador Inuit","country_current":"Canada","historic_region":"Northern Labrador","macroregion":"North America / Arctic","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Lozenge-shaped bone or wood plate on sinew cord described for Inuit assemblages","function_summary":"A toy.","attestation_type":"archaeological_find","source_key":"WHITRIDGE_2015_SOUND_OF_CONTACT","source_type":"academic_pdf","source_url":"https://www.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","page_or_plate":"Whitridge 2015 pp. 19-20","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Nain/northern Labrador regional anchor; not publication location","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The Inuit bullroarer was a lozenge-shaped plate of bone or wood, roughly 15 to 20 centimeters long, pierced at one end and hung on a sinew cord that could be tied in turn to a wooden handle; spun rapidly, it gave off a loud whirring sound. In his survey of music-making in northern Labrador, the archaeologist Peter Whitridge notes that such objects, along with the toothed \"buzz\" disc, turn up reasonably often in precontact Inuit assemblages, because the normally perishable materials that elsewhere rot away survive so well in the northern ground. Both the bullroarer and the buzz are conventionally classed as toys rather than instruments, a line Whitridge questions: one person's noise, he observes, is another one's music, or perhaps ritual sonority.","pull_quote":"The sound of bullroarers has certainly been ritually important for many groups worldwide … and a distinct category of manufactured resonance, even one manufactured by children, might be considered a local, subcultural musical (or music-like) genre.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Whitridge 2015, \"The Sound of Contact,\" North Atlantic Archaeology 4:20","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,"f_archaeology":true,"archaeology_kind":"object","date_display":"Before c. 1500 AD","date_qualification":"","date_basis":"regional_synthesis","date_confidence":"low","date_citation":"WHITRIDGE_2015_SOUND_OF_CONTACT, Whitridge 2015 pp. 19-20","sources":[{"citation":"Peter Whitridge, \"The Sound of Contact: Historic Inuit Music-Making in Northern Labrador,\" North Atlantic Archaeology 4 (2015), pp. 19-20","url":"https://www.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://www.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"}],"source_citations":"Peter Whitridge, \"The Sound of Contact: Historic Inuit Music-Making in Northern Labrador,\" North Atlantic Archaeology 4 (2015), pp. 19-20","source_display":"Peter Whitridge, \"The Sound of Contact: Historic Inuit Music-Making in Northern Labrador,\" North Atlantic Archaeology 4 (2015), pp. 19-20","date_citation_display":"Whitridge 2015 pp. 19-20","object_display":"Lozenge-shaped bone or wood plate on sinew cord described for Inuit assemblages","function_display":"A toy.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"archaeological find","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"northern labrador","display_name":"Northern Labrador Inuit bullroarers Whitridge","image":{"full":"assets/objects/NAAIN-012_hmnp_h1899_inuit.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/NAAIN-012_hmnp_h1899_inuit_thumb.jpg","alt":"Complete Inuit bullroarer rig.","credit":"Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples (北海道立北方民族博物館), acc. H1.89.9, via Hokkaido Digital Museum","license":"CC0","source_page":"https://hokkaido-digital-museum.jp/en/artifacts/95","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Complete Inuit bullroarer rig.","pool_id":"auto-NAAIN-012_hmnp_h1899_inuit"},"slug":"arctic-003-northern-labrador-inuit"}