{"id":"ARCTIC-008","label":"Tunumiit imitita, a child's toy","people_or_site":"Tunumiit (Ammassalik Inuit), East Greenland","country_current":"Greenland","historic_region":"Ammassalik district, Groenland oriental (East Greenland)","macroregion":"North America / Arctic","local_name":"imitita","source_term":"rhombe","source_language":"","object_description":"A small, worn rectangular wooden slat in the musée du quai Branly, 17 cm long, 4 cm wide and 0.7 cm thick (about 13 g), one end shaped into a plain handle or grip (without teeth) and cut with a groove to take the cord: a free aerophone (rhombe / aerophone a air ambiant), a flat blade whirled on a single string. A second Greenland plate in the same collection, inv. 71.1934.0.33 X, is smaller and far lighter — 14.2 by 3 centimetres, two millimetres thick, three grams — an ellipse toothed all the way round its edge. A third Tunumiit piece, wood and hide from Tasiilaq, is in the National Museum of the American Indian, 11/3020, exchanged out of Copenhagen's Nationalmuseet in 1922.","function_summary":"A child's toy.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"quaibranly_object_245543","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1934.175.50","page_or_plate":"object 245543, inv. 71.1934.175.50","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative anchor at Tasiilaq (formerly Ammassalik/Angmagssalik), the main settlement of the Ammassalik district, which is the named provenance; no finer find-spot is recorded.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A worn wooden bullroarer collected among the Tunumiit of the Ammassalik district on the east coast of Greenland and now in the Musee du quai Branly. It is a rectangular slat about seventeen centimetres long, one end whittled into a plain handle and grooved for the cord that spins it: a flat blade whirled on a single string. It came back with the first French Greenland expedition, the mission led by the ethnologist Paul-Emile Victor with the anthropologist Robert Gessain, which was put ashore at Ammassalik by the Pourquoi Pas? in August 1934 to winter there; Victor afterwards gave some four thousand objects to the Musee de l'Homme. William Thalbitzer, who had catalogued the district's material culture a generation earlier, knew its bull-roarers \"only as a toy for children\" — noting in the same breath that among the Indians of North America the instrument could be sacred. Here the roar belonged to play.","pull_quote":"Rhombe (palette) vieux, forme rectangulaire, une des extremites en forme de manche ou de poignee sans dents avec une gorge pour ficelle.","pull_quote_translation":"Old rhombe (palette), rectangular in form, one end shaped like a handle or grip without teeth, with a groove for the cord.","pull_quote_cite":"Musee du quai Branly object record 245543, inv. 71.1934.175.50","term_gloss":"imitita — the vernacular name on the companion specimen's Quai Branly record (71.1934.175.52).","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":"Musee du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, object 245543, inv. 71.1934.175.50 (ex-Musee de l'Homme, collection Arctique). Rhombe (palette), wood, 17 x 4 x 0.7 cm, 13 g; ethnie Inuit, Ammassalik, Groenland; classed as a free aerophone (aerophone a air ambiant). Linked to the Expedition francaise au Groenland (collecting window 1930-1934), the first French Greenland mission led by Paul-Emile Victor with Robert Gessain, deposited at Ammassalik by the Pourquoi Pas? on 31 August 1934 and wintering 1934-35; Victor later donated some 4,000 ethnographic objects to the Musee de l'Homme; Donor recorded as \"Personne inconnue.\"","url":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1934.175.50","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013125310/https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1934.175.50"}],"source_citations":"Musee du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, object 245543, inv. 71.1934.175.50 (ex-Musee de l'Homme, collection Arctique). Rhombe (palette), wood, 17 x 4 x 0.7 cm, 13 g; ethnie Inuit, Ammassalik, Groenland; classed as a free aerophone (aerophone a air ambiant). Linked to the Expedition francaise au Groenland (collecting window 1930-1934), the first French Greenland mission led by Paul-Emile Victor with Robert Gessain, deposited at Ammassalik by the Pourquoi Pas? on 31 August 1934 and wintering 1934-35; Victor later donated some 4,000 ethnographic objects to the Musee de l'Homme; Donor recorded as \"Personne inconnue.\"","source_display":"Musee du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, object 245543, inv. 71.1934.175.50 (ex-Musee de l'Homme, collection Arctique). Rhombe (palette), wood, 17 x 4 x 0.7 cm, 13 g; ethnie Inuit, Ammassalik, Groenland; classed as a free aerophone (aerophone a air ambiant). Linked to the Expedition francaise au Groenland (collecting window 1930-1934), the first French…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A small, worn rectangular wooden slat in the musée du quai Branly, 17 cm long, 4 cm wide and 0.7 cm thick (about 13 g), one end shaped into a plain handle or grip (without teeth) and cut with a groove to take the cord: a free aerophone (rhombe / aerophone a air ambiant), a flat blade whirled on a single string. A second Greenland plate in the same collection, inv. 71.1934.0.33 X, is smaller and far lighter — 14.2 by 3 centimetres, two millimetres thick, three grams — an ellipse toothed all the way round its edge. A third Tunumiit piece, wood and hide from Tasiilaq, is in the National Museum of the American Indian, 11/3020, exchanged out of Copenhagen's Nationalmuseet in 1922.","function_display":"A child's toy.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tunumiit","display_name":"Tunumiit imitita, a child's toy","image":{"full":"assets/objects/ARCTIC-008_prm_1935-52-7_ammassalik.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/ARCTIC-008_prm_1935-52-7_ammassalik_thumb.jpg","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1935.52.7)","license":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Tunumiit bullroarer from East Greenland, with saw-toothed blade, cord, and handle.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/nmai_113020.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/thumbs/nmai_113020_thumb.jpg","alt":"The Tasiilaq companion, NMAI 11/3020: a serrated wooden blade with prominent grain and a smooth wooden handle, joined by hide cord.","credit":"National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (11/3020)","license":"Usage Conditions Apply (Smithsonian)","source_page":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_121798","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Tasiilaq companion, NMAI 11/3020, wood and hide."}]},"slug":"arctic-008-tunumiit-ammassalik-inuit-east-greenland"}