{"id":"BRODSKY1974-001","label":"Koryak vuvuchan: gulls, geese and wind","people_or_site":"Koryak","country_current":"Russia","historic_region":"Kamchatka Krai, Koryak District (northern Kamchatka)","macroregion":"Siberia / Kamchatka","local_name":"vuvuchan (вувучъан)","source_term":"вращаемая завывалка (whirled howler); bull-roarer","source_language":"Russian; English","object_description":"A whirled \"howler\" (завывалка), played alone, in ensembles of several howlers, or with buzzers, whistles and a feather-quill reed.","function_summary":"Instrumental music for listening: sounded in Koryak ensembles that picture gulls, geese and wind on the seashore, and in ensembles of whirled howlers alone.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"brodsky1974_far_east_instruments","source_type":"ethnographic_article","source_url":"https://etmus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Теоретические-проблемы-народной-инструментальной-музыки-1974.pdf","page_or_plate":"Brodsky 1974 pp. 158–159; Nikolsky and Benítez-Burraco 2024 p. 194 (Audio-40)","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Palana, former centre of the Koryak District, as a representative Koryak point; no recording locality is given.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Koryak musicians painted pictures in sound. Pieces called 'Gulls', 'Wind' and 'Goose' were played for listening, sometimes solo but more often in ensembles, and the whirled vuvuchan, the 'howler', was one of their voices. In one trio it sounds beside a reed cut from the quill of a bird's feather and a small cylindrical whistle, and together the three make a seashore: birds crying over moving air. Koryak players also formed ensembles of howlers alone, several bullroarers whirling at once, something known elsewhere in the Russian Far East only among the Yukaghir.","pull_quote":"Their combination is used to represent a natural landscape of a seashore with bird calls and wind.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Nikolsky and Benítez-Burraco, Physics of Life Reviews 51 (2024), p. 194 (Audio-40).","term_gloss":"vuvuchan (вувучъан): the Koryak whirled 'howler' (завывалка). geingevytkunen (гэйнэвыткунэн): a reed instrument cut from a bird's feather quill. gytkomnan (гыткомнан): a small cylindrical whistle. talytal (талытал): a spinning buzzer.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"I. Brodsky, «О народных музыкальных инструментах и инструментальной музыке Дальнего Востока РСФСР», in Теоретические проблемы народной инструментальной музыки (Moscow, 1974), pp. 158–159","url":"https://etmus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Теоретические-проблемы-народной-инструментальной-музыки-1974.pdf"},{"citation":"Aleksey Nikolsky and Antonio Benítez-Burraco, 'The evolution of human music in light of increased prosocial behavior: a new model', Physics of Life Reviews 51 (2024), p. 194","url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2023.11.016"}],"source_citations":"I. Brodsky, «О народных музыкальных инструментах и инструментальной музыке Дальнего Востока РСФСР», in Теоретические проблемы народной инструментальной музыки (Moscow, 1974), pp. 158–159; Aleksey Nikolsky and Antonio Benítez-Burraco, 'The evolution of human music in light of increased prosocial behavior: a new model', Physics of Life Reviews 51 (2024), p. 194","source_display":"I. Brodsky, «О народных музыкальных инструментах и инструментальной музыке Дальнего Востока РСФСР», in Теоретические проблемы народной инструментальной музыки (Moscow, 1974), pp. 158–159; Aleksey Nikolsky and Antonio Benítez-Burraco, 'The evolution of human music in light of increased prosocial behavior: a new model', Physics of Life Reviews 51 (2024), p.…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A whirled \"howler\" (завывалка), played alone, in ensembles of several howlers, or with buzzers, whistles and a feather-quill reed.","function_display":"Instrumental music for listening: sounded in Koryak ensembles that picture gulls, geese and wind on the seashore, and in ensembles of whirled howlers alone.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"koryak","display_name":"Koryak vuvuchan: gulls, geese and wind","image":{"full":"assets/objects/RUSIN-004_neprajz_nm39898_middle_ob.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/RUSIN-004_neprajz_nm39898_middle_ob_thumb.jpg","alt":"Middle Ob zúgattyú NM 39898, a rounded rectangular wooden blade painted with dark human figures and other motifs.","credit":"Néprajzi Múzeum, Budapest, NM 39898","license":"Museum record marked 'Creative commons license' (variant unstated) — rehosted low-res","source_page":"https://gyujtemeny.neprajz.hu/en/collection/item/101180246/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Middle Ob zúgattyú NM 39898, painted with human figures","pool_id":"auto-RUSIN-004_neprajz_nm39898_middle_ob","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"brodsky1974-001-koryak"}