{"id":"CHINNERY1915-001","label":"Hunjara / Koko wowow initiation bullroarer","people_or_site":"Hunjara (Koko), Yodda Valley","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Yodda Valley / Kokoda / Kumusi Division","macroregion":"Oceania / New Guinea","local_name":"wowow","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Plain goroba-palm blade attached by strong genda-fibre string to a hard wooden handle; about thirty were brought into play at the witnessed Koko ceremony. No dimensions or surviving specimen are given.","function_summary":"Sounded during initiation preparations and revelation as the presence or voice of spirits; candidates were shown the instruments, after which handles were burned and blades and strings secretly stored.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"chinnery_beaver_1915_koko","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/16817.pdf","page_or_plate":"pp. 69-77, especially 71, 75, 77","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Kokoda / Yodda Valley anchor; the source says the observed Koko sections lived near the government station but does not name the ceremony village.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Near Kokoda in 1911, hooded Hunjara initiates—including girls and women—waited while some thirty wowow roared around them. Men called on dead ancestors and pleaded, “Do not kill my child,” before lifting the hoods and revealing the instruments behind the voices. At the ceremony’s end, their handles and ornaments were burned; the small blades and strings were packed away in secret.","pull_quote":"After the trees are pulled down, the bullroarers are exhibited for the first time (at Koko about thirty were brought into play).","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Chinnery and Beaver 1915:75","term_gloss":"wowow: the Hunjara / Koko name for the bullroarer sounded at initiation.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation","women_special"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":true,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"E. W. P. Chinnery and W. N. Beaver, Notes on the Initiation Ceremonies of the Koko, Papua, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 45 (1915), pp. 69-78; Chinnery witnessed the 1911 Koko ceremony","url":"https://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/16817.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20231014053447/https://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/16817.pdf"}],"source_citations":"E. W. P. Chinnery and W. N. Beaver, Notes on the Initiation Ceremonies of the Koko, Papua, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 45 (1915), pp. 69-78; Chinnery witnessed the 1911 Koko ceremony","source_display":"E. W. P. Chinnery and W. N. Beaver, Notes on the Initiation Ceremonies of the Koko, Papua, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 45 (1915), pp. 69-78; Chinnery witnessed the 1911 Koko ceremony","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Plain goroba-palm blade attached by strong genda-fibre string to a hard wooden handle; about thirty were brought into play at the witnessed Koko ceremony. No dimensions or surviving specimen are given.","function_display":"Sounded during initiation preparations and revelation as the presence or voice of spirits; candidates were shown the instruments, after which handles were burned and blades and strings secretly stored.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"hunjara","display_name":"Hunjara / Koko wowow initiation bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/NGUINEA-009_prm_1903-6-9_yodda.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/NGUINEA-009_prm_1903-6-9_yodda_thumb.jpg","alt":"A dark bark blade from the Yodda Valley with a broad-eyed human figure carved across its face and a short cord at one end.","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1903.6.9)","license":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39765","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"An Orokaiva blade carved with an ancestor face, Kokoda.","pool_id":"auto-NGUINEA-009_prm_1903-6-9_yodda","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/CHINNERY1915-001_crossville_1921_page.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/CHINNERY1915-001_crossville_1921_page_thumb.jpg","alt":"Illustrated 1921 newspaper retelling of Chinnery’s Koko account, headed “An Initiation Ceremony in Papua,” with two photographs beside advertisements.","credit":"Crossville Chronicle, October 26, 1921, p. 3, retelling E. W. P. Chinnery’s Koko account","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85042757/1921-10-26/ed-1/?sp=3","rehosted":true,"caption":"Illustrated 1921 newspaper retelling of Chinnery’s Koko account."}]},"slug":"chinnery1915-001-hunjara-koko-yodda-valley"}