{"id":"DENNETT1910-001","label":"Bini Oloawon Ovia / Ovato bullroarer","people_or_site":"Bini","country_current":"Nigeria","historic_region":"Benin Kingdom / later Edo State","macroregion":"Africa / West Africa","local_name":"Oloawon Ovia / Oloawon Ovato / Usaokwhaiyi / Elimidu / ɛmil-ovia","source_term":"Oloawon Ovia / Oloawon Ovato / Usaokwhaiyi / Elimidu","source_language":"English","object_description":"A bullroarer; no Bini-specific morphology recorded.","function_summary":"Ovia annual festival and related Oro events; male initiation; deterrent to women and other outsiders.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"dennett1910_bini_oloawon","source_type":"ethnographic_monograph","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/cu31924028648776/page/n74/mode/1up","page_or_plate":"p. 39","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative Bini core / Benin City anchor; the source names Benin territory, Geduma, and Ugo but no performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At the Oba of Benin's new-yam meal, the Elimidu voice rose and women shut themselves indoors. The same bullroarer entered Ovia's annual festival and men's initiation, sounding a boundary between the public town and male ritual knowledge.","pull_quote":"the bull roarer is certainly used at Ovia’s yearly festival in Benin territory.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"R. E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies (1910), p. 39.","term_gloss":"Oloawon Ovia / Oloawon Ovato / Usaokwhaiyi: Bini names for Oro, the Oloawon of the gods Ovia, Ovato and Okwhaiyi; Oloawon means the owner of the turtle or tortoise. ɛmil-ovia: literally \"the cow (ɛmila) of Ovia\" — the practice of twirling the bull roarer at the Ovia society.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation","death_rebirth","women_taboo","agriculture"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"R. E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies; or, The Religious and Political System of the Yoruba (London: Macmillan, 1910), p. 39.","url":"https://archive.org/details/cu31924028648776/page/n74/mode/1up"},{"citation":"P. Amaury Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, vol. 3 (Oxford, 1926), p. 764.","url":"https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012875871"},{"citation":"Hermann Melzian, A Concise Dictionary of the Bini Language of Southern Nigeria (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1937), s.v. ɛmila.","url":"https://archive.org/details/MelzianAConciseDictionaryOfTheBiniLanguageOfSouthernNigeria1937"}],"source_citations":"R. E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies; or, The Religious and Political System of the Yoruba (London: Macmillan, 1910), p. 39.; P. Amaury Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, vol. 3 (Oxford, 1926), p. 764.; Hermann Melzian, A Concise Dictionary of the Bini Language of Southern Nigeria (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1937), s.v. ɛmila.","source_display":"R. E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies; or, The Religious and Political System of the Yoruba (London: Macmillan, 1910), p. 39.; P. Amaury Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, vol. 3 (Oxford, 1926), p. 764.; Hermann Melzian, A Concise Dictionary of the Bini Language of Southern Nigeria (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1937), s.v. ɛmila.","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer; no Bini-specific morphology recorded.","function_display":"Ovia annual festival and related Oro events; male initiation; deterrent to women and other outsiders.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"bini","display_name":"Bini Oloawon Ovia / Ovato bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/DENNETT1910-001_maa_p29403_nwt.png","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/DENNETT1910-001_maa_p29403_nwt.png","alt":"N. W. Thomas’s 1909–10 photograph of a man demonstrating a bullroarer at Iyowa, standing outdoors with one arm raised beside dense vegetation.","credit":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge (P.29403.NWT); N. W. Thomas, Iyowa, 1909–10","license":"CC BY-NC-ND 4.0","source_page":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/photographs/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Bullroarer at Iyowa, photographed by N. W. Thomas in 1909–10.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/bm_E_Af1952-07-110.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/bm_E_Af1952-07-110_thumb.jpg","alt":"A Nigerian stick-and-blade rig attributed to the Yoruba, with a reddish wooden blade joined by cord to a long stick wrapped near one end.","credit":"© The Trustees of the British Museum (Af1952,07.110)","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1952-07-110","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Nigerian stick-and-blade rig, attributed to the Yoruba."}]},"slug":"dennett1910-001-bini"}