{"id":"EA-TW-TSOU-001","label":"Tsou euvuvu bullroarer warning signal","people_or_site":"Tsou","country_current":"Taiwan","historic_region":"Central Mountain Range / Alishan-Tsou area","macroregion":"East Asia / Taiwan","local_name":"euvuvu","source_term":"Euvuvu (bull-roarer)","source_language":"English","object_description":"Tsou euvuvu: a thin bamboo blade tied to a cord and bamboo handstick, revolved around the player while the blade spins about the cord and periodically reverses its axial rotation; Hornbostel-Sachs 412.22.","function_summary":"Valley-echo warning signal; also used to pray for rain and scare birds, later as children's play and at the opening of the fona life-bean festival.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"cheng2015_taiwan_instruments","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5686220.pdf","page_or_plate":"section 12.6, printed p. 120; Fig. 54; Cheng 2015, Fig. 6.15.6.1 and p. 742; Liu et al. 2007, p. 33","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Alishan/Tsou regional anchor; Cheng gives a people/language attestation rather than a single village.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Tsou of the Alishan mountains, a thin bamboo blade tied to a cord and handstick was swung until it revolved around the player, spinning about the cord and periodically reversing its rotation. Its valley-borne drone warned that an enemy was coming, but the euvuvu was also sounded to pray for rain and to scare birds. Later it became a children's plaything and a greeting at the opening of the fona life-bean festival. Its name carries its sound: vuvu, an imitation of the drone.","pull_quote":"Euvuvu is the Tsou name for the bullroarer, a previously undocumented instrument. The term is composed of the prefix eu- and the onomatopoeic vuvu, in which vuvu indicates the sound of the bullroarer. It functioned as a signal to inform villagers by means of the echo of valleys that an enemy was coming.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Cheng 2015:120 (§12.6), 'Native Terminology and Classification of Taiwanese Musical Instruments'","term_gloss":"vuvu imitates the bullroarer's sound.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["agriculture","weather","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"Cheng parses eu- as inducing wind and vuvu as the sound.","literal_gloss":"to induce wind + vuvu sound","semantic_cluster":"wind; sound_imitation","etymology_confidence":"high","sources":[{"citation":"Lancini Jen-hao Cheng, 'Native Terminology and Classification of Taiwanese Musical Instruments,' Ensayos 19(28) (2015), section 12.6, p. 120 and fig. 54; Cheng, Taxonomies of Taiwanese Aboriginal Musical Instruments (PhD thesis, University of Otago, 2015), fig. 6.15.6.1 and p. 742; Liu, Hsieh, Liao and Tu, Chinese Physics Education 8(1) (2007): 33-40","url":"https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5686220.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260730051134/https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5686220.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Lancini Jen-hao Cheng, 'Native Terminology and Classification of Taiwanese Musical Instruments,' Ensayos 19(28) (2015), section 12.6, p. 120 and fig. 54; Cheng, Taxonomies of Taiwanese Aboriginal Musical Instruments (PhD thesis, University of Otago, 2015), fig. 6.15.6.1 and p. 742; Liu, Hsieh, Liao and Tu, Chinese Physics Education 8(1) (2007): 33-40","source_display":"Lancini Jen-hao Cheng, 'Native Terminology and Classification of Taiwanese Musical Instruments,' Ensayos 19(28) (2015), section 12.6, p. 120 and fig. 54; Cheng, Taxonomies of Taiwanese Aboriginal Musical Instruments (PhD thesis, University of Otago, 2015), fig. 6.15.6.1 and p. 742; Liu, Hsieh, Liao and Tu, Chinese Physics Education 8(1) (2007): 33-40","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Tsou euvuvu: a thin bamboo blade tied to a cord and bamboo handstick, revolved around the player while the blade spins about the cord and periodically reverses its axial rotation; Hornbostel-Sachs 412.22.","function_display":"Valley-echo warning signal; also used to pray for rain and scare birds, later as children's play and at the opening of the fona life-bean festival.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tsou","display_name":"Tsou euvuvu bullroarer warning signal","image":{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/EA-TW-TSOU-001_cheng_fig54_blade.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/thumbs/EA-TW-TSOU-001_cheng_fig54_blade_thumb.jpg","credit":"Lancini Jen-hao Cheng, 'Native Terminology and Classification of Taiwanese Musical Instruments', Ensayos XIX(28), 2015, Fig. 54","license":"Scholarly figure; non-commercial research use","source_page":"https://www.uv.mx/ensayos/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Cheng's photograph of the Tsou euvuvu: a leaf-shaped bamboo slat, rounded at the corded end and tapering to a blunt point at the other.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/EA-TW-TSOU-001_ipcf2022_swinging.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/thumbs/EA-TW-TSOU-001_ipcf2022_swinging_thumb.jpg","alt":"A man in Tsou dress and a feathered headband raises a long rod as a euvuvu blade swings from a cord at its tip.","credit":"Photo Huang Jiang-Bing (黃建彬), Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation / Indigenous Sight (2022)","license":"© Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://insight.ipcf.org.tw/en-US/article/699","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A man in Tsou dress swings a euvuvu, its narrow blade whirling on a cord from the tip of a rod."}]},"slug":"ea-tw-tsou-001-tsou"}