{"id":"EXH2026-049","label":"Widaro kamoa, the spirit itself","people_or_site":"Moando language area","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Moando-Sprachgebiet, NE New Guinea (Madang hinterland)","macroregion":"Oceania / New Guinea","local_name":"takilat (Mopu, general cult-object term); wuyamb (Widaro, general cult category); kamoa (Widaro, proper name)","source_term":"Schwirrhölzer","source_language":"German","object_description":"Bullroarers called takilat in Mopu and kamoa in Widaro.","function_summary":"Cult instrument regarded as the spirit itself and sounded as its voice; Widaro’s bullroarer has the proper name kamoa.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"exhaustiveness2026","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/40449671","page_or_plate":"Tranel1952 pp.461–462, especially p.462 and note42","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Madang hinterland (Hoeltker's Bogia-area fieldwork region), approximate","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In Widaro, Kamoa was a bullroarer’s own name. Such names named beings: bullroarers and flutes were the spirits themselves, their sounds the voices of particular spirits. The flutes even came in named couples—Sandami and his wife Maida, Samangau and his wife Agadua. In Mopu, takilat named the bullroarer as a cult object; Widaro’s wider word wuyamb embraced flutes, bullroarers and cult dances. A personal name identified who was speaking within this world of sounding beings.","pull_quote":"die Geister selbst sind … die Stimme des betreffenden Geistes","pull_quote_translation":"are the spirits themselves … the voice of the particular spirit","pull_quote_cite":"Wilhelm Tranel, Anthropos 47 (1952), p. 462","term_gloss":"Mopu takilat: belonging to the cult, cult object (not a proper name). Widaro wuyamb: cult apparatus, including flutes, bullroarers and cult dances; kamoa: proper spirit name, no literal translation supplied.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Wilhelm Tranel, “Völkerkundliche und sprachliche Aufzeichnungen aus dem moándo-Sprachgebiet in Nordost-Neuguinea,” Anthropos 47 (1952): 447–473, pp. 461–462 and n. 42","url":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/40449671","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013011614/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40449671"}],"source_citations":"Wilhelm Tranel, “Völkerkundliche und sprachliche Aufzeichnungen aus dem moándo-Sprachgebiet in Nordost-Neuguinea,” Anthropos 47 (1952): 447–473, pp. 461–462 and n. 42","source_display":"Wilhelm Tranel, “Völkerkundliche und sprachliche Aufzeichnungen aus dem moándo-Sprachgebiet in Nordost-Neuguinea,” Anthropos 47 (1952): 447–473, pp. 461–462 and n. 42","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarers called takilat in Mopu and kamoa in Widaro.","function_display":"Cult instrument regarded as the spirit itself and sounded as its voice; Widaro’s bullroarer has the proper name kamoa.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"moando language","display_name":"Widaro kamoa, the spirit itself","image":{"full":"assets/objects/NGUINEA-016_smb_vi29955.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/NGUINEA-016_smb_vi29955_thumb.jpg","alt":"Long dark wooden blade with elaborate pale incisions: bands, repeated oval and diamond motifs, and animal-like figures along its face.","credit":"Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (VI 29955); photo Anika Niemeck","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/5TZSF2VFFF374QJDHGMIMGHWO3IYS7PM","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A long, dark, finely tapered wooden blade incised along its length."},"slug":"exh2026-049-moando-language-area"}