{"id":"FISCHER1914-001","label":"Karo Batak dengeng-dengeng children's toy","people_or_site":"Karo Batak","country_current":"Indonesia","historic_region":"Bukit, Karo highlands, North Sumatra","macroregion":"Southeast Asia / Indonesia","local_name":"dengeng-dengeng","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German; Dutch metadata","object_description":"A lance-shaped bamboo blade, 26.5 x 3 cm, hung by its own cord from the end of a flexible 71 cm bamboo stock; Wereldmuseum RV-1680-1.","function_summary":"A children's whirled toy.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"fischer1914_karo_dengeng","source_type":"museum_collection; source_catalog","source_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/716408","page_or_plate":"Fischer 1914:119, accession 1680/1","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Kabanjahe/Karo Regency regional anchor; Fischer gives Bukit, Karo, not a collection village.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On a 71-centimetre bamboo switch hangs a small bamboo spearhead. Karo children swung the flexible stock and sent the dengeng-dengeng circling on its own cord. Fischer's 1914 catalogue calls it simply a child's toy, but the surviving object makes the play legible: a tiny lance launched into orbit, kept tethered to the wand that drives it. Its Toba Batak cousin in the same Leiden collection used a rectangular blade; the Karo toy's narrow point gave it a silhouette of its own.","pull_quote":"Schwirrholz (dengeng-dengeng) ... lanzenspitzenförmiges Bambusbrett, mittelst einer Schnur an das Ende eines biegsamen Bambusstockes aufgehängt. Kinderspielzeug.","pull_quote_translation":"Bullroarer (dengeng-dengeng): a lance-shaped bamboo board hung by a cord from the end of a flexible bamboo stick. Children's toy.","pull_quote_cite":"Fischer 1914, p. 119.","term_gloss":"dengeng-dengeng: Karo name recorded for accession 1680/1.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"J. Fischer, Katalog der Batak-Sammlung des Reichsmuseums für Völkerkunde, Leiden, in Batakländer (1914), p. 119; Wereldmuseum RV-1680-1 / object 716408","url":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/716408"}],"source_citations":"J. Fischer, Katalog der Batak-Sammlung des Reichsmuseums für Völkerkunde, Leiden, in Batakländer (1914), p. 119; Wereldmuseum RV-1680-1 / object 716408","source_display":"J. Fischer, Katalog der Batak-Sammlung des Reichsmuseums für Völkerkunde, Leiden, in Batakländer (1914), p. 119; Wereldmuseum RV-1680-1 / object 716408","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A lance-shaped bamboo blade, 26.5 x 3 cm, hung by its own cord from the end of a flexible 71 cm bamboo stock; Wereldmuseum RV-1680-1.","function_display":"A children's whirled toy.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"karo batak","display_name":"Karo Batak dengeng-dengeng children's toy","image":{"full":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/FISCHER1914-001_wereldmuseum_rv1680-1.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/thumbs/FISCHER1914-001_wereldmuseum_rv1680-1_thumb.jpg","alt":"Karo dengeng-dengeng: a lance-shaped bamboo blade and a long curved bamboo stock linked by fine cord.","credit":"Wereldmuseum / NMVW (RV-1680-1)","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/716408","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Karo dengeng-dengeng itself: a lance-shaped bamboo blade hanging from the tip of its long, flexible bamboo stock."},"slug":"fischer1914-001-karo-batak"}